Русская Ницца

There is an opinion that the first Russians appeared on the French Riviera "a little before the French, but somewhat later than the Romans". It was the Russians who made the otherwise unremarkable Nice the "capital" of the French Riviera, famous all over the world. The fashion for everything Russian on the Côte d'Azur is owed to the dowager empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who once bought an estate here for a string of pearls.
The Russian spirit still lingers at the famous villa "Kazbek", on Alexander III Boulevard, in the Orthodox church with double-headed eagles, where descendants of emigrants, who have never seen Russia but speak proper Russian, still hurry to.