Nice.

Université Côte d'Azur's International Incoming Support team runs webinars and social events through the year to help exchange students settle in, and posts updates through its own Instagram account rather than relying only on email. ESN Nice, part of the wider Erasmus Student Network, adds its own layer of activities and trips on top, aimed specifically at exchange students rather than the whole student body. Between the two, the practical admin support and the purely social side of arriving in Nice are covered by two different teams, so it is worth following both from before you land.

• Follow the university's International Incoming Support account for events and webinars.
• Join ESN Nice separately for trips and activities built around exchange students.
• Check both channels before you arrive, since each covers different ground.

A single ride on the Lignes d'Azur network costs 1.70 euros with a 74 minute transfer window, while the unlimited Carte Azur runs 45 euros a month or 365 euros for the full year across the whole urban and interurban network. Compulsory home insurance for a student room costs roughly 37 to 60 euros a year depending on the size of the place, a small but real line in your budget. Between rent, a transport pass and the CROUS canteen network, students who apply for housing assistance through CAF as soon as they sign a lease bring their monthly costs down noticeably.

• A single Lignes d'Azur ticket costs 1.70 euros with a 74 minute transfer.
• Budget 45 euros a month, or 365 a year, for the unlimited Carte Azur.
• Apply for CAF housing assistance the moment you sign your lease.

CROUS manages 13 residences across the region with furnished rooms and studios from 9 to 30 square metres, applied for through the Dossier Social Étudiant portal open from 15 January to 31 May, though a place is never guaranteed. Private student residences cost more but offer larger studios up to two bedroom flats, and CROUS also runs Lokaviz, its own portal listing private rentals and room shares for students who miss out. Whichever route you take, you will need a guarantor, or the free, state administered Visale scheme if you are under 30 and your rent, charges included, is 1,300 euros or less.

• Apply through the Dossier Social Étudiant between 15 January and 31 May.
• Use Visale as a free guarantor if you are under 30 and rent is 1,300 euros or less.
• Check CROUS's own Lokaviz listings if you miss out on a residence place.

Tram line 2 runs straight to Nice airport, covering the roughly 26 minutes between the terminals and Port Lympia on the same network you will use every day around the city. The historic line 1 and the newer lines thread through the centre and out to the university campuses, on the same ticket. Regional trains along the coastal line also connect Nice to Monaco, Menton and the Italian border, so a lot of the wider area is reachable without ever needing a car.

• Take tram line 2 straight from the airport into the city.
• Expect about 26 minutes between the airport and the old port by tram.
• Use the coastal TER line for Monaco, Menton and the Italian border.

Université Côte d'Azur was formed in 2019 out of the former University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and several grandes écoles, and now runs eight graduate schools alongside its faculties and institutes. Its International Incoming Support team, based at Petit Valrose, advises on administrative procedures and everyday questions, and produces a multilingual welcome guide covering everything from the academic calendar to language courses before you commit to modules. With around 35,000 students and a fifth of them international, expect a genuinely mixed classroom rather than a small exchange cohort tucked away from everyone else.

• Contact International Incoming Support at Petit Valrose for practical questions.
• Read the multilingual welcome guide before choosing modules and confirming your calendar.
• Expect a large, international student body rather than a small side programme.

Lo que necesitas depende enteramente de tu nacionalidad. Los estudiantes UE/EEE/suizos no necesitan visado y simplemente pueden matricularse. Los estudiantes no UE en un intercambio de más de 90 días solicitan un visado de larga estancia VLS-TS para estudiantes antes de llegar, luego lo validan online dentro de los tres primeros meses y pagan una pequeña tasa OFII; con menos de 90 días puede que solo necesites un visado Schengen de corta estancia o ninguno.

Reserva tiempo para el maratón de trámites: querrás una cuenta bancaria francesa, justificante de alojamiento, cobertura sanitaria (tarjeta sanitaria europea para europeos, o inscripción en la seguridad social francesa), y un seguro de responsabilidad civil. Reserva las citas de prefectura y OFII en cuanto puedas, porque las plazas desaparecen.

• UE/EEE/suizos: sin visado, solo matricúlate
• No UE, más de 90 días: visado de larga estancia VLS-TS para estudiantes, validado online tras llegar
• Normalmente se exige justificante de unos 615 €/mes en fondos
• Consigue un seguro de responsabilidad civil (assurance responsabilité civile) antes del curso

Socca, a thin chickpea flour pancake baked in a wood fired oven, is the city's defining street food, best eaten hot and with your fingers straight from the stall. Salade niçoise, built from raw vegetables, hard boiled eggs, anchovies, olives and olive oil rather than any cooked ingredient or dressing, is treated here as local pride, not a tourist menu item. Pissaladière, a bread base topped with slow cooked onions and pissalat, an anchovy paste, and black olives, rounds out the classic trio. Find all three around the Cours Saleya market in the old town.

• Try socca hot from a wood fired stall, eaten with your fingers.
• Order a proper salade niçoise, made without cooked vegetables or dressing.
• Browse the Cours Saleya market in the old town for all three specialities.

Vieux Nice, the old town on the slopes below the castle hill, is dense, medieval in layout and the most touristy part of the city, but also genuinely lively at night. Jean Médecin, the commercial spine south of the railway line, gives you shopping, transport connections and Belle Époque architecture in one central strip. Libération, once a separate village, mixes Jewish and Muslim communities with bourgeois villas near the Cimiez hills, a socially mixed, more residential option. Cimiez itself, developed after 1860 for wealthy English visitors, is grand and quiet, home to the Matisse and Chagall museums rather than student nightlife.

• Vieux Nice keeps you close to the old town's bars and daily markets.
• Jean Médecin puts shopping and transport connections right on your doorstep.
• Libération offers a calmer, socially mixed alternative near the Cimiez hills.

Monaco sits just 13 kilometres up the coast, an easy trip on the same regional line that runs through Nice, worth timing around the Grand Prix in May if motor racing interests you. Menton, right on the Italian border, is known for its protected lemons and makes an easy add on to the same route. Cannes, a similarly short distance in the other direction, is best known for its film festival every May, but works as a regular seaside day trip the rest of the year. The line continues straight over the border into Italy for an easy longer trip.

• Take the coastal train to Monaco, just 13 kilometres up the line.
• Visit Menton for its lemons and its position right on the Italian border.
• Head to Cannes for a seaside day trip outside its May film festival.

Submit your Dossier Social Étudiant for CROUS housing the day applications open in January, since the window runs to the end of May but the best rooms disappear long before that. Set up Visale early if you lack a guarantor, since it takes time to process and can otherwise delay a lease you have found. Follow both the university's International Incoming Support account and ESN Nice before you arrive, since they cover different parts of settling in. The classic rookie mistake is spending the whole exchange on the coast, when trains inland and into Italy are just as easy.

• Submit your CROUS housing application the day the portal opens in January.
• Set up Visale early if you need a guarantor; it takes time to process.
• Take a train inland or into Italy too, not only along the coast.