Nice · FR
True Crime Nice
Jewel Thieves, a Vanished Heiress, and the Tunnel Heist
What's the walk about?
Welcome to Nice, the jewel of the French Riviera, a city of azure water, palm-lined promenades and grand Belle Epoque hotels that have drawn the rich and the royal for more than a century. But behind that glittering sunlit facade lies a very different Nice, one of cat burglars and vanished heiresses, of a legendary tunnel heist, a mayor who looted his own city, and days this city will never forget. On this walk we trace real, documented cases to the exact places they happened, from the Promenade des Anglais up to the old town. Each stop is a true story, told with suspense but also with care and respect for the real people involved.
What you'll see
-
1
The Queen of Thieves - Hotel Imperial
Grand hotel
In the predawn hours of 8 March 1908 police finally caught a glamorous cat burglar who called herself the Comtesse de Monteil, moving through the Hotel Imperial on the Promenade des Anglais in felt-soled shoes with a black veil and silver lockpicks; after roughly twenty years of robbing the Riviera's rich she was sentenced to ten years of hard labour.
Read the full story → -
2
In Memory of the Angels - Promenade des Anglais
Seafront promenade
On the night of 14 July 2016, as crowds gathered on the Promenade des Anglais for the Bastille Day fireworks, a 19-tonne lorry was deliberately driven about two kilometres through the crowd, killing 86 people and injuring more than 450 before police stopped the driver; this stop honours the victims and the responders, and in 2022 eight people were convicted for supporting roles in the attack.
Read the full story → -
3
The Vanished Heiress - Palais de la Mediterranee
Casino
In the autumn of 1977 the young heiress to this seafront casino, part of the Le Roux family empire, disappeared and was never found, months after selling her stake to a rival during the so-called casino war; after decades of trials the family adviser and her lover Maurice Agnelet was convicted of her murder in 2014 and sentenced to twenty years, though her body has never been recovered.
Read the full story → -
4
The Church Attack - Basilique Notre-Dame
Basilica
On the morning of 29 October 2020 a man armed with a knife attacked people inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice on the avenue Jean Medecin, killing three, before police confronted and stopped him; he was later convicted and sentenced to life, and this stop remembers the victims and the swift response rather than the attacker.
Read the full story → -
5
The Sewer Tunnel Heist - Societe Generale
Bank
Over the Bastille Day weekend of July 1976 a gang led by Albert Spaggiari tunnelled from the city's sewers into the vault of this Societe Generale branch on the avenue Jean Medecin, spent two days forcing more than 300 safe-deposit boxes and escaped with tens of millions of francs without firing a shot, leaving the slogan without weapons, without hatred, without violence; the money was never recovered.
Read the full story → -
6
The Mayor Who Looted the City - Opera de Nice
Opera house
Jacques Medecin ruled Nice as mayor for 24 years until 1990, when, facing corruption inquiries, he fled to Uruguay; extradited in 1994, he was convicted in the mid-1990s of breach of trust for diverting public money, including funds of the Nice-Opera association tied to this opera house, and of passive corruption, and he died in exile in 1998.
Read the full story →