Strip off your shirt on the Promenade des Anglais and, technically, you're breaking the law. Nice has renewed a municipal ordinance every year since 1999 banning bare chests and swimwear anywhere in the city outside designated beach areas, a rule most visitors have never heard of.
The fine sits at 35 euros, but in practice, municipal police rarely issue it on the spot. Officers typically ask offenders to put a shirt back on first, only escalating to a fine if someone refuses. As a result, only around ten fines are handed out across the entire year, despite the rule technically applying to the Promenade des Anglais and the Quai des États-Unis, two of the most heavily trafficked tourist stretches in the city.
Nice isn't alone in this: Cannes and Menton apply comparable rules, part of a wider pattern of French coastal towns asking visitors to dress appropriately once they step off the sand. For police, the rule functions less as active enforcement and more as a polite, occasionally repeated reminder that Nice's streets, however close to the beach, aren't the beach itself.