Jon, I live in Nice part-time and although I've never seen any 'trouble' apart from traffic scrapes on the Promenade. I find the graffiti everywhere quite depressing, especially in the old town. It's such a shame because I think Nice is a great place to be, a real place with real people, warts and all, it's vibrant and it's got history by the bucketload, not like some of the white, bland, concrete places you can find in 'cheaper' parts of the med. The best bit - that view of the turquoise sea every day.