In a nutshell: The urban jewel of the Cote d'Azur, with a style and swagger of its own.

Don't miss: Promenade des Anglais, Plage des Ponchettes, old town bars, Castle Hill

Key matches: England v Japan

A good game of rugby, it is fair to say, generally involves a few scratches and scrapes; the inevitable bashed leg, the odd bloodied nose. Nice, it is probably fair to mention, spends its days actively avoiding anything so rough-and-tumble. And if it does somehow bruise a shin during an evening's stroll along its famous Promenade des Anglais, then it certainly won't be telling you about it or showing you the damage in the pub after the final whistle.

In some ways, there is no more unlikely a French city to be picked as a Rugby World Cup venue. Nice will not bridle at the suggestion that it is scarcely a hotbed of rugby. Its local team, Stade Nicois, plays in the third tier of the French game, and has only existed since 2012 – when its predecessor, the wordily-named Rugby Nice Cote d'Azur Université-Racing, was liquidated. Its little home, the 3,000-capacity Stade des Arboras, will not be staging fixtures at the 2023 tournament – that role will fall to the 35,000-seater Allianz Riviera (which is mostly used for football, though Toulon play here on occasion). In Nice, try to talk about a “line-out”, and you will probably be shown into the queue for the latest club.

And yet, when it comes to destinations for long weekends and rugby-related trips during Rugby World Cup, it is hard to think that any city (with perhaps the exception of Paris) will be more in demand than this sparkling jewel of the Cote d'Azur. Nice may not be wholly up to speed with drop goals and knock-ons – but you could barely ask for a better place to catch a game in the late summer of 2023. The weather will be gorgeous, the scenery glorious – and you are likely to journey home with a suntan as well as sporting memories.

Content supplied by the Telegraph’s travel expert Chris Leadbetter