The Rade would not be a bad place if looking for a wintering spot on the hook. It is open to the south and you'd want to create a pretty firm quasi-mooring. But it's obvious that a number of boats have done just that, and are liveaboards. You've got Nice just over the hill, the comforts of Villefranche, and wonderful weather. (Pretty tempting, but we wouldn't want to leave Roaring Girl unattended at anchor. At the moment Toulon looks like a good opportunity if they can confirm a space.)
This picture is taken looking south east from the northern end of the old town. The boats in the foreground are on moorings; we don't know what permissions might be required for this. You would need to anchor fore and aft here if you squeezed into a space here, as there is no swinging room. They are obviously the closest to the town.
Most visiting yachts (save the super variety) anchor over on the east side. (This is where we are; magnifying this picture a lot reveals Roaring Girl at the back, almost in the middle.) You are a little more exposed to the prevailing south westerly swell here, though actually the biggest rolls tend to come from the liners coming and going, and maybe the ferries going past the headland into Nice. This the Anse de l'Espalmador. The area most tucked into shelter on the east is now buoyed off, preventing anchorage.
The holding is good. There is weed, but quite a lot of sandy patches too. We have had much less trouble here than elsewhere, and between two trips out to sea to empty our holding tanks, and our determination to edge over to the east, we have anchored at least six times this week. It does get very crowded; we haven't used a chum as there is so little wind, but plan to put one down once fully settled. Almost all the boats vanish again in the evening; as on most of this coast, everything is very quiet from about 2000 to 0700, but there's loads of activity during the day.
You can dinghy ashore in the town. We have tied up to the quay, where there are lots of rings and bollards, without any problem. On the wee pontoon that serves the tripper boats (about 100m north of Port de la Sante, or North Harbour, the small fishing port), there are water taps. The liners send their lifeboats to and fro as tenders, and there are tripper boats and small ferries zipping around, as well as the fishermen, but we have found most of them pretty courteous to small dinghies. The least considerate are the large RIBs used as tenders by the superyachts. All these go in and out of the tiny Port de la Sante.
South of the old quay, and also south of the conspicuous citadelle, is the marina of Villefranche-sur-Mer. We would be at the top end of its size range, assuming we could get a berth. Unsurprisingly, this is an extremely popular harbour, with a 15 year waiting list for long term berths.