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91-736: Three famed corniche roads of the Côte d'Azur in the French Riviera run between the sea and mountains from Nice eastward toward Menton . They are known as the Corniche Inferieure (or Basse Corniche ) along the coast, the Moyenne Corniche slightly inland, and the Grande Corniche along the upper cliffs. The Corniche Inferieure passes through the principality of Monaco . The Grande Corniche featured prominently in

182-477: A Mediterranean coastline on the south, on which the majority of its population lives. It borders Italy ( Liguria and Piedmont ) to the east, Monaco ( Fontvieille , La Colle , La Rousse , Larvotto , Les Moneghetti , Les Révoires , Saint Michel ) in the south-east, and the French regions of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes to the north and Occitanie to the west. The Rhône , Durance , Var and Arc rivers run through

273-538: A British nobleman and politician named Henry Peter Brougham , First Baron Brougham and Vaux, who had played an important part in the abolition of the slave trade, travelled with his unwell daughter to the south of France, intending to go to Italy. A cholera epidemic in Italy forced him to stop at Cannes , where he enjoyed the climate and scenery so much that he bought land and built a villa. He began to spend his winters there and, owing to his fame, others followed: Cannes soon had

364-403: A French businessman already operating a successful casino at Baden-Baden (southwestern Germany), to build a resort and new casino. Blanc arranged for steamships and carriages to take visitors from Nice to Monaco, and built hotels, gardens and a casino in a place called Spélugues. At the suggestion of his mother, Princess Caroline , Charles III renamed the place Monte Carlo after himself. When

455-471: A body of water is classed as a corniche in Egypt . Most Nile valley and Delta cities overlooking the 1000km river course and two branches in the country have one or two corniche streets (east and/or west banks). For example "Corniche Giza " and "Corniche Cairo ", the longest Egyptian corniche. Other cities such as Mansoura , Damietta and Luxor also have corniches. Though the word itself comes from French,

546-622: A cliff above the beaches and rocky shores. Many of the roads running around the Cape Peninsular, south of Cape Town, have been constructed in the form of corniches. A good example is part of Victoria Road running through the suburbs of Clifton and Bantry Bay. The Tripoli Corniche, also known as Al-Fatah Street, runs along the Mediterranean from the Waddan Bridge to the roundabout at Tripoli's sea port entrance. Any waterfront passage along

637-599: A destination for international congresses and conventions. He built the Palais des Congrès at the Acropolis in Nice, and founded a Chagall Museum and a Matisse Museum at Cimiez . High-rise apartment buildings and real estate developments began to spread. At the end of August 1997, Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed spent their last days together on his father's yacht off Pampelonne Beach near Saint-Tropez , shortly before they died in

728-530: A half hours from Paris. The French Riviera has a total population of more than two million. It is home to a high tech and science park (French: technopole ) at Sophia-Antipolis (north of Antibes ) and a research and technology centre at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis . The region has 35,000 students, of whom 25 percent are working toward a doctorate. The French Riviera is a major yachting and cruising area with several marinas along its coast. According to

819-718: A list led by Thierry Mariani . The Socialist Party, present in the first round on a joint list led by Europe Ecology – The Greens , failed again to win any seats. The 2022 presidential election marked the first time a far-right candidate won a majority of the vote in the second round in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Marine Le Pen won a majority of the vote in three of the six departments (55.1% in Var, 52% in Vaucluse and 51.5% in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence); her respective scores in

910-456: A majority of its economy is dependent on coastal activities. PACA is the 3rd richest French region and ranks 19th on the European scale. Its prosperity is mainly thanks to its attractiveness in terms of tourism; it is indeed one of the world's favourite tourist destinations, welcoming about 34 million tourists every year. The service sector predominates and provides many good jobs. In 2009, the region

1001-473: A popular tourist destination and convention site. Many celebrities, such as Elton John and Brigitte Bardot , have homes in the region. Officially, the French Riviera is home to 163 nationalities with 83,962 foreign residents, although estimates of the number of non-French nationals living in the area are often much higher. Its largest city is Nice , which has a population of 340,017 as of 2017. The city

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1092-684: A small British enclave . Robert Louis Stevenson was a later British visitor who came for his health. In 1882 he rented a villa called La Solitude at Hyères , where he wrote much of A Child's Garden of Verses . In 1864, six years after Nice became part of France following the Second Italian War of Independence the first railway was completed, making Nice and the Riviera accessible to visitors from all over Europe. One hundred thousand visitors arrived in 1865. By 1874, residents of foreign enclaves in Nice, most of whom were British, numbered 25,000. In

1183-584: A winter season to a summer season. Americans began coming to the south of France in the 19th century. Henry James set part of his novel The Ambassadors on the Riviera. James Gordon Bennett Jr. , the son and heir of the founder of the New York Herald , had a villa in Beaulieu . Industrialist John Pierpont Morgan gambled at Monte Carlo and bought 18th-century paintings by Fragonard in Grasse – shipping them to

1274-774: Is 5.4 °C (41.7 °F); the January average daily low temperature in Toulon is 6.2 °C (43.2 °F). The average high temperature in August in Nice is 28.6 °C (83.5 °F); in Toulon the average daily high temperature is 29.7 °C (85.5 °F) Provence-Alpes-C%C3%B4te d%27Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ( French: [pʁɔvɑ̃s alp kot dazyʁ] ; lit.   ' Provence-Alps-Azure Coast ' ; or ' Provence , Alps , French Riviera ', commonly shortened to PACA ), also known as Région Sud ('Southern Region'),

1365-519: Is a list of the most populated cities in the region along with their population (city proper) according to the most recent census: This region has a total area of 31,400 km (12,100 sq mi). It has a wide variety of landscapes, from the Alps mountains to plains, lakes such as the Gignoux Lake , and coastal areas like Nice and Marseille , which form the majority of the land area. The region has

1456-477: Is also the second-most populated city in France, just behind Paris , and the city with the third-largest metropolitan population in France, behind Paris and Lyon , respectively. Along with Nice and Marseille, the region is also made internationally popular with Cannes , a city that, despite its comparatively small size (population of 73,603 in 2012), hosts the annual Cannes Film Festival , which has highly popularized

1547-625: Is an Italian word that originates from the ancient Ligurian territory of Italy, wedged between the Var and Magra rivers. Côte d'Azur is originally a nickname given by France to the County of Nice after its annexation in 1860, because the climate was similar to that of the north of Italy, even in winter, with "a sky as blue as its sea". When the Mistral (Northwest) and the Tramontane (North) winds are blowing in

1638-638: Is due to their comparatively early construction in relation to the motorways of France's other regions. The region is served by 13 high-speed trains stations and one more in the Principality of Monaco . Two stations are situated on the LGV Méditerranée opened in 2001: Avignon TGV and Aix-en-Provence TGV. The others stations served by high-speed services are Avignon-Centre, Arles, Miramas, Marseille-Saint-Charles, Toulon, Les Arcs-Draguignan, Saint-Raphaël-Valescure, Cannes, Antibes, Nice-Ville and Menton. Despite

1729-507: Is found in the online Larousse encyclopedia to refer to the holidays of a group of English workers (moreover, in Occitan, the word ribiera "coastline" mostly works as a common name, whereas in French, the old-fashioned term Rivière de Gênes was used to refer to the Italian Riviera whose center is Genoa ). Côte d'Azur and the French Riviera have no official boundaries. Some sources put

1820-434: Is higher than in other regions: it is ranked the 2nd region most marked by inequalities after Île-de-France. The region is ranked fifth by GDP (as of 2016). Between 2007 and 2011, the region registered an average annual growth rate of 1.6% of GDP (Eurostat), close to the national average annual growth rate of 1.5%. Representing 7.2% of the national GDP over the period, the region is an important economic powerhouse. In 2013,

1911-434: Is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France , located at the far southeastern point of the mainland . The main prefecture and largest city is Marseille , France's third largest city after Paris and Lyon and the 2nd largest urban area when combined with aix en Provence with slightly less than one million residents. The region is roughly coterminous with the former French province of Provence , with

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2002-501: Is presumed to have been an outdoor religious sanctuary, having over 40,000 drawings of people and animals, dated to about 2000 BC. Beginning in the 7th century BC, Greek sailors from Phocaea in Asia Minor began to visit and then build emporia along the Côte d'Azur. Emporia were started at Olbia ( Hyères ); Antipolis ( Antibes ) and Nikaia (Nice). These settlements, which traded with

2093-469: Is the centre of a métropole — Nice-Côte d'Azur —bringing together 49 communes and more than 540,000 inhabitants and 943,000 in the urban area. Nice is home to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport , France's third-busiest airport (after Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport ), which is on an area of partially reclaimed coastal land at the western end of the Promenade des Anglais . A second airport at Mandelieu

2184-600: Is the legislative body ( assemblée délibérante ) of the region. The President of the Regional Council has been Renaud Muselier formerly of The Republicans (LR) since 2017. In the recent years, The Republicans have gained strong support in the region. Following the 2015 regional election , the party took control of the regional executive, which had been previously controlled by the Socialist Party (PS). Christian Estrosi succeeded Michel Vauzelle as President of

2275-545: Is the second-highest rate after Île-de-France (Greater Paris) , where the figure was around 56%. Since the 1960s, the region has been a major immigration centre from France and into France , mostly due to Northern French and to Mediterranean immigration from countries such as Portugal , Spain , Italy , Algeria , Tunisia and Morocco . Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is divided into 6 departments. These are Alpes-de-Haute-Provence , Hautes-Alpes , Alpes-Maritimes , Bouches-du-Rhône , Var and Vaucluse . The largest cities in

2366-402: Is the transport authority and defines the services in all region. An attractive fare permits to transport more than 100,000 passengers every day in 750 trains. Trains are leaving every 15, 20, 30, 60 or 120 minutes on each line. The regional services operate on one set of tracks throughout the regions, which has led to delays and cancellations along the line. In 2016, during the second Council of

2457-578: The Côte d'Azur ( IPA: [kot dazyʁ] ; Provençal : Còsta d'Azur , IPA: [ˈkwɔstɔ daˈzyʀ] ; lit.   ' Azure Coast ' ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France . There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department , extending from the rock formation Massif de l'Esterel to Menton , at

2548-739: The Alfred Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief . The Amalfi Drive , along the Amalfi Coast south of Naples, is a road carved into the cliffs along the Tyrrhenian Sea, and can be classified as a corniche. It runs between Sorrento and Amalfi and was originally built by the Romans. The coastal road facing the Atlantic Ocean in the capital city of Dakar is called the Corniche Ouest and runs along

2639-617: The Alma Tunnel in Paris. Places on the Côte d'Azur (following the broadest definition), following the coast from south-west to north-east, include: Some data related to tourism on the Riviera in 2006: The French Riviera is mostly subtropical, featuring a Mediterranean climate , with sunny, hot, dry summers and mild winters. Winter temperatures are moderated by the Mediterranean; days of frost are rare. The average daily low temperature in Nice in January

2730-792: The Bosonids dynasty (879–1112), then by the Catalans (1112–1246), and finally by the Angevins (1246–1382, elder branch , 1382–1483 ( younger branch ). In the 13th century, another powerful political force appeared, the House of Grimaldi . Descended from a Genoese nobleman expelled from Genoa by his rivals in 1271, members of the different branches of the Grimaldis took power in Monaco , Antibes and Nice, and built castles at Grimaud , Cagnes-sur-Mer and Antibes . Albert II ,

2821-673: The France–Italy border , although some other sources place the western boundary further west around Saint-Tropez or even Toulon . The coast is entirely within the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. The Principality of Monaco is a semi-enclave within the region, surrounded on three sides by France and fronting the Mediterranean. The French Riviera contains the seaside resorts of Cap-d'Ail , Beaulieu-sur-Mer , Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat , Villefranche-sur-Mer , Antibes , Juan-les-Pins , Cannes , and Theoule-sur-Mer . Riviera

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2912-723: The Grotte du Vallonnet , near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin , with stones and bones of animals, including bovines, rhinoceros, and bison. At Terra Amata (380,000 to 230,000 years ago), near the Nice Port , a fireplace was discovered that is one of the oldest found in Europe. Stone dolmens , monuments from the Bronze Age , can be found near Draguignan , while the Valley of Marvels ( Vallée des Merveilles ) near Mount Bégo , at 2,000 m (6,600 ft) elevation,

3003-563: The High Command had ordered, and crumbled in days. Saint-Tropez was badly damaged by German mines at the time of the liberation. The novelist Colette organized an effort to assure the town was rebuilt in its original style. When the war ended, artists Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso returned to live and work. The Cannes Film Festival was launched in September 1946, marking the return of French cinema to world screens. The Festival Palace

3094-558: The Languedoc and Provence areas, the temperature of the Mediterranean can be very cool in summer. This phenomenon is observed very little or not at all on the coast between the French Riviera and the Italian Riviera . This coastline was one of the first modern resort areas. It began as a winter health resort for the British upper class at the end of the 18th century. With the arrival of

3185-626: The Metropolitan Museum in New York. A feature of the French Riviera in the inter-war years was the Train Bleu , an all first-class sleeper train which brought wealthy passengers down from Calais . It made its first trip in 1922, and carried Winston Churchill , Somerset Maugham , and the future King Edward VIII over the years. While Europe was still recovering from the war and the American dollar

3276-802: The Musée Cantini , the Musée Grobet-Labadié , the Marseille History Museum , the Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille , the Musée de la Faïence de Marseille and the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Marseille are some of the tourist spots of the city. However, other museums are internationally recognised, like the Musée Matisse , the Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain , the Musée Marc Chagall ,

3367-680: The Musée international d'Art naïf Anatole Jakovsky , the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice , the Musée National du Sport and the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Nice . Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has two of the busiest airports in France: Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (ranking third nationally after Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport ) and Marseille Provence Airport (ranking fifth nationally after Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport ). Nice saw 14,485,423 people travelling through its airport in 2019, while 10,151,743 used Marseille to fly. As of 2019,

3458-747: The Western Roman Empire in the first half of the 5th century was followed by invasions of Provence by the Visigoths , the Burgundians and the Ostrogoths . There was then a long period of wars and dynastic quarrels, which in turn led to further invasions by the Saracens and the Normans in the 9th century. Some peace was restored to the coast by the establishment in 879 of a new kingdom of Provence , ruled first by

3549-474: The 4th century, and bishoprics were established: in Fréjus at the end of the 4th century, Cimiez and Vence in 439, and Antibes in 442. The oldest Christian structure still in existence on the Côte d'Azur is the baptistery of Fréjus Cathedral , built at the end of the 5th century, which also saw the founding of the first monastery in the region, Lerins Monastery on an island off the coast at Cannes. The fall of

3640-762: The Belgians. Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor. In 1882 she stayed in Menton , and in 1891 spent several weeks at the Grand Hotel at Grasse . In 1892 she stayed at the Hotel Cost-belle in Hyères . In successive years from 1895 to 1899 she stayed in Cimiez in the hills above Nice. First, in 1895 and 1896, she patronised the Grand Hôtel, while in later years she and her staff took over

3731-431: The Club Nautique, a private club on the Croisette , the fashionable seafront boulevard of Cannes. He visited there each spring for a two-month period, observing yacht races from shore while the royal yacht, Britannia , was sailed by professional crewmen. After he became King in 1901, he never again visited the French Riviera. By the end of the 19th century the Côte d'Azur began to attract artistic painters, who appreciated

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3822-465: The Côte d'Azur Economic Development Agency, each year the Riviera hosts 50 percent of the world's superyacht fleet, with 90 percent of all superyachts visiting the region's coast at least once in their lifetime. As a tourist centre, the French Riviera benefits from 310 to 330 days of sunshine per year, 115 kilometres (71 miles) of coastline and beaches, 18 golf courses, 14 ski resorts and 3,000 restaurants. The term French Riviera comes by analogy with

3913-555: The Doha Corniche. It is a popular tourist and leisure attraction within Qatar. The avenue that runs along the western and northern coast of the Beirut peninsula is colloquially called Corniche Beirut . The promenade along the waterfront in Muttrah , Muscat , is known as The Corniche. Dammam corniche, Qatif corniche, Khobar corniche, Ras Tanura corniche, Jeddah Corniche , Yanbu corniche, Al Jubail corniche, Khafji corniche. India Marine Drive, Mumbai French Riviera The French Riviera , known in French as

4004-411: The Egyptian usage has led neighboring Arab countries, which are not francophone and have no French influence, to adopt the word. These include Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. This is a waterfront promenade extending for seven kilometres (4.3 mi) along Doha Bay in Qatar's capital city, Doha. Annual celebrations of national holidays such as Qatar National Day and National Sports Day are centered on

4095-414: The French average. According to a recent survey, a person living in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has an average annual income of about €37,489 (US$ 45,755). The region has been part of the Alps–Mediterranean Euroregion since 10 July 2007. The region is one of the most visited of France, and has therefore many well-known museums, mostly in Marseille: the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations ,

4186-402: The Night . While Americans were largely responsible for making summer the high season, a French fashion designer, Coco Chanel , made sunbathing fashionable. She acquired a striking tan during the summer of 1923, and tans then became the fashion in Paris. During the abdication crisis of the British Monarchy in 1936, Wallis Simpson , the intended bride of King Edward VIII , was staying at

4277-546: The Regional Council. The 2015 election was also a show of force for the National Front (FN), led by Marion Maréchal-Le Pen , which garnered over 45% of the vote in the second round. The Socialist Party lost all representation at the regional level. The French Communist Party (PCF) historically had several strongholds in the region from the 1920s onward, including Aubagne , Draguignan , La Ciotat , Beausoleil , Martigues , Gardanne , Arles as well as some suburbs of Marseille , although not enough to win regional elections;

4368-415: The Villa Lou Viei in Cannes, talking with the King by telephone each day. After his abdication, the Duke of Windsor (as he became) and his new wife stayed at the Villa La Croë on the Cap d'Antibes . The English playwright and novelist Somerset Maugham also became a resident in 1926, buying the Villa La Mauresque toward the tip of Cap Ferrat , near Nice. When Germany invaded France in June 1940,

4459-452: The Year at the Region Hall in Marseille, in front of politicians and the new President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Christian Estrosi , the SNCF CEO, Guillaume Pepy , has announced the impossibility of the company to respond to the demand. The Marseille-Saint-Charles Station , the Marseille's main railway station cannot support more than 23 trains an hour and the tracks are too old and not enough to accept an average of

4550-413: The addition of the following adjacent areas: the former papal territory of Avignon , known as Comtat Venaissin ; the former Sardinian-Piedmontese County of Nice annexed in 1860, whose coastline is known in English as the French Riviera and in French as the Côte d'Azur ; and the southeastern part of the former French province of Dauphiné , in the French Alps . Previously known by the acronym PACA,

4641-440: The amphitheatre and baths at Cimiez , above Nice, and the amphitheatre, Roman walls and other remains at Fréjus . Roman Provence reached the height of its power and prosperity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. In the mid-3rd century, Germanic peoples began to invade the region, and Roman power weakened. In the same period, Christianity started to become a powerful force in the region. The first cathedrals were built in

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4732-501: The attention of the British aristocracy with Travels through France and Italy , written in 1765. At about the same time, a Scottish doctor, John Brown , became famous for prescribing what he called climato-therapy, a change in climate, to cure a variety of diseases including tuberculosis , known then as consumption. The French historian Paul Gonnet wrote that, as a result, Nice was filled with "a colony of pale and listless English women and listless sons of nobility near death". In 1834,

4823-739: The capacity. The project of new high-speed line called LGV PACA in 2030 could permit to increase trains on tracks with a new crossing of Marseille with a tunnel. Two new stations will be created in the territory of the city and a new line between Cannes and Nice Côte d'Azur Airport . Services operated by CP: Services operated by SNCF are declined with two appellations unlike other regions : TER, normally suburban trains and Intervilles, long-distance regional trains. Services operated by SNCF Intervilles: Services operated by SNCF TER: The mining company Alteo processes bauxite to produce aluminium, resulting in various waste materials such as "boues rouges" (red mud) and arsenic . The dumping of this waste in

4914-477: The climate, the bright colors and clear light. Among them were Auguste Renoir , who settled in Cagnes-sur-Mer and in Mougins , Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso . The First World War brought down many of the royal houses of Europe and altered the nature and the calendar of the French Riviera. Following the war, greater numbers of Americans began arriving, with business moguls and celebrities eventually outnumbering aristocrats. The 'High Society' scene moved from

5005-420: The current Prince of Monaco , is a descendant of the Grimaldis. In 1388, the city of Nice and its surrounding territory, from the mouth of the Var to the Italian border, were separated from Provence and came under the protection of the House of Savoy . The territory was called the Comté de Nice after 1526, and thereafter its language, history and culture were separate from those of Provence until 1860, when it

5096-445: The entire west wing of the Excelsior Hôtel Régina, which had been designed with her needs specifically in mind (part of which later became the home and studio of the renowned artist Henri Matisse ). She travelled with an entourage of between sixty and a hundred, including chef, ladies in waiting, dentist, Indian servants, her own bed and her own food. The Prince of Wales was a regular visitor to Cannes, starting in 1872. He frequented

5187-458: The importance of the region in the national economy and demography, the national services on conventional network are not very high due to the fact of the saturations of the tracks with high speed and regional trains. All regional train services are operated under the ZOU! brand used for interurban train and bus services funded by the region. All such services are part of the TER Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur network and operated by SNCF on behalf of

5278-405: The inhabitants of the interior, became rivals of the Etruscans and Phoenicians , who also visited the Côte d'Azur. In 8 BC, the Emperor Augustus built an imposing trophy monument at La Turbie (the Trophy of the Alps or Trophy of Augustus) to mark the pacification of the region. Roman towns, monuments and amphitheatres were built along the Côte d'Azur and many still survive, such as

5369-498: The marine reserve of Calanques National Park for six years was authorised by the French Government in 2015. Company representatives have dismissed environmental concerns as exaggerated and uninformed. The region also includes another national park, Port-Cros National Park near Toulon. Due to motor vehicle traffic, the urban areas are often saturated on a daily basis, but cities are investing in public transport networks such as Marseille's subway (2 lines) and tramway (3 lines),

5460-427: The mid-19th century, British and French entrepreneurs began to see the potential of promoting tourism along the Côte d'Azur. At the time, gambling was illegal in France and Italy. In 1856, the Prince of Monaco , Charles III , began constructing a casino in Monaco, which was called a health spa to avoid criticism by the church. The casino was a failure, but in 1863 the Prince signed an agreement with François Blanc ,

5551-432: The national average of 75.8%. The sector grew between 2000 and 2010 (3.1% on annual average versus 2.1% in France). The region concentrates more on commercial activities than financial ones than the rest of France does; principally because of tourism. 34% of the labour force is employed in retail and trade, against 32% at the national level. Moreover, the sector strongly contributes to growth of added value (81.5% vs. 77.3% at

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5642-453: The national level). The industrial sector (existing mainly through the Marseille-Fos Port ), including construction, consists of 17.1% of regional employment (vs. 20.6% in the rest of France), and contributes to 9.3% of gross added value, 3.2 points below the French level. Employment in the agricultural sector is lower than the national level (2.4% against 3.1%). However, it grew at a rate of 4.1% annually on average between 2000 and 2008, while

5733-408: The new class of wealthy international travellers called the jet set . The marriage of American film actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco on 18 April 1956, attracted world attention once again. It was viewed on television by 30 million people. During the 1960s, the Mayor of Nice, Jacques Médecin , decided to reduce the dependence of the Riviera on ordinary tourism, and to make it

5824-429: The party usually received about 10% of the vote. In the 2002 presidential election, this declined to 4%. In 2007, it dropped below 2%. Nowadays the main competition in regional politics is between the right-wing The Republicans and the far-right National Rally (formerly National Front). In the second round of the 2021 regional election , The Republicans received 57.3% of the vote against the National Rally's 42.7% with

5915-426: The production of flowers for perfume (manufactured in Grasse ). A new phase began when the coast became a fashionable health resort for the British upper class in the late 18th century. The first British traveller to describe its benefits was the novelist Tobias Smollett , who visited Nice in 1763 when it was still an Italian city within the Kingdom of Sardinia. Smollett brought Nice and its warm winter climate to

6006-578: The railway in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria , Tsar Alexander II and King Edward VII , when he was Prince of Wales . In the summer, it also played home to many members of the Rothschild family . In the first half of the 20th century, it was frequented by artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso , Henri Matisse , Francis Bacon , Edith Wharton , Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley , as well as wealthy Americans and Europeans. After World War II , it became

6097-404: The railway reached Monte Carlo in 1870, many thousands of visitors began to arrive and the population of the principality of Monaco doubled. The French Riviera soon became a popular destination for European royalty. Just days after the railway reached Nice in 1864, Tsar Alexander II of Russia visited on a private train, followed soon afterwards by Napoleon III and then Leopold II , the King of

6188-434: The region adopted the name Région Sud as a commercial name or nickname in December 2017. It encompasses six departments in Southeastern France: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence , Alpes-Maritimes , Bouches-du-Rhône , Hautes-Alpes , Var and Vaucluse . It is bounded to the east by the France–Italy border , to the south by the Mediterranean Sea and by the Principality of Monaco , to the north by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and to

6279-456: The region are Marseille (regional prefecture), Nice , Toulon and Aix-en-Provence , each with a population exceeding 100,000 inhabitants at the 1999 census. After Marseille, Nice is the second most populous city in the region, with a city proper population of about 350,000 and an urban population exceeding 1 million. Marseille has an urban area of 2 million inhabitants and is the largest and capital city of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It

6370-413: The region was responsible for 7.4% of national employment, with an employment rate of 60.9%. The region's employment success has a main characteristic: a higher concentration of elderly people than in the rest of France (respectively 27.1% and 24.1% in 2013). With more than 80% of regional employment in the service sector in 2016, the regional economy is mostly oriented towards service activities, above

6461-461: The region's various universities, international schools, preparatory classes for specialist university courses, and engineering and business schools. All these institutions of higher learning help contribute to the human capital needed by the region to meet current technological challenges. The region has a total GDP (2018) of €166.4 billion (US$ 188.7 bn), the sixth highest in France. It has a per capita GDP of €30,864 (US$ 34,994), slightly higher than

6552-556: The region, except for services on the line between Nice and Digne-les-Bains, which are operated by Chemins de fer de Provence , a company owned by the region. In 2021 the region became the first in mainland France to open up TER services to competition, and after a tender process awarded a contract to Transdev to operate TER services on the Marseille-Nice line. Transdev is scheduled to commence operations in place of SNCF from June 2025. The Regional Council of Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur

6643-452: The region. The 1999 Census, which included a complementary survey asking for the mother tongue of the respondents, gave results on the most spoken mother tongues in Provence after French: According to a 2009 study, nearly 40% of all newborns in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in 2007 had at least one parent of an immigrant background, mostly Italian , Spanish , Portuguese and Maghrebi . This

6734-418: The region. In addition, Arles has become renowned as the city where Vincent van Gogh lived and painted 300 paintings. Toulon is a large military harbour on the Mediterranean coast and is home to a French naval base. It is the capital of the Var department in the region. Also, Aix-en-Provence has long been a university town and, to this day, remains the most important educational centre in the region. Below

6825-527: The region. The borders were unaffected by the 2016 French regional reforms. This region is famous for the Côte d'Azur ( French Riviera ), which spans the coastal cities of Nice , Saint-Laurent-du-Var , Antibes , Juan-les-Pins , Cannes , Mandelieu-la-Napoule , Fréjus , Saint-Raphaël , Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Tropez ; and on the Rhône river, the city of Avignon which is surrounded by medieval stone walls . The Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

6916-513: The remaining British colony was evacuated to Gibraltar and eventually to Britain. American Jewish groups helped some of the Jewish artists living in the south of France, such as Marc Chagall , to escape to the United States. In August 1942, 600 Jews from Nice were rounded up by French police and sent to Drancy , and eventually to death camps . In all about 5,000 French Jews from Nice perished during

7007-579: The remaining three (49.9% in Alpes-Maritimes, 47.9% in Bouches-du-Rhône and 44.9% in Hautes-Alpes) were superior to her national total (41.5%). In the second round of the last four presidential elections, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur voted as follows, with the winner of the election indicated in italics: The regional income per capita is close to the French national average. Income inequality however

7098-451: The rest of the country saw its agricultural employment decline by 2.4%. According to the INSEE , the region is characterised by a strong presence of SMEs of less than 500 employees, which represent 91.2% of local businesses (higher than the national average of 90.9%). Retail activities and tourism explain these figures. The region's economy is dependent on tourism like most coastal places but also

7189-510: The term Italian Riviera , which extends east of the French Riviera (from Ventimiglia to La Spezia ). As early as the 19th century, the British referred to the region as the Riviera or the French Riviera , usually referring to the eastern part of the coast, between Monaco and the Italian border. Riviera is an Italian noun which means "coastline". The name Côte d'Azur was given to the coast by

7280-402: The third largest metropolitan population, behind those of Paris and Lyon respectively. Nice is host to the second-largest population concentration in the region, with a city population of 344,875 and an urban population of 1,005,230, making it the fifth-most populous city in France. The absolute majority of the population speaks French but many regional and foreign languages are present in

7371-459: The third-busiest airport in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is Toulon–Hyères Airport (507,199 passengers), ranking 27th nationally. The region is at the centre of a complex and dense motorway network, in the heart of Mediterranean coast. Motorways are operated by ASF, ESCOTA, SMTC, MPM (Marseille Metropolis) and DIR Med (State). In PACA, motorways have the particularity to serve the city centres of large cities, unlike other large cities of France. This

7462-591: The war. Following D-Day in Normandy, Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil), the code name for the Allied invasion of Southern France, commenced on 15 August 1944, when American parachute troops landed near Fréjus, and a fleet landed 60,000 troops of the American Seventh Army and French First Army between Cavalaire and Agay , east of Saint-Raphaël . German resistance was not as fanatical as Hitler and

7553-431: The west by Occitanie , with the Rhône marking its westernmost border. According to the 2015 census, 5,007,977 people live in the region. The region logotype displays the coat of arms created in the 1990s and which combines the coats of arms of the old provinces making up Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The region's economy is the third largest in France, just behind Île-de-France and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes . Its GDP in 2015

7644-564: The western boundary at Saint-Tropez . Others include Saint Tropez, Hyères or Toulon in the Var (departement) , or as far as Cassis in the Bouches-du-Rhône departement. In her 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley , Patricia Highsmith describes the Riviera as including all of the coast between Toulon and the Italian border. The region of the French Riviera has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Primitive tools dating to between 1,000,000 and 1,050,000 years ago were discovered in

7735-750: The writer Stéphen Liégeard in his book, La Côte d’azur , published in December 1887. Liégeard was born in Dijon , in the French department of Côte-d'Or , and adapted that name by substituting the azure colour of the Mediterranean for the gold of Côte-d'Or. In Occitan ( Niçard and Provençal ) and French , the only usual names are Còsta d'Azur in Occitan and Côte d'Azur in French. A term like "French Riviera" ( Ribiera Francesa in Occitan, Riviera Française in French) would only be used in literal translation, or adaptations of it. For instance, in French, "Riviera Française"

7826-406: Was admittedly affected by the global economic crisis, albeit to a small extent. It is (after the Paris area) the 2nd French region with regards to business startups. If tourism is the driving force of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the region is also a leader when it comes to innovative sectors, such as high technology, biotechnology, and microelectronics. Education, for its part, is well developed with

7917-501: Was built in 1949 on the site of the old Cercle Nautique, where the Prince of Wales had met his mistresses in the late 19th century. The release of the French film Et Dieu… créa la femme ( And God Created Woman ) in November 1956 was a major event for the Riviera, making an international star of Brigitte Bardot , and making an international tourist destination of Saint-Tropez, particularly for

8008-520: Was once the region's commercial airport, but is now mainly used by private and business aircraft. The A8 autoroute runs through the region, as does the old main road generally known as the Route nationale 7 (officially now DN7 in Var and D6007 in Alpes-Maritimes ). High-speed trains serve the coastal region and inland to Grasse , with the TGV Sud-Est service reaching Nice-Ville station in five and

8099-519: Was re-attached to France under Napoleon III . Provence retained its formal independence until 1480, when the last Comte de Provence , René I of Naples , died and left the Comté to his nephew, Charles du Maine , who in turn left it to Louis XI of France . In 1486, Provence formally became part of France. Until the end of the 18th century, the area later known as the Côte d'Azur was a remote and impoverished region, known mostly for fishing, olive groves and

8190-739: Was strong, American writers and artists started arriving on the Côte d'Azur. Edith Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence (1920) at a villa near Hyères , winning the Pulitzer Prize for the novel (the first woman to do so). Dancer Isadora Duncan frequented Cannes and Nice, but died in 1927 when her scarf caught in a wheel of the Amilcar motor car in which she was a passenger and strangled her. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald first visited with his wife Zelda in 1924, stopping at Hyères, Cannes and Monte Carlo – eventually staying at Saint-Raphaël , where he wrote much of The Great Gatsby and began Tender Is

8281-407: Was €168.2 billion (US$ 190.5 billion) while its per capita GDP was €30,863 (US$ 34,950). As of 2020, the population of the region was 5,098,666; Marseille and its metropolitan area is the most populous in the region with a city population of 870,321, an urban population of 1,618,479 and a metropolitan population of 1,879,601. Marseille is the second largest city in France after Paris , and has

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