The Côte d’Azur, or French Riviera, is in the Département of the Alpes-Maritimes. It runs along the coast from the Italian border, through Monaco, and continues to a point just beyond Cannes and reaches more than 50km (30 miles) northward into the steep slopes of the Alps, connecting the balmy coastal region with the ideal ski resorts of the lower Alps. This part of the Mediterranean coast has more visitors each year during July and August than any other part of France, although many of the summer visitors are French.
The two most famous French resorts, Cannes and Nice, are to be found here and the area is generally accepted as one of the most beautiful resort spots in the world. It well deserves its immense popularity – with artists (Matisse, Picasso, Chagall and Dufy) as well as tourists. There is an abundance of palm trees, blue sea and beautiful beaches; sparkling cities and villages are set against backdrops of high green mountains. Travelers have been drawn to the region since the 18th century, some no doubt inspired by the writings of Dr Tobias Smollet. His visits are described in Travels in France and Italy.
The weather is wonderful with long, hot and sunny summers. There is plenty of diversion here, especially in the spring, summer and early autumn months. The coastal resort towns include Cannes, made popular as a resort by Lord Brougham in the 19th century when, because of a plague in Nice, he was forced to stop here;
Nice, itself, the largest metropolis on the coast, a thriving commercial city as well as a year-round resort (the annual carnival and battle of roses perhaps date back to 350 BC);
Napoule Plage, a small and exclusive resort with several sandy beaches, a marina and a splendid view of the rolling green Maure Mountains;
Golfe-Juan, now a popular resort town with many expensive mansions and hotels;
Juan-les-Pins, with a neat harbor, beaches and pine forests in the hills which protect the village from the winds in both summer and winter;
Antibes and Cap d’Antibes, very popular but expensive resorts;
Villefranche-sur-Mer, a deep-water port which has been used by pleasure yachts and navies for centuries;
St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, an exclusive and expensive resort consisting of great private mansions and seaside estates;
Beaulieu, much less exclusive, yet a fine resort town; Menton (near the Principality of Monaco), once a fishing village and citrus-fruit-producing area, now a pleasant vacation resort. The Côte d’Azur is an extraordinary playground with every kind of amusement.
There are excellent museums, historic places dating from the pre-Christian era to the present day, hills, mountains, lakes and rivers, gorges and alpine skiing trails. The entire area has a generous supply of good, comfortable hotels as well as luxury châteaux, restaurants with every sort of food, and good drinking bars everywhere.
One of the greatest museums in the world, the Maeght Foundation, is located in St-Paul-de-Vence. Picasso, Braque, Matisse and Léger museums also exist and there is plenty of beautiful foothill countryside to explore. Resorts further along the coast from Cannes include
St Tropez, a terribly crowded, hard to reach yet fashionable village;
Port Grimaud, the first of the custom-built ‘fishing village’ resorts (and now old enough to look almost like the real thing);
St Maxime, a fashionable but crowded resort with fine beaches and harbor;
Fréjus, which was a port when the Greeks were settling in the Mediterranean basin ‘like frogs around a pond’ and which is less fashionable than most of its neighbors;
St Raphael, at one time a Roman resort, and now a comfortable middle-class vacation town.
Grasse, just north of Cannes, is a charming hilltop town famed for its perfume. Spectacular weather is one of the major attractions of Provence, whose Départements comprise Hautes Alpes, Alpes de Hautes Provence, Var, Vaucluse and Bouches du Rhône. The deep blue skies of summer are seldom clouded, although there is some rain in spring and autumn. The only inhospitable element is the Mistral, a wind that sometimes roars down the Rhône Valley, often unrelenting for three or four days. When the Romans arrived in Gaul, they were so delighted with the climate of the Bouches du Rhône that they made it a province rather than a colony, which was more usual.
The varied flora that have taken root in this land have given it the hues of pewter, bronze, dark green and vibrant green. The sun has baked the dwellings to shades of ochre and rose while the deep red soil has provided tiles that remain red, defying the searing rays of the Midi sunshine.
The towns, their architecture, stones and tiles all blend subtly throughout Provence with the majestic plane trees in the streets and squares. Their long heavy trunks of mottled grays and the graceful vaulting of the heavily leafed branches create a peculiar atmosphere not found anywhere else. These are the principal adornments of most of the cities, market towns and villages, casting a deep blue shade on the inhabitants, the mossy fountains, café terraces, and games of pétanque. The eras of Greek and Roman domination of Provence have left monuments scattered across the countryside. They include walled hill towns, triumphal arches, theatres, colosseums, arenas, bridges and aqueducts.
Christianity brought the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, many churches and hundreds of roadside shrines or ‘oratories’ which have given the name oradour to many communities along the Rhône.
