SOUTH PROVENCE-ALPES-CÔTE-D'AZUR REGION
Departments: Alpes de Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Vaucluse.
Population: 5.1 million
Prefecture: Marseille
Surface area: 31,400 km2
Specialities: Mediterranean cuisine, pizza, pissaladière, panisses, chichis, bouillabaisse, petits farcis (stuffed vegetables), alouette sans tête (mea trolls), pieds et paquets marseillais (lamb feet), salade niçoise, pan bagnat, gardiane de taureau (bull stew), sea urchins, fish (sea bream, sea bass, red mullet, denti, marbled, pageots, pagres, sars), wines (rosés of Provence, côtes de Provence, côtes du Rhône, Palette, Bandol...).
Sports clubs: Olympique Marseille, OGC Nice (football), Rugby Club Toulon. Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille (swimming).
Competitions: football world cup, Euro 2016 football, rugby world cup, rugby test matches, Tour de France cycling, Paris-Nice, GP La Marseille, Haribo Classic, Tour du Haut-Var, Tour de la Provence, beach volleyball, beach football, rugby in Toulon. Mondial à pétanque in Marseille.
Tourist attractions: beaches and seaside resorts (Saint-Tropez, Nice, Saint-Raphaël, Fréjus, Cassis, Bandol etc...), Palais des Papes in Avignon, Arles (amphitheatre, Roman remains), Marseille (Old Port, Panier, calanques, château d'If, Mucem), Nice (Promenade des Anglais, old Nice, old port), Mont Ventoux, Cannes, ski resorts in the Hautes-Alpes and Alpes maritimes (Serre-Chevalier, Le Sauze, Orcières-Merlette, Isola 2000), Briançon (citadel), Aix-en-Provence.
Economy: 7% of French GDP, 3e region in France, 16e in Europe. Agriculture (wine, market gardening), service sector (80%), universities (Aix-Marseille, France's leading university, Nice, Toulon), ports (Marseille, La Ciotat, Nice), petrochemicals (Fos), logistics, Nice and Marseille airports, tourism.
Festivals: Cannes Festival (cinema), Avignon Festival (theatre), Chorégies d'Orange, Aix en Provence Festival (opera), Jazz à Nice, Marseille Festival (dance). Midem (Cannes), Marsatac (Marseille), Fiesta des Suds (Marseille), Plages électroniques (Cannes), Rencontres d'Arles (photography).
Website: www.maregionsud.fr
ALPES-MARITIMES (06)
Prefecture: Nice
Sub-prefecture: Grasse
Population: 1,103,941
Surface area: 4,299 km2
Specialities: pissaladière, fougasse, socca, brissaouda, tapenade, salade niçoise, pan bagnat, porchetta niçoise, trulle, ratatouille, daube niçoise, bellet (wine)
Economy: tourism (64,000 jobs), second largest airport in France, perfume industry in Grasse, new technologies in Sophia-Antipolis, space centre in Cannes-Mandelieu.
Sport: OGC Nice, AS Cannes (football). Olympique Antibes (basketball). Olympic Nice Swimming. Paris-Nice cycling, Nice Ironman. Monte Carlo Rally. Nice Open.
Culture and heritage: Cannes Film Festival, Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival, Nice Jazz Festival, Nice Carnival, Mouans-Sartoux Book Festival. Promenade des Anglais in Nice, Croisette in Cannes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Matisse Museum, Maeght Foundation, perfume factory in Grasse, Lérins Islands, Mercantour National Park.
Website: www.departement06.fr
Km 3.8
BEAUSOLEIL (POP: 12,670)
Built on the remains of the picturesque "Tonkin" district, where the young Armand Gatti and Guillaume Apollinaire once lived, Beausoleil has over time become a residential suburb of Monaco, home to the principality's staff who cannot afford to live there. Long known as Upper Monaco because of its geographical position, the town has grown along with the principality as tourism has developed.
Mont des Mules
It is a natural area of around ten hectares, consisting of a rocky limestone escarpment overlooking the Principality of Monaco. Mont des Mules is a popular destination for Beausoleil residents and tourists visiting the region. The paths were laid out at the beginning of the 20th century by the tourist clubs of the time. Its name probably comes from the frequent use of mules by smugglers crossing this mountain between Monaco and La Turbie. It is home to a castellara, a Ligurian camp on Mont des Mules, measuring around two hundred metres on each side, with one side bordering the road from Beausoleil to La Turbie. It bears witness to the fortified Ligurian settlement built by the peoples who inhabited the region during the Iron Age.
Riviera Palace
Construction: 1898-1902
History: the Riviera Palace was built in Beausoleil for the Compagnie des wagons-lits by architect Georges Chedanne. Its eclectic Italianate Belle Époque style features ochre facades and blue majolica balustrades. Its conservatory remains one of the most famous, with its glass roof, rockeries and subtropical plants. The glass roof was designed and built by Gustave Eiffel's company. A cog railway originally linked the hotel to the Casino. The hotel was used as an auxiliary military hospital during the First World War.
Current use: the hotel has been converted into condominium flats.
Listed as: historical monument since 1989.
Km 7.9
LA TURBIE (POP: 3,010)
From Mont Bataille to the Tête de Chien plateau, with Mont Agel in the background, La Turbie overlooks Monaco, offering a unique view of the Mediterranean, from Italy to the foothills of the Esterel. Despite its development, which began with the arrival of the first winter visitors to the French Riviera, La Turbie has managed to preserve the soul of a village, alongside a lively shopping centre. La Turbie owes its name to the monumental Augustus Trophy, whose remains you can visit in a new interactive museum and a magnificent wooded park overlooking the sea. The gigantic monument was built 2,000 years ago to glorify Emperor Augustus, who defeated the last rebel tribes in the Alps. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the barbarians swept through the region and set their sights on the Trophy. In the 11th century, the Trophy was transformed into a fortress, surrounded by the walls of the village's first houses. After countless wars of conquest, the Trophy was finally mined by order of Louis XIV. The village continued to suffer many conflicts before finally becoming part of France in 1860. Football fans will be aware that AS Monaco's training centre is located in La Turbie. From 1903 to 1962, a hill-climb race took place on the hillside of La Turbie, with Amédée Rolland, René Vietto, Lucien Teissier and Jean Dotto all winning. In 2022, La Turbie hosted a stage of the Tour du Haut-Var, won by Belgian rider Tim Wellens. The climb at La Turbie was ridden for the last time in the Tour de France in 2009, with Tony Martin in the lead.
Alps Trophy
Built: 7-6 BC
History: the Alps Trophy was erected in honour of Roman Emperor Augustus at the highest point of the Via Julia Augusta. In particular, it recounts the subjugation between 23 and 13 BC of the last independent Celto-Ligurian peoples living in the Alpine massifs between the provinces of Narbonne and Cisalpine Gaul.
Characteristics: The limestone used to build the Augustus Trophy was quarried from the Roman quarry around 500 metres away, where you can still see traces of the column sections cut into the stone. Originally, the main base was 35-m long, the first platform 12-m high, the rotunda had 24 columns and the statue of Augustus was 49-m high. The restored trophy is now 35-m high.
Listed as: historical monument since 1865.
Km 13.3
ÈZE (POP:2,240)
"There is nowhere else more out of place, more unusual, more suspended in the void..." wrote Jean Cocteau about Èze. The poet is just one of the many celebrities to have appreciated this perched, fortified village above Nice. The 'Nietzsche Trail', which starts at the seafront and winds its way up a steep slope to the hilltop village, is said to have taken Nietzsche by surprise. It is said that Nietzsche, who was ill and staying in Nice at the end of his life, frequented this footpath and used it as inspiration for the third part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Actor Francis Blanche also had a house here and is buried in Èze. Novelist Maurice Blanchot and U2 singer Bono are among the other celebrities to have lived in Èze. The ruins of the castle, sheltered by a pretty exotic garden, are a reminder of the village's history: as early as the Iron Age, around 220 BC, local populations took shelter on the Eze rock. A few fragments of the Cyclopean walls built in the village bear witness to this early occupation. The castle was built in the second half of the 12th century by the d'Eze family. To guard it, the Counts of Provence and then the Dukes of Savoy relied on valiant and experienced officers known as the Castellans. The garden and its ruins are still well worth a visit. The village's neo-classical church, built in the 18th century on the foundations of a 12th-century church, is dedicated to Notre-Dame of the Assumption.
Km 17.1
COL D'ÈZE (507 M)
Ridden six times in the Tour de France, between 1919 and 2020, Col d'Èze has truly become a cycling classic thanks to Paris-Nice, since the Race to the Sun has ridden it 49 times, most of them for an uphill time trial that has proved decisive on many occasions. The greatest have won here: Eddy Merckx, Raymond Poulidor, Joop Zoetemelk, Stephen Roche, Sean Kelly, Bradley Wiggins and Richie Porte, the last winner at the summit in 2015. Logically, it is Sean Kelly, the record holder for victories in Paris-Nice, who has won most often on the Col d'Èze, on five occasions. Britain's Bradley Wiggins holds the record for the climb in 19:12.
Km 21.6
VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER (POP: 5,100)
A former military port for the House of Savoy, which had no other access to the sea until the port of Nice was built, Villefranche-sur-Mer has preserved its know-how, which is much appreciated by lovers of its nautical heritage. Today, the town is a renowned seaside resort where many celebrities live or have lived. Rock stars such as Elton John and Tina Turner have lived here, while the Rolling Stones recorded their most famous album, Exile on Main Street in a villa in town. The town has preserved an important civil and religious heritage from its past. The Saint-Elme citadel, built in the 16th century by Emmanuel-Philibert of Savoy, now houses the town hall, as well as museums devoted to sculptor Antoniucci Volti, paintings from the Goetz-Bousmeester collection, ceramics from the Roux collection and the memory of the 24th Bataillon of Alpine Chasseurs. Other places of interest in Villefranche include Port de la Darse and Rue Obscure, a 130-metre covered street dating back to 1260. The town's religious heritage is dominated by the church of Saint-Michel, built in the 14th century and remodelled in Savoy Baroque style in the 18th century, and the pretty chapel of Saint-Pierre, whose frescoes are by Jean Cocteau. The town also boasts the Villa Leopolda, built in the early 20th century for Leopold II of Belgium and sometimes referred to as the most expensive villa in the world.
Monaco
Genießen Sie das opulente Flair von Monaco, wo sich die Schönen und Reichen der Welt tummeln. Die glitzernden Fluten des Mittelmeers und die sonnenbeschienenen Terrassen geben eine fabelhafte Kulisse für den Luxus ab, die es mit der Farbpalette jedes Künstlers aufnehmen kann. In den Straßen von Monaco dröhnen die Motoren exklusiver Sportwagen, während der Hafen mit seiner Fülle unfassbarer Luxusjachten vom Ausmaß menschlicher Ambitionen zeugt. Doch hinter dem Glamour verbirgt sich auch ein stolzes Erbe. Der Fürstenpalast erzählt im Flüsterton von königlichen Intrigen, während das Casino de Monte-Carlo die Bühne für ungehemmten Glanz und Glitter sowie die Aussicht auf Gewinne liefert, während sich so mancher hier von seinem Vermögen trennt. Monaco ist nicht nur ein Reiseziel, sondern ein Statement - kühn, provokant und unverschämt authentisch. Auch Sie werden dem unwiderstehlichen Charme Monacos erliegen.
Nice
Genießen Sie in Nizza den Charme der Côte d'Azur und ein wahres Fest für die Sinne. Vor der Kulisse des azurblauen Wassers und der goldenen Sonne bietet dieses Küstenjuwel die Essenz des glamourösen Küstenlebens.
Die engen Gassen der Altstadt versprühen historischen Charme, und auf Schritt und Tritt finden Sie etwas Faszinierendes, von eleganten Boutiquen bis hin zu belebten lokalen Märkten. Ein Spaziergang entlang der berühmten Promenade des Angles ist ein Muss, aber wenn Sie die Stadt aus einem anderen Blickwinkel sehen möchten, sollten Sie auf den Colline du Château hinaufsteigen, von wo aus Sie einen Panoramablick auf die eklektische Architektur Nizzas und die atemberaubende Küstenlinie haben.
Ob Sie sich an den glitzernden Stränden sonnen, die Düfte frischer Produkte auf dem lebhaften Markt Cours Saleya genießen oder den kulturellen Reichtum der Stadt erkunden - Nizza verspricht eine bezaubernde Reise. Egal, ob Sie in die Kultur eintauchen oder einfach nur entspannen möchten, Nizza ist ein wahrhaft inspirierendes Reiseziel, in dem jede Erfahrung in die Wärme des mediterranen Charmes getaucht ist.
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