Alpes-Maritimes

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Alpes-Maritimes

Alpes-Maritimes is a département in the extreme southeast corner of France.

History

The Romans already had a province called Alpes-Maritimes as early as 7 BC. Its capital was Cemenelum, today Cimiez, a neighborhood in the north of Nice. At its largest in 297, this province extended to Digne and Briançon, and its capital was Embrun.

A département of this name existed in France from 1793 to 1815, but it had different boundaries and included Monaco and San Remo.

The present département was created in 1860 when the county of Nice was annexed. It was constituted out of the county of Nice and the arrondissement of Grasse in the département of Var.

In 1947, the département was enlarged by the addition of the communes of Tende and La Brigue, which had remained Italian after the 1860 annexion.

Geography

The département is surrounded by the French départements of Var, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the principality of Monaco, Italy on the east, and the Mediterranean on the south.

Alpes-Maritimes includes the famous French Riviera coastline on the Mediterranean Sea with the important towns and cities of Cannes, Nice, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and Antibes.

Rivers include the following:

Economy

The economy is largely driven by tourism. Nice is second only to Paris in the number and size of its hotels. Because of the mild climate, it is a year-round tourist attraction.

Other notable industry includes the perfume industry in Grasse and high-tech industry around Sophia-Antipolis.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the département are called Maralpins.

When Nice became French in 1860, it was still a small town; the département had fewer than 200,000 inhabitants. However, the population grew quickly from 300,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to over a million. The population is aging because of the number of retirees who move to the coast.

The population is now concentrated in the urban region that includes Cannes, Grasse, Nice, and Menton, and which constitutes 90% of the total population.

Culture

The Cannes Film Festival attracts wide attention and the cream of the film industry. Juan-les-Pins hosts an annual jazz festival.

Tourism

Tourism in the département centers on the Riviera, known as the Côte d'Azur, known for its beaches and luxury hotels.

The area inland from the busy Cote d'Azur is an excellent base for many out door sports: cycling, mountain biking, ski-ing, walking, rock climbing, canyoning, canoeing, rafting, fishing, horse riding, forests of adventure, caving and the area has the first ever under ground via ferrata. The area has internationally renowned paragliding and hang gliding flying sites - Col de Bleyne, Gourdon, Greolieres and Lachens. This website gives further information on these sports and general information about the area.

External links

AngloINFO Riviera (English-language information)
Conseil général website (in French)
Préfecture website (in French)
French Riviera directory (in French)
Musical traditions in the Alpes-Maritimes département (English, French and Occitan langages).
http://gofrance.about.com/cs/photogalleries/l/bl_nice5.htm