History

The settlement of the Côte d'Azur dates back to the Ligurians, a pre-Celtic people who inhabited the coast and the hinterland. Around 600 BC, Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the trading post Nikaia (Nice) — the name derives from Nike, the goddess of victory. Antipolis (Antibes) was established as a counter-city to Nikaia.

Roman Era

The Romans conquered the coast in the 2nd century BC and built the Via Julia Augusta — the coastal road that still exists today as the Grande Corniche. In La Turbie, they erected the Tropaeum Alpium (6 BC), a 35-meter-high victory monument in honor of Emperor Augustus' victory over 45 Alpine tribes. Cimiez (Nice's hill district) became the Roman provincial capital Cemenelum with baths, an amphitheater, and 20,000 inhabitants.

Middle Ages & Savoy

After the migration period and Saracen raids (the notorious fortress Fraxinetum near La Garde-Freinet was only recaptured in 972), the region was divided between the County of Provence (France) and Savoy (Nice). Nice belonged to the House of Savoy from 1388 and thus to Italy — it only became definitively French in 1860 in a controversial referendum. Hence the Italian architecture, cuisine, and lifestyle of Nice.

Napoleon & the Corniche

Napoleon Bonaparte, hailing from Corsica, had a special relationship with the coast. He had the Grande Corniche expanded along the route of the Roman Via Julia Augusta and landed in 1815 after his escape from Elba at Golfe-Juan (between Cannes and Antibes) to begin his march to Paris — the famous Route Napoléon, which still exists today as a tourist route.

The Côte d'Azur as a tourist destination is an invention of the 19th century — and it was not invented by the French, but by the British. In the 1830s, the English aristocracy discovered the mild winter climate of Nice as a remedy for tuberculosis. Queen Victoria spent several winters in Nice, and the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to the English winter guests who financed its construction in 1822.

The Belle Époque (1870–1914)

With the construction of the Paris–Nice railway line (1864), the Côte d'Azur became accessible to the European high nobility and the bourgeoisie. An unprecedented building boom began:

• 1863: Opening of the Casino de Monte-Carlo — Prince Charles III of Monaco saved his bankrupt principality by building a casino. It became the richest casino in the world.
• 1887: The writer Stephen Liégeard coined the term "Côte d'Azur" in his book of the same name — the name stuck.
• 1913: Opening of the Hôtel Negresco in Nice — the most luxurious hotel on the coast, with a dome designed by Gustave Eiffel.

Russian grand dukes, British lords, American millionaires — they all built villas along the coast, financed churches (the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Nice, the most beautiful outside Russia), gardens, and promenades. The Côte d'Azur became the winter playground of the world.

The Invention of Summer Tourism (1920s)

Until the 1920s, people came only in winter to the Côte d'Azur. Then the Americans discovered summer: F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda spent summers in Juan-les-Pins and Cap d'Antibes, Coco Chanel made suntans fashionable (previously, paleness was a sign of wealth), and suddenly the Côte d'Azur became a summer destination. Fitzgerald's novel "Tender Is the Night" (1934) immortalizes this era.

Cannes and the Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival was founded in 1946 — as a counter-event to the politically influenced Venice Film Festival. The Palme d'Or became the most coveted film prize in the world. Cannes attracted Hollywood to the Côte d'Azur: Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier III here (1955), they married in 1956 and made Monaco synonymous with royal glamour.

Brigitte Bardot & Saint-Tropez

In 1956, Roger Vadim filmed "And God Created Woman" (Et Dieu... créa la femme) with Brigitte Bardot in Saint-Tropez. The film turned the sleepy fishing village overnight into a jet set paradise. Bardot still lives in Saint-Tropez (near La Madrague) and is committed to animal welfare.

The Côte d'Azur of Artists

The coast was a magnet for artists in the 20th century:

• Henri Matisse — Lived in Nice for 37 years (1917–1954). "There is such light here!" he said upon his arrival.
• Marc Chagall — Lived from 1966 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where he died in 1985.
• Pablo Picasso — Worked in the Château Grimaldi in Antibes (1946), lived his last years in Mougins (1961–1973).
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir — Spent his last twelve years in Cagnes-sur-Mer (1907–1919). His house and studio are now the Musée Renoir.
• Fernand Léger — Lived in Biot, where the Musée Fernand Léger stands today.

The Côte d'Azur Today

Today, the Côte d'Azur struggles with the downsides of its success: skyrocketing real estate prices, overtourism in summer, traffic chaos, and the tension between glamour and authenticity. But the light is still the same that Matisse painted. The Provençal cuisine is still a feast. And the beauty of the coast — from the cliffs of the Corniche to the bays of Cap d'Antibes to the mountain villages of the hinterland — is timeless.