The Tourism Boom & Belle Époque
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.