Alpes-Maritimes has become one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations in recent decades, featuring renowned cities and towns such asNice,Grasse,Cannes,Antibes,Menton,Èze,Roquebrune-Cap-Martin andSainte-Agnès, as well as numerous alpine ski resorts.[4] It also entirely surrounds thePrincipality of Monaco. The department's inhabitants are calledMaralpins (masculine) orMaralpines (feminine) but are more commonly referred to as "Azuréens"; its flag and arms are those of the City of Nice. In terms of politics, Alpes-Maritimes is one of France's most right-wing departments, as the majority led byThe Republicans in thedepartmental council holds all but two of the 54 seats following the2021 election.
Its topography is very mixed. As its name suggests, most of the department is a constituent part of the overall topographic Alps – including theMaritime Alps – but it also has the distinction of being a coastal district with its Mediterranean coast. The coastal area, urbanized and densely populated (shaded in red on the map), includes all the cities in an almost continuous conurbation fromCannes toMenton, while the larger but sparsely populated mountainous area (light green) is fully rural with the exception of the three large resorts ofValberg (created in 1936),Auron (created in 1937) andIsola 2000 (created in 1971).
The highest point of the department is theCime du Gélas (3,143 metres, 10,312 ft) on the Franco-Italian border which dominates theVallée des Merveilles further east. The summit ofMonte Argentera is higher at 3,297 metres (10,817 ft) above sea level, but it is located in Italy. There is alsoMount Mounier (2,817 metres, 9,242 ft), which dominates the south of the vastDôme de Barrot, formed of a mass more than 900 metres (3,000 ft) thick of red mudstones deeply indented by the gorges ofDaluis andCians. Except in winter, four passes allow passage to the north of theMercantour-Argentera massif whose imposing 62-kilometre-long (39 mi) barrier is covered in winter snow which is visible from the coast. From the west, theRoute des Grandes Alpes enters theCayolle Pass (2,326 metres, 7,631 ft) first on the way to the Alps and the sources of theVar in the commune ofEntraunes. Then the route follows theCol de la Bonette – the highest pass in Europe at 2,715 metres (8,907 ft) – to connect to the valley of theTinée then the Ubaye. Further east, theCol de la Lombarde (2,350 metres, 7,710 ft) aboveIsola 2000 allows access to the shrine of Saint-Anne deVinadio in Italy. Finally, at its eastern end, theCol de Tende (1,871 metres, 6,138 ft) links withCuneo in Italy.
The only region of the Alps close to Nice has an afforestation rate of 60.9%, slightly higher than the average of the department and well above the average of 39.4% for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.[5]
It is the climate that made theCôte d'Azur famous. The current department of Alpes-Maritimes, however, does not have only one climate, the complex terrain and high mountains divide the department between those who are well exposed (the south-facing side) and those which are less (the north-facing side) and even with the mild Mediterranean climate there can be violent storms and prolonged droughts.
The coastal area has aMediterranean climate (rainfall in autumnNovember and springFebruary especially, summer drought, mild winter and dry summer). The interior, especially in the north, has amountain climate (winter quite bright, summer storms). Around Cannes is a particularly warm micro-climate due to the high hills warming the air which descends on the city.
One of the attractions of the department is its level of sunshine: over 300 days per year. Despite this the department is also the most stormy of France with an average of 70 to 90 thunderstorm days per year, arising from the differences in temperature due to a warm sea in autumn.
As soon as one moves away from the coast, towards the west of the department, the interior plains (in particular near Grasse) the climate is a little less temperate but just as sunny. In summer, the temperature very easily exceeds 30 °C (86 °F), while the average is only 27 °C (81 °F) along the Nice coast during July and August. Occasional frost is possible in the interior during winter, unlike in Nice and rest of the coast, where frost is very rare.
In the east of the department, unlike the west, there are no plains. In theMenton region, the altitude increases very rapidly inland, so the sea tempers the atmosphere much more: the maximum in summer is on average 25 °C (77 °F) and the winters are milder than in the interior and frost is very rare.
Snow is also rare along the coast, however, it happens that rare snowfall surprises the Côte d'Azur residents (on average every 5–7 years), as was the case in the winter of 2004–2005 when the city of Nice woke up with a few centimetres of snow, often creating traffic problems. More recently, in February 2010, more than 10 centimetres (3.9 in) of snow was measured in Cannes and nearly 30 centimetres (12 in) in the Grasse region.
In the north of the department the climate in the Alps is mountainous, and there is decent snow cover from end of November until late April.
TheRoman military district ofAlpes Maritimae was created byAugustus in 14 BC. It became a fullRoman province in the middle of the 1st century AD, with its capital first atCemenelum (todayCimiez, a suburb north ofNice) and subsequently atEmbrun. At its greatest extent in AD 297, the province reached north toDigne andBriançon.
In 1860Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, one of the architects of Italian unity with theKingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, negotiated support forNapoleon III in exchange forSavoy and theCounty of Nice as set forth in theTreaty of Turin. The annexation was confirmed on 15 and 16 April 1860 by 30,712 male electors enrolled in the 89 communes of the County of Nice who, for the first time, had universal male suffrage byplebiscite. The "Yes" vote for reunification with France was 83.8% of registered voters and 99.2% of votes.[10]
The new department of Alpes-Maritimes consisted of the former County of Nice, divided into anArrondissement of Nice and an Arrondissement ofPuget-Théniers (both arrondissements existed in the former Department (1793–1814)), and a portion of theVar department, which formed theArrondissement of Grasse. However, the County of Nice did not includeTende andLa Brigue, which were still part of Piedmont-Sardinia.
For economic reasons, the Arrondissement of Puget-Théniers was merged into the Arrondissement of Nice in 1926. Since that time, the department has had twoarrondissements.
In 1947, in accordance with theTreaty of Paris and as a referendum result favourable to their attachment to France, the communes ofTende andLa Brigue (also parts of communes in the high valleys of Vésubie and Tinée: part the commune ofIsola) which had not been ceded to France in 1860, were attached to the department.
Argent, an eagle crowned of gules displayed with wings inverted, on a mountain of three hillocks sable issuant from the pointed waves of a sea azure waved in argent.
Since the end ofWorld War II, Alpes-Maritimes has generally voted to the right. It has nine constituencies for theNational Assembly. Following the2017 legislative election, six constituencies are represented by members ofThe Republicans (LR) right-wing party and three by members of theLa République En Marche! (REM) centrist party. Of the five members of theSenate who represent the department in the upper house of Parliament, four are right-wing (LR) and one is left-wing (Socialist Party, PS). Of the 54 departmental councillors, 52 are aligned with the right-wing coalition and two are in the left-wing opposition.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Alpes-Maritimes experiencedcorruption problems with its politicians, which led to several criminal convictions, including those of Nice MayorJacques Médecin and Cannes MayorMichel Mouillot, as well as that of Antibes Mayor Pierre Merli, criminally indicted in 1995 for a real estate scam and convicted four years later.
The coalition majority in the departmental council is one of the largest majorities in any such institution in France. Out of the 54 seats, only two are held by left-wing councillors, both elected in thecanton of Grasse-2. In neighbouringVar, the right-wing coalition also holds all but two seats in the departmental council, although it is made up of fewer seats and the two councillors in opposition are members of the far-rightNational Rally (RN). Following the2021 departmental election, the seats were allocated as follows in Alpes-Maritimes:
In 2011, the draft departmental budget amounted to €1.3 billion of which 498 million (38.3%) was devoted to social action and 346 million to operations (26.6%).[13] Capital expenditures was just over 250 million euros (19.2%).[13]
In 2010, the department was the third most indebted in France with €942 million of debt or 68.4% of the annual budget.[14] This debt amounted to 2,460 euros perfiscal tax unit (household) and 859 euros per person.[14] The trend of change in debt over the last decade has been a sharp increase: + 440% between 2001 and 2009 and 26% between 2009 and 2010.[14] There was only €43 million in debt in 2003.
WhenNice became part of France in 1860, it was still a small town; the department 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 includesAntibes,Cannes,Grasse, Nice, andMenton, and which constitutes 90% of the total population.
The department had 1,083,310 inhabitants in 2017, making it the 20th most populated department in France.[18] There are 163 communes including 107 under 2000 inhabitants (representing a total of 60,065 inhabitants), 38 from 2000 to 9999 inhabitants (total 171,935 inhabitants), 13 between 10,000 and 49,999 inhabitants (total 263,102 inhabitants), 4 between 50,000 and 199,999 inhabitants (Antibes, Cannes, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Grasse, total 248,191 inhabitants), and one with over 200,000 inhabitants (Nice, with 340,017 inhabitants).[18] The population density was 252 inhabitants per square kilometre in 2017.
According to INSEE 39.5% of children born in 2011 in the department of Alpes-Maritimes have at least one parent born abroad (regardless of nationality), 15.4% have a father born inNorth Africa.[19]
The area is also known for its extremely large population of people of Italian descent. About 40% of the population of the Alpes-Maritimes claim their ancestry as being solely Italian, and as many as 80% of the population can trace some degree of ancestry back to Italy before it was annexed by France in the 1860s.[20]
The economy of the Alpes-Maritimes is characterized by the importance of thetertiary sector. The department has, in addition to tourism and traditional services, a relatively high level of corporate research and higher level of services.Agriculture is of little importance andindustry plays a relatively small role although it has diversified into activities with high technological value. The construction and public works sector is quite important. The economy is very sensitive to changes in the national and international situation. The rate of unemployment is 9.1%.
According to the INSEE, in 2005 the GDP per capita of the Alpes-Maritimes was 27,723 euros which ranked it as the thirteenth highest department in France.[21] GDP was 29.6 billion euros.[21] According to Eurostat,GDP per capita at market prices in 2008, the department had a GDP per capita of 30,700 euros, which is also ranked it thirteenth in France.[22]
Tourism is an essential industry for the entire coastal region (Côte d'Azur) and is highly developed. On the coast, thanks to the mild climate, towns areresort destinations all year round. In the mountains, there are winter sports stations that have received abundant snow in recent years, particularlyIsola 2000.
There are also well-developed industries such as theperfume industry inGrasse, new technologies fromSophia-Antipolis, and theaerospace industry in Cannes-Mandelieu, where there is the first European satellite builders[23] and the firstindustrial plant dedicated to spacecraft manufacturing.[24]
The presence of theMediterranean Sea and theFrench Alps under a mild sky has favoured one dominant activity: tourism, which accounts for 64,000 jobs directly in the Alpes-Maritimes. For only the city of Nice the tourism turnover represents a 12 to 13% share of the whole tourism market in France. The capital of theCôte d'Azur is the fifth most populous city in France. The city of Nice also has the second largest airport in France (Nice Côte d'Azur Airport), after Paris and its three airports atRoissy,Orly andLe Bourget. There are nearly 13.5 million passengers per year passing through Nice Airport.
The seaside where the majority of the population resides is one of the most popular parts of the world with many attractions:
Book Festival ofMouans-Sartoux, three days in early October (21st Festival in 2008)
This Is Not Classic, an annual event[26] for classical music, created by the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes[27] in 2005. It takes place at the Acropolis convention centre in Nice and occupies all available rooms beginning with the large auditorium seating 2,400 people.
The department has 222 nursery schools, 357 primary schools and one special school. It also hosts 72 colleges, 14 vocational schools and 22 high schools, to which must be added 65 private schools.
Higher education is relatively underdeveloped in the department. The urban area of Nice has 35,000 students,[28] whileRennes andBordeaux each have 60,000.
A campus of theParis Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) was established inMenton in October 2005. The Menton campus is dedicated to the relationship between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean and the relationship of Europe with the Middle East.
Several engineering schools are also located inSophia Antipolis:
Eurecom (School of Engineering and Research Center in communication systems)
^Table of Results pages 319 to 320 inLa réunion de Nice à la France by Paul Gonnet, Les Éditions du Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya, 2003, 343 pages,ISBN9782914603102(in French)
The Heritage of the Communes of Alpes-Maritimes in two volumes, Flohic Éditions, collective work, volume I, Cantons of Antibes to Levens, January 2000, Paris, 504 pages,ISBN2-84234-071-X, Jean-Luc Flohic(in French).
The Heritage of the Communes of Alpes-Maritimes in two volumes, Flohic Éditions, collective work, volume II, Cantons of Menton to Villefranche-sur-Mer, January 2000, Paris, 574 pages,ISBN2-84234-071-X, Jean-Luc Flohic, p. 505 to 1079(in French).
Rural Architecture of Alpes-Maritimes, Édisud, Philippe de Beauchamp, 1992, Aix-en-Provence, 140 pages,ISBN2-85744-612-8, Photographer Loîc-Jahan(in French).
Religious Art in Alpes-Maritimes, Édisud, Philippe de Beauchamp, 4th Quarter 1993, Aix-en-Provence, 144 pages,ISBN2-85744-485-0, Photographer Loîc-Jahan(in French).
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