French Riviera

Located on the French coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the French Riviera (Côte d'Azur ) has the glitz and glamour rivaled by few places on earth.

Coast Edit

Inland Edit

And also:

• Napoleon Trail

Get in Edit

The Riviera is well served with roads, railways and Nice Airport is one of the busiest in France.

If you are travelling by car then you should probably arrive using the A8 motorway from Aix-en-Provence or from Italy. The French department name for this region is Alpes Maritimes and the back country is extremely hilly. Driving from Geneva, Avignon or Turin as the crow flies is extremely scenic - however it is also mountainous, slow and not for those who suffer from car-sickness.

If there are no strikes then major towns such as Cannes and Nice are also served by express trains from Paris as well as (for Nice) trains from Genoa and other places in Italy. Due to competition from the European Discount Airlines such as Easyjet, SNCF (the French Railways) often offer very cheap fares from northern France

Get around Edit

The Riviera has an adequate bus and train service. Most towns and villages also have taxis. However if you intend to do a lot of sightseeing as opposed to just lying on the beach then you should probably have your own vehicle, despite the dangers of driving here.

By car Edit

Driving a car on the Riviera is only for the brave, the region has one of the worst accident records in France (which is saying something) and every local has his or her favourite story about a mad driver. At vacation times the driving situation is exacerbated by the hordes of tourists from different countries who have completely different driving styles.

The primary artery is the A8 Autoroute which stretches from the Italian border (there is an Italian Autostrada the other side) to Aix/Marseille. The A8 stays close to the coast from Cannes to Italy, west of Cannes it heads more inland with a spur down to Toulon. Between Cannes and Italy there are a number of "Penetrantes" - that is roads that penetrate inland from the A8 towards (and through) the mountains. Apart from the penetrantes and the A8 most roads are narrow, very curvy and hilly when inland and extremely crowded when by the coast. It can be very pleasant to drive these roads as part of a tour but if speed is required it is generally quicker to take the indirect route using the A8.

One additional feature of the roads of this region is that the builders seem to like roundabouts (traffic circles). This leads to two problems - firstly there seem to be a considerable number of people who seem unable to grasp the concept and do unexpected things such as reversing and secondly many of them are wrongly cambered which means that if you take them too fast you end up skidding off the side.

If you drive into Monaco you can in fact drive most of the Grand Prix circuit but do NOT try racing it - the Monaco police do not have a sense of humour. On the way to Monaco you can drive the roads where James Bond has exciting encounters with Russian secret agents and where Princess Grace died.

Although the police are cracking down on drunk drivers, many drivers especially late on Friday night are clearly less than 100%. Driving defensively is a really good idea.

Finally The French government is introducing speed cameras around France there are a few cameras along the highway.

By train Edit

There is one main line from Italy via Monaco/Nice/Cannes and then off towards Marseille. If you must visit Cannes during the Film Festival or Monaco during the Grand Prix then it is strongly advised to take the train from some station a little distance away. The train gets you into the middle of the action and you don't have to find a parking space or battle with 50,000 other people trying to get down the limited access routes. Unfortunately this does not work if you wish to visit St. Tropez because there is no train to it.

In addition to the mainline there are two scenic branch lines - from Nice to Cuneo and Nice to Digne. In 2005 the branch line from Cannes to Grasse has reopened. This will be especially convenient for people who wish to avoid driving into Cannes.

By bus Edit

There is no unified bus network. Rather there is a hodgepodge of routes and information can be hard to come by on the internet. Probably the best place to start is at [1]

Talk Edit

The Riviera makes much of its living through tourism, thus people are generally willing to communicate in English - particularly in the most touristy areas. Indeed in the foreign bars and restaurants the waiters and sometimes the managers are native English speakers. However service tends to be better if you try to use French. If it is really fractured then quite often people will take pity on you.