is a ''
Département '' in the extreme southeast corner of
France .
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 ''
Commune s'' of
Tende and
La Brigue , which had been Italian.
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 .
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 .
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.
The
Cannes Film Festival attracts wide attention and the cream of the film industry.
Juan-les-Pins hosts an annual jazz festival.
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.
