| Alpes-Maritimes | |
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| Coat of arms of the Alpes-Maritimes department | |
| Location | |
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| Administration | |
| Department number: | 06 |
| Region: | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur |
| Prefecture: | Nice |
| Subprefectures: | Grasse |
| Arrondissements: | 2 |
| Cantons: | 52 |
| Communes: | 163 |
| President of the General Council: | Christian Estrosi |
| Statistics | |
| Population | Ranked 20th |
| -1999 | 1,011,326 |
| Population density: | 235/km² |
| Land area¹: | 4299 km² |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km². | |
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Alpes-Maritimes (Occitan: Aups Maritims) is a department in the extreme southeast corner of France.
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History
The Romans had a province called Alpes Maritimae 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 department of this name existed in France from 1793 to 1815, but it had different boundaries and included Monaco and San Remo. The present department 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 department of Var. In 1947, the department was enlarged by the addition of the communes of Tende and La Brigue, which had remained Italian after the 1860 annexation.
Geography
The department is surrounded by the French departments 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 area is mountaneous right down to the coast. This Southern area of the Alps is termed the Maritime Alps.
Rivers include the following:
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Economy
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.
Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Maralpins, but are usually referred as Azuréens (inhabitants of the Côte d'Azur) When Nice became French 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 includes Cannes, Grasse, Nice, and Menton, and which constitutes 90% of the total population.
Culture
The Cannes Film Festival attracts wide attention and the cream of the film industry. Juan-les-Pins hosts an annual jazz festival.
Tourism
Tourism in the department 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, skiing, 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.
Trivia
The asteroid 100122 Alpes Maritimes is named in the département's honour, on the occasion of the thousandth discovery made from its territory.
See also
- Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department
- Cantons of the Alpes-Maritimes department
- Arrondissements of the Alpes-Maritimes department
External links
- (English) Alpes-Maritimes Tourism Guide
- (French) Prefecture website
- (French) General council website
- (English) BUSINESS INFO Riviera
- (English) AngloINFO Riviera
- (French) French Riviera directory
- (English) Musical traditions in the Alpes-Maritimes department
- (English) About.com
