Alpes-Maritimes (; ; ; ; ) is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it encompasses the French Riviera alongside neighbouring Var. Alpes-Maritimes had a population of 1,128,418 in 2023. Its prefecture (and largest city) is Nice, with Grasse as the sole subprefecture.
Alpes-Maritimes has become one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations in recent decades, featuring renowned cities and towns such as Nice, Grasse, Cannes, Antibes, Menton, Èze, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Sainte-Agnès, as well as numerous alpine ski resorts.France Montagne: Alpes-Maritimes (in French). It also entirely surrounds the Principality of Monaco. The department's inhabitants are called Maralpins (masculine) or Maralpines (feminine) but are more commonly referred to as "Azuréens"; its 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 by The Republicans in the departmental council holds all but two of the 54 seats following the 2021 election.
Geography
Overview The Alpes-Maritimes department is surrounded by the departments of Var in the southwest, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the northwest; Italy to the north and east; and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It surrounds the Principality of Monaco on the west, north and east.
Its topography is very mixed. As its name suggests, most of the department is a constituent part of the overall topographic Alps – including the Maritime 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 from Cannes to Menton, while the larger but sparsely populated mountainous area (light green) is fully rural with the exception of the three large resorts of Valberg (created in 1936), Auron (created in 1937) and Isola 2000 (created in 1971).
Summits and passes The highest point of the department is the Cime du Gélas () on the Franco-Italian border which dominates the Vallée des Merveilles further east. The summit of Monte Argentera is higher at above sea level, but it is located in Italy. There is also Mount Mounier (), which dominates the south of the vast Dôme de Barrot, formed of a mass more than thick of red mudstones deeply indented by the gorges of Daluis and Cians. Except in winter, four passes allow passage to the north of the Mercantour-Argentera massif whose imposing barrier is covered in winter snow which is visible from the coast. From the west, the Route des Grandes Alpes enters the Cayolle Pass () first on the way to the Alps and the sources of the Var in the commune of Entraunes. Then the route follows the Col de la Bonette – the highest pass in Europe at – to connect to the valley of the Tinée then the Ubaye. Further east, the Col de la Lombarde () above Isola 2000 allows access to the shrine of Saint-Anne de Vinadio in Italy. Finally, at its eastern end, the Col de Tende () links with Cuneo in Italy.
Landscape and forest vegetation 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.
The rivers in alphabetical order are:
Aigue Blanche Barlatte Bassera Bendola Bévéra Borrigo Bourdous Bouyon Brague Braisse Braus Cagne Caramagne Carei Castérine Chalvagne Cians Cianavelle Clans Coulomb Estéron Faye Fontanalba Gorbio Gordolasque Guercha Lévensa or Levenza Loup Lubiane Maglia Magnan Malvan Mayola Minière Nieya Oglione Paillon (les Paillons) Raton Réfréi Riou Rioulan Roudoule Roya Siagne Tinée Tuébi Valmasque Var Vésubie Vionène
Climate
It is the climate that made the Côte 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 a Mediterranean climate (rainfall in autumn November and spring February especially, summer drought, mild winter and dry summer). The interior, especially in the north, has a mountain 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 , while the average is only 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 the Menton region, the altitude increases very rapidly inland, so the sea tempers the atmosphere much more: the maximum in summer is on average 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 of snow was measured in Cannes and nearly 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.
Subdivisions
Alpes-Maritimes is divided into two arrondissements: Grasse and Nice, twenty-seven cantons and 163 communes.
As of March 2026, there were seven intercommunalities: One metropolis: Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur. Four agglomeration communities: Communauté d'agglomération de Sophia Antipolis Communauté d'agglomération Cannes Pays de Lérins Communauté d'agglomération du Pays de Grasse Communauté d'agglomération de la Riviera Française Two communautés de communes:
Principal communes
The most populous commune is the prefecture Nice. As of 2023, there are 10 communes with more than 20,000 inhabitants:Populations de référence 2023: 06 Alpes-Maritimes, INSEE
Commune Population (2023) Nice 357,737 Antibes 77,637 Cannes 74,350 Cagnes-sur-Mer 53,354 Grasse 50,970 Le Cannet 41,938 Saint-Laurent-du-Var 32,172 Menton 30,604 Vallauris 29,259 Mandelieu-la-Napoule 21,640
History
The Roman military district of Alpes Maritimae was created by Augustus in 14 BC. It became a full Roman province in the middle of the 1st century AD, with its capital first at Cemenelum (today Cimiez, a suburb north of Nice) and subsequently at Embrun. At its greatest extent in AD 297, the province reached north to Digne and Briançon.
Conquered by the French First Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars, a department of Alpes-Maritimes was first set up in 1793 with different boundaries from those of the modern department. In 1793, Alpes-Maritimes included Monaco (Port Hercules), but not Grasse, which was then part of the department of Var as a historical part of France. In 1805, San Remo (San Rème) was included after the disbandment of the Ligurian Republic. In 1812, the department had three arrondissements with the following cantons:Almanach Impérial an bissextil MDCCCXII, p. 368, accessed in Gallica 24 July 2013 Nice, cantons: Nice (2 cantons), Aspremont, La Brigue, Menton, Monaco, Roquebillière, Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée, Saorge, L'Escarène, Sospel, Utelle and Villefranche-sur-Mer. Sanremo, cantons: Sanremo, Bordighera, Dolceacqua, Pigna, Taggia, Triora and Ventimiglia. Puget-Théniers, cantons: Puget-Théniers, Beuil, Gilette, Guillaumes, Roquestéron, Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée and Villars-sur-Var. The population of the department in 1812 was 131,266, and its area was , covering both present-day Arrondissement of Nice, Principality of Monaco and Province of Imperia.
In 1814, at the close of the Napoleonic Wars, the territory was restored to the Crown of Savoy by the Congress of Vienna.
In 1860 Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, one of the architects of Italian unity with the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, negotiated support for Napoleon III in exchange for Savoy and the County of Nice as set forth in the Treaty 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 by plebiscite. The "Yes" vote for reunification with France was 83.8% of registered voters and 99.2% of votes.Table of Results pages 319 to 320 in La réunion de Nice à la France by Paul Gonnet, Les Éditions du Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya, 2003, 343 pages,
The new department of Alpes-Maritimes consisted of the former County of Nice, divided into an Arrondissement of Nice and an Arrondissement of Puget-Théniers (both arrondissements existed in the former Department (1793–1814)), and a portion of the Var department, which formed the Arrondissement of Grasse. However, the County of Nice did not include Tende and La 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 two arrondissements.
In 1947, in accordance with the Treaty of Paris and as a referendum result favourable to their attachment to France, the communes of Tende and La Brigue (also parts of communes in the high valleys of Vésubie and Tinée: part the commune of Isola) which had not been ceded to France in 1860, were attached to the department.
Heraldry
Administration Politics
Since the end of World War II, Alpes-Maritimes has generally voted to the right. It has nine constituencies for the National Assembly. Following the 2017 legislative election, six constituencies are represented by members of The Republicans (LR) right-wing party and three by members of the La République En Marche! (REM) centrist party. Of the five members of the Senate 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 2022 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen of the National Rally won a plurality in Alpes-Maritimes in the first round; incumbent Emmanuel Macron of La République En Marche! won a majority in the second round.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Alpes-Maritimes experienced corruption problems with its politicians, which led to several criminal convictions, including those of Nice Mayor Jacques Médecin and Cannes Mayor Michel Mouillot, as well as that of Antibes Mayor Pierre Merli, criminally indicted in 1995 for a real estate scam and convicted four years later.
Departmental Council of Alpes-Maritimes