Alpes-Maritimes

The Alpes-Maritimes department is surrounded by the departments of the Var to the south-west and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence to the north-west as well as Italy to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Its topography is very contrasted. As the name suggests, most of the department is a constituent part of the topographical complex of the Alps - especially the Maritime Alps - but it also has the distinction of being a coastal department with its Mediterranean façade. The densely populated coastal area (hatched in red on the map) brings together all the cities in a quasi-continuous conurbation from Cannes to Menton, while the more extensive but sparsely populated mountainous area With the exception of the three major Valberg resorts born in 1936, Auron in 1937 and Isola 2000 in 1971.