Page 491 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

Hotel Negresco overlooking the bay of Nice

PROVENCE AND

THE CÔTE D’AZUR

A region of monuments and art, the sun-kissed
Côte d’Azur was decorated by prehistoric peoples,
who painted caves with intricate scenes from their
lives some 22,000 years ago. In the Vallée des
Merveilles, 4,000-year-old petroglyphs were left at
at Mont Bégo, while in Orange and Arles colourful
mosaics and frescoes adorned the public baths,
amphitheatres and coliseums that flourished
across the landscape of Roman Provincia. The
riches of the area drew frequent attacks by
Saracen pirates, who plagued the coast in the 6th
century. As a result, fortified villages such as Eze
were built to withstand raiding parties. From the
17th century, experimental painters began to
trickle into the region, drawn by the magnificent
light and intense colour along the coast, and by
the 1880s, Nice especially had become a hotbed
of Impressionist painters. In the 19th century, rich
Europeans sought winter warmth on the Riviera;
by the 1920s, high society was in residence all
year round, and their elegant villas, casinos
and hotels remain.
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