Three corniche roads run east from Nice to the independent principality of Monaco and to Menton, the last town of the French Riviera. Napoléon built the Grande Corniche on the route of the Romans' Via Julia Augusta, and the Moyenne Corniche dates from the first quarter of the twentieth century, when aristocratic tourism on the Riviera was already causing congestion on the lower, coastal road, the Corniche Inférieure. The upper two are the classic location for executive car commercials, and for fatal car crashes in films. Real deaths occur too – most notoriously Princess Grace of Monaco, who died on the Moyenne Corniche.Buses take all three routes; the train follows the lower corniche, and all three are superb means of seeing the most mountainous stretch of the Côte d'Azur. Staying in a hotel anywhere between Nice and Menton is expensive; it makes more sense to base yourself in Nice and treat these routes as pleasure rides.
Pages in section ‘Corniches’: Corniche Inférieure, Moyenne Corniche, Grande Corniche.
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