Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (English: Provence-Alps-Coast of Azure) is one of the administrative regions of France, comprising the departments of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, and Var and parts of the departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse.

Along the seacoast is the French Riviera and the ports of Marseille and Toulon. The modern inhabitants of Provence preserve a distinct regional character, as well as their own language.

Provence was the first Roman province outside Italy, constituted about 120 BC. Originally it stretched across the whole of Southern France from the Alps to the Pyrenees.

After the fall of Rome, the region was fought over by various forces, and it passed successively into the possession of ancient Germanic peoples, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, before being divided between the kingdom of France and the papacy.

In AD 879, the area was incorporated into the kingdom of Provence, sometimes called Cisjurane Burgundy, and in the 10th century into the kingdom of Arles.

After being ruled by the house of Anjou from about 1245 to 1482, the region came into the possession of King Louis XI of France, and in 1486 was annexed to the French Kingdom.

Provence remained a province of France until the French Revolution in the late 18th century, after which France was carved into scores of administrative units called départements. Provence was incorporated into five of these.

In the 1960s, the départements of France were merged into 22 regions, and Provence became part of the region known as Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, whose capital is Marseille.

The Riviera formed part of this region, consisting of a narrow coastal strip that extends along the Mediterranean Sea from Hyères, Var Department, in France, to La Spezia, Liguria region, Italy. The area is famed as a winter resort.

Communities on the French Riviera, also popularly called the Côte d’Azur (Azure Coast), include Saint Tropez, Antibes, Cannes, Nice, Menton, and Monte Carlo (in the principality of Monaco).

Nice and Menton are connected by three scenic highways, running one above the other, along the sheer cliffs of the Maritime Alps.

Protected from the cold winds of the North and East by the Maritime Alps, the Apennines, and the Ligurian Alps, the Riviera has a mild climate, resulting in the growth of such tropical fruits as the pomegranate, banana, and date and such trees as the palm.