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The Russian community was almost as prominent in Nice as the British in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With the backing of Tsar Nicolas II, this Russian Orthodox cathedral was completed in 1912 as the community’s focal point.

Washerwoman Cathérine led Niçois resistance against the Turkish fleet that besieged the city in 1543. She knocked out the Turkish standard-bearer with her washboard, before lifting her skirts and putting the rest of the Turks to flight. The day was eventually lost, but Cathérine’s statue is in Vieux Nice (see Vieux Nice).

The white battlements of the Château de Tarascon seem straight from a historical romance. Built to guard a vital crossing of the Rhône on Provence’s borders, the riverside castle has steep, crenellated curtain walls between massive round towers and looks impregnable. It was begun by King Louis of Anjou, ruler of Provence in the 15th century, and was completed by his successor, the somewhat extravagant King René. On his death, Provence became part of France (see Union with France) and the castle lost its strategic importance, becoming a prison until 1926 (see La Tarasque, Tarascon).

This offshore island fortress was built in the 16th century to protect the city’s port and was turned into a prison in 1580. Among its inmates were the real Comte de Mirabeau, and the fictional Count of Monte Cristo, the antihero of Alexander Dumas’ novel of the same name (see Alexandre Dumas). The fortress is accessible by ferry from the Vieux Port.

Built as a Grimaldi fortress in 1309, this castle’s battlements dominate the landscape of Hautde-Cagnes. Inside the walls, however, is a wonderful surprise: a sumptuous palace, built in 1620 by Jean Henri Grimaldi. Today it houses a clutch of museums and art collections including a museum of modern Mediterranean art, a museum dedicated to the olive tree, and a collection of portraits of the renowned 1930s chanteuse , Suzy Solidor.

When European nobility took to wintering in Nice, they colonized Cimiez Hill with mansions and hotels. The grandiose Boulevard de Cimiez is, thus, sumptuous with gardens and magnificent villas in styles from Louis XV, to Neo-Gothic, to Oriental. Most impressive of all is the Excelsior Regina Palace, a belle époque masterpiece where Queen Victoria once stayed. Most of the edifices now house apartments, but the opulence remains palpable.

Squatting on a steep-sided crag, high above the narrow valley of the River Durance, the formidable defences of the Citadelle guard one of the strategic gateways to Provence (see Sisteron). Built in the 13th century, the bastions and ramparts, crowned by towers and a graceful chapel, are an awesome piece of military engineering. In summer, they become the venue for the Nuits de la Citadelle, an enchanting festival of music, theatre and dance.

Colette (1873–1954) wrote charmingly of St-Tropez in La Naissance du Jour (1928).

In 1297 François Grimaldi, a supporter of the papacy in the Guelph-Ghibelline feuds which beset 13th-century Italy, seized Monaco and its castle to found the dynasty which still rules there today.

Carvings in the Grotte d’Observatoire in Monaco and paintings in the Grotte Cosquer near Marseille date from as far back as 1 million BC. Between 2500 and 2000 BC, dwellers in the Vallée des Merveilles (see Vallée des Merveilles and Musée des Merveilles) left behind carvings of beasts and human figures.