French Riviera

The Côte d’Azur, that stretch of the French Riviera from Cassis in the west to Menton in the east, already was a destination in the 18th century. Aristocrats wintered here to escape the cold of their homelands. From the mid-19th century onwards, trains linked this part of southern France to Paris, but it was the Blue Train, Le Train Bleu, which clinched the Riviera’s reputation as the playground of the wealthy. Connecting with the British cross Channel ferry, it ran from Calais all the way south. Railway posters advertising destinations like Juan les Pins, Antibes, Nice and Monte-Carlo are vivid mementoes of that time.