Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur History

Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur is a major touristic center for French and foreigners. But how has it become a world wide center for festivals and holidays. This a short summary of the regions history that should help us understand its origins...

The Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur region is a major prehistoric site. In fact, several million years B.C. the Region was inhabited by man. Three aeras, traces of human activity, can be emphasized: 400,000 years B.C. the first homes were built around the beaches of Terra Amata in Nice.

The Ligurian Celts were the first inhabitants, the evidences: dolmens and castellaras revealed by archaeology. And 600 years B.C. the Phocaeans set up home in Marseille and settled Antipolis and Nikkaia, now Antibes et Nice.

Land of welcome and diversity, the PACA region is multicultural with its population of all the Mediterranean Basin. Between Alps and the Mediterranean, the region offers magnific landscapes: gorges, national and regional parks and peacks culminating at a height of 3000 meters in the Italian border. The olive trees, orchards and vines lie alongside the first French microelectronic complex.

Not only does tourism be the economic tenet of the Paca region but also high technology, biotechnology, microelectronic... Various universities, international schools, preparatory classes for specialist university courses, engineering, and business schools... all these institutes of higher learning help contribute to the human capital needed on the Region to meet current technological challenges.