Around Nice

How do you drive around Nice?

« On the Riviera everyone drives along the same ten-kilometre strip. You only have to climb to be alone. »

Route verified on 4 August 2026 · We'd rather take the long way round.

Why driving through Nice is such hard work

The Riviera has only two levels. Down below, the coastal roads and the Promenade des Anglais, serving one town after another. Above them, the A8, clinging to the slope. Between the sea and the Préalpes, the usable strip is a few kilometres wide in places.

Everything piles up there: the local traffic of a built-up area running unbroken from Cannes to Menton, the holiday traffic of the season, and the through-traffic to Italy. There is no third parallel road — to leave the corridor, you have to climb.

In practice, La Route Buissonnière keeps you off :

• the A8 and the coastal roads;
• the approach roads and the drive through the Nice built-up area;
• the corniches, crowded in season.

Routing around Nice in three steps

1. Open La Route Buissonnière and enter your start and destination (say, Draguignan → Menton).
2. Add Nice as a city to avoid, or simply let the app route around it.
3. Follow the route: it takes you along the back roads, well clear of the city.

A real example: Draguignan → Menton without the coast

1. Leaving Draguignan, you climb through Figanières and Montferrat towards the plateau at Comps-sur-Artuby, on the edge of the gorges — you leave the plain straight away.
2. You cross the upper Var through Bargème, the highest village in the department, then Valderoure and Peyroules, before dropping to Saint-Auban.
3. You follow the Var valley down through Entrevaux and its citadel, Puget-Théniers, Touët-sur-Var clinging to its cliff, then Villars-sur-Var.
4. You climb again towards Utelle and Lucéram — the high point of the drive at 1,333 m measured — before coming down to Sospel, Castillon and Menton, without ever seeing the A8.

Other drives where going around Nice makes sense : linking the Var to the Alpes-Maritimes without the coast; reaching Italy through the valleys rather than along the shore; climbing towards the Mercantour from inland Provence.

What you get for going around Nice

Two hours more, and you change worlds. From Comps onwards the sea disappears, limestone takes over, and the road starts following the relief instead of forcing it. The villages are perched because they had to be defended: Bargème in ruins on its ridge, Entrevaux shut behind its walls, Touët glued to its rock face. You drive a little slower, you look a great deal more, you wind the window down.

Then the descent to Sospel opens the valleys eastward all at once, with terraced olive groves and, far below, the sea you left behind. You arrive in Menton from above, which is another thing entirely. The road here is no longer time lost — it is already the journey.

Why doesn't La Route Buissonnière go through the centre?

Frequently asked questions

Enter your start and destination in La Route Buissonnière and add Nice as a city to avoid: the route then climbs into the backcountry, through the gorges and the valleys, without using the A8 or the coastal roads.

Because there is no road running parallel to the coast. Between the sea and the Préalpes, the A8 and the shore occupy the only flat strip: going around means climbing and following the valleys. On our Draguignan → Menton example that comes to 90.4 km and 1 hr 59 more, measured on 4 August 2026.

We cannot promise that. The high point of our verified route reaches 1,333 m in the commune of Lucéram, with nearly 3,000 m of total ascent. It is a mountain drive: in winter, equip your vehicle and check road conditions before setting off.

La Route Buissonnière · an independent project, made in France, with no advertising.