CAP D’AIL

Situated at the gateway to Monaco, this coastal town is at the foot of the Tête de chien
and stretches to the seaside.

It was Baron de Pauville, founder of the "Petit Niçois", who was the first to give Cap d'Ail its real boom from 1879 onwards. After 1880, when the road from Nice to Monaco was definitively opened to traffic, Cap d'Ail saw its fame grow considerably and its heritage enriched by new operations born of Tourism.

Some, aware of the rising value of the "resort", had magnificent villas built there overlooking the sea. It was the period of the Lumière Brothers (Villa Lumière), Cécile Sorel, Colette, the exiled Russian Princes, Sacha Guitry (villa Les Funambules), Lord Beaverbrook (villa La Capponcina) who invited Winston Churchill, the Mirasol villa which welcomed Josephine Baker, the villa La Rondine frequented by the jet-set Greta Garbo, Princess Grace of Monaco, Jean Claude Pascal and Soraya...

For lovers of walks, Cap d'Ail offers magnificent paths between the sea and the mountains of rare beauty.