Green Mobility Guide
Nice - Sophia Antipolis - Cannes - Mentón
Tips & Recommendations
Urban rail
Name of the company
In France, the train network is divided into several regions, which are served by the Regional Express Transport (TER) trains. These are based in a particular area, run regularly, and enable one to travel inexpensively between different cities in the region. The Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur has established the Zou card, which allows one to obtain reduced fares on TER lines. Monthly, annual, and other subscriptions are offered to reduce your costs. For itineraries, schedules, and stations, go to the website of the Société Nationale de Chemin de Fer – SNCF.
Website
Ticket prices
Nice- Antibes €5.70 (if no reduction are applied)
Student prices and/or seasonal tickets:
- 15 euros per year, discounts are available for young (<26 years old): “ZOU! 50-75% – de 26 ans”
- 50% discount on all your TER trips in the South Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. Your accompanying persons (3 maximum) benefit from this discount
- 75% discount on your preferred route: 10 tickets to use within 4 months.
Bus and Tram
Lignes d’Azur
Lignes d’Azur is the public transit agency, which provides the bus and tram routes in Nice and several neighboring cities (except Saint Laurent du Var).
Ticket prices
- Solo ticket costs €1.70 for a trip with a free transfer allowed within 74 minutes as long as the trip continues in the same direction and isn’t a round trip.
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The Tramway lines 2 and 3 provide a free link between Terminal 2, Terminal 1” station. Less than 500 metres apart, a dedicated pedestrian walkway takes 7 minutes to reach the station from Terminal 1.
- Monthly or annual pass. For frequent trips on the Lignes d’Azur network, it’s more economical to buy a monthly or annual pass. The cost depends on the individual’s situation, e.g. student. To search trip itineraries, recharge passes, and find route schedules, consult the Lignes d’Azur site.
Envibus
Envibus is the public transit agency for Antibes and its surroundings. They also have buses going to Sophia Antipolis.
Ticket prices
- A single ticket costs 1 €, and a ten-ride pass is 8 €.
- In Cannes, Palmbus has slightly higher prices, costing 1 € 50 for a single ride and 12 € for a 10-ride pass. As for the Lignes d’Azur and Envibus, it is possible to consult routes and schedules and to plan a trip on the Palmbus site.Nice and surroundings, Solo ticket: 1 € 50 or for 10-ride tickets: 10 € Antibes and surroundings: single ticket costs 1 €, and a ten-ride pass is 8 € Cannes: Single ticket costs 1 € 50 and 12 € for a 10-ride pass
- Student prices and/or seasonal tickets: Nice and surroundings: Free travel on Saturdays and Sundays on the metropolitan public transport network for 18 – 25 year olds. To benefit from this offer: Go to the Lignes d’Azur sales office of your choice (or to a Mobile Agency) to create your Lignes d’Azur card including the Free Weekend Pass. Pay €8 on the spot for the application fee. Illimited travels on Ligne d’Azur network excepted special services: 145€ per year or 20€/month + €8 on the spot for the application fee. Antibes and surroundings: No student prices available but several cards/options are available. Cannes: For young <26 year old: Unlimited travel throughout the PALM BUS network for one year from the 1st validation. 126€/year or 21€/month + 9€ fees (Establishment of a nominative card with photo required).
Palm Bus Cannes
As for the Lignes d’Azur and Envibus, it is possible to consult routes and schedules and to plan a trip on the Palmbus site.
Ticket prices
In Cannes, Palmbus prices cost 1.70 € for a single ride and 13.30 € for a 10-ride pass.
Public bicycle rentals
- Nice and surroundings: Métropole NCA | Le réseau cyclable
- Sophia Antipolis Agglomeration (Itinéraires “La CASA à vélo” – Communauté d’Agglomération Sophia Antipolis
- Cannes city Vélo
Self-service bicycle rental
Nice and surroundings: Electric (e-Velo Bleus) or non-electric (Vélos Bleus) self-service bicycle rental.
Vélos Bleus (Nice and surroundings)
For those who like to feel free and don’t like public transport so much, the city of Nice has put in a Vélo Bleu network, where everyone can rent a bicycle at a self-service bike station, provided one has a mobile telephone and a credit card to pay at the rental terminal. A bicycle can be rented at and returned to any of the more than 175 stations of the network in Nice.
Ticket prices: Several subscription options are available. For example, a year’s subscription costs 25 € plus the fee for the use of the bicycle (the first 30 minutes are free, 1 hour = 1 €, and each additional hour is 2 €). 15 € annual registration for Lignes d’Azur subscribers. The first 45 minutes of use are free. Consult the Vélo Bleu site to register and for information on the network and bicycle availability.
E-vélobleu
100% electric self-service bicycle rental system offered by the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis. Nice and surroundings. The perimeter now extends to 6 municipalities: Cagnes-sur-Mer, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Available 24/7, the e-Velobleu are made available to users (over 14 years old) via a dedicated application. The handling and return of these e-Vélobleu is done in public parking areas for bicycles. Ticket prices: Subscription: 40€/year + plus the fee for the use of the bicycle : the first 30 minutes are free, the additional 30 minutes = 1,50 €. Free for students, apprentices, under 25s and over 65s. (Subject to validation of the supporting documents (identity card, student card, apprenticeship certificate) to be transmitted from the mobile application or by mail or to be given in an agency.) Or 10€/year for Vélobleu, Lignes d’Azur or TER subscribers. Sophia Antipolis Agglomeration. Borrow a free e-bike for 2 weeks to test your home-work trips, it’s possible at the CASA du Vélo! Test de Vélo à Assistance Electrique (VAE) – Communauté d’Agglomération Sophia Antipolis (agglo-sophiaantipolis.fr)
Bicycle parking: Getting around by bike also means having the possibility to park it safely as soon as you need it. The devices are generalized on the CASA, adapted to all situations: short-term parking, longer-term parking, intermodality…
Le stationnement – Communauté d’Agglomération Sophia Antipolis (agglo-sophiaantipolis.fr)
Bicycle shops for purchases and reparations
- Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis. The city of Nice has an important network of cycle paths which is constantly expanding. This is why more and more fans of this means of transport use it for their outings.
- Bicycle Rental. Getting Around Nice Easily and Ecologically (nicetourisme.com)
Bicycle Reparations in Nice surroundings
- Repair and inflation stations have been set up: Métropole NCA | Services vélo (nicecotedazur.org). On the south sidewalk of the Promenade des Anglais, at the Level of the Congress Bicycle Tunnel; at the corner of Bottero Street and Gambetta Boulevard; At the Gare du Sud; at the Nice Thiers bike room; at the Grand Arénas bike room, which will open in November.
- Co-repair workshops: Association CYCLOTROPE: Vélo école, Vélo École Cyclotrope. The association is providing several mobile events including: co-reparation workshops in Nice and surroundings with Nice city and the House of Environnement (Maison de l’environnement), as well as the implementation of bike school actions for different audiences such as the creation of awareness-raising, information and training workshops, the animation of maintenance & repair workshops, the creation and use of machines derived from bicycles, the recycling, recovery and transformation of bicycles, artistic creations related to the bicycle; Association VIAVELO, 16 Rue d’Italie, 06000 NICE. The Viavélo association is an associative workshop where members learn how to repair and maintain their bicycle; Association NICE A VELO, organizes some information and training workshops; Association CHOISIR LE VÉLO. Sophia Antipolis agglomeration. With 3 branches, the association Choisir Le Vélo aims to promote the use of bicycles on a daily basis throughout the West of the Alpes-Maritimes. Participatory workshops (where you can come and buy, donate, maintain and repair your bikes), bicycle scholarships, bicycle school, advice to local authorities… The activities of Choisir Vélo are numerous.
- Companies which offer mobile repair workshop for individuals: Bike repair center (VL); SR bike – Vélo itinerant; Goth your bike; BIKE ON – Atelier vélo mobile; O2 Roues – Atelier vélo mobile; Vintage Queen Bike Repair; Mecavelo; Cyclofix; Atelier vélo riviera.
Carpooling
There are some carpooling companies such as a Blablacar and Naveco. Additionally, there are some self-service rental of electric vehicles on the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis (Mobilize Transports et stationnement Locations de voitures Nice Côte d’Azur (nicetourisme.com). Also, you can check out
There are numerous actions in several associations in the cities: Zero Waste associations, permaculture associations, local recycling structures: “la Recyclerie des Moulins”, la “Ressourcerie”, la Maison de l’environnement.
There are current programs & actions related with the SDO at Université Côte d’Azur:
To participate in a more sustainable and eco-responsible society, created in 2018, the University Côte d’Azur eco-responsible mission. This mission aims to support changes in individual, collective, then organisational and institutional behaviours in the face of societal and environmental challenges.
The activities of the eco-responsible mission also aim to make our campuses participatory and collaborative experimentation sites, where concrete solutions will be co-created and tested in order to be deployed more widely if they give satisfaction.
These are the initiatives and ecological workshops deployed throughout the year:
- Green and Fun. Participatory and fun workshops aimed at raising awareness of zero waste and the 5R rules, solidarity and eco-responsible gestures (the essentials to consume differently, daily tips to preserve food well, economic, ecological and flavor-rich festivals, tips for an economic and ecological daily life, composting and vermicomposting, digital detox). The workshops are offered by theme (face-to-face or video) and/or on stands on campuses.
- Climate Change Workshops (support in measuring the individual carbon footprint and help in proposing solutions, “fresque du climat” workshops,..)
- Gratiféria (free markets, aimed at offering a second life to our objects while promoting solidarity and sharing, these gratiférias are “normally” deployed 4 times a year for a week on campuses)
- Do It Yourself workshops. Making sustainable and useful objects from common waste on campuses and at home: sewing and upcycling; DIY: cartons and pallets; arts and waste (raising awareness through artistic projects) , Punch” actions such as zero butt/waste operations
- Zero-Waste Festival (June 2019) with the aim of presenting the actions of local institutional, individual and associative actors around a friendly and festive day while offering participants to test and familiarize themselves with concrete actions. The first edition was sponsored by singer Charlie Winston, and more than 250kg of unsold goods were recovered and revalued during the salad with renowned chef Thomas Hubert.
Implementation of concrete circular projects and experimentation: (experiment- inspire- federate- share):
- Composting sites on campuses run by the mission’s civic services and the university’s master composter. Establishment of a vermiculture farm and individual vermicomposting. These projects (action research) are done in connection with training in biology, communication, design, electronics (study of the biodiversity of composters, specific experimentation: composting based mainly on the use of black soldier flies, composting citrus fruits or going against preconceived ideas) Awareness workshops are offered, in connection with DIY workshops (pallets for example). A longer-term objective is to be able to offer this training to the general public and to offer professional training.
- Establishment of productive and perennial participatory gardens with high biodiversity, inspired by the principles of permaculture. (garden-forest model while maintaining a possible vegetable culture). One of the sites produces the seedlings from seeds recovered and preserved in previous years, part of which feeds a seed library on a campus. Garden workshops are offered on a recurring basis on the sites as well as a permaculture formation (introduction to permaculture, design, understanding and analysis of soils, the basics of installing a garden or a small space, care of plants by plants, and other thematic workshops: basketry, manufacture of passive water diffusion system from ceramic). Projects for incubators on campuses and urban forests are being studied.
New circular economy model. Revalorization of communication media (event tarpaulins) locally and on demand for the manufacture of durable and useful everyday objects for individuals (university community, laboratories and structures ..). The university generates many communication media that often have a single or limited use. By recovering them, prototypes (tote bags, sports bags, individual bins, laundry basket, kit, computer pouch, seats,…) could be made and validated within the eco-responsible mission, the objective is now to create student employment for the realization of these objects locally and on demand, making it possible to finance new projects in the long term while controlling costs, to replace part of the goodies of the university, to strengthen the feeling of belonging and cohesion, to inspire and transmit and train in concrete examples of circular economy.
In addition, “repair coffee” (place of co-repair, transmission and sharing) in association with Fablab will be created in the 1st quarter of 2022, as well as a low-tech laboratory.
Several training courses are offered several times a year:
- climate change and low-carbon transition
- Introduction to permaculture principles
- Mobility Campus, Action!
- Sustainable food
- Composting and vermicomposting
In addition, the eco-responsible mission is working on other major themes with its territorial partners:
- Encourage the use of soft mobility (establishment of infrastructures, work on a territorial network, mobilization program: co-repair workshops, workshops put back in the saddle, help with the creation of a student association (recovery, rehabilitation and “rental in the semester” or “loan” of bicycles for students and staff, entertainment program), etc.). These actions are co-constructed within the framework of the Agir Ensemble label with territorial partners (UCA, Métropoles, CROUS Nice Toulon, associations)
- Sustainable food on campuses
Welcome Guide
Université Côte d’Azur combines a wealth of skills, spirit of innovation, diversity of the courses on offer, strong student support, professional immersion, among others.
It has more than 300 courses on offer, 21 faculties, 14 campuses and over 33 000 students, 20% of them are international students.
Labeled «Initiative d’excellence», Université Côte d’Azur is one of France’s top 10 research-intensive universities.
The campuses are located across the French Riviera. Nice, Cannes, Menton, Sophia Antipolis are all sites that promote an intense, welcoming and fulfilling living environment.
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