Lignes d'Azur and Zou! bus guide for the French Riviera

The tram gets you across Nice, and the coastal train gets you along the shoreline from Cannes to Menton. Neither one reaches a hillside village fifteen minutes off that line, and that’s where the bus comes in. Two separate networks share the job: Lignes d’Azur inside the city and its suburbs, and Zou! across the wider Alpes-Maritimes. Knowing which one to use, and when the bus is genuinely your only sensible option, saves a lot of wasted planning.

Two networks, one gap to fill

Lignes d’Azur is the metropolitan network for Nice and the towns immediately around it. It works alongside the tram, covering streets and neighbourhoods the two tram lines don’t touch, and it runs frequently enough during the day to use casually, the way you’d use city buses anywhere.

Zou! is a different, regional system, run at the level of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region rather than the city. It links Nice to towns and villages right across the Alpes-Maritimes department, including places the TER coastal train never reaches because they simply aren’t on the coast. Service on these regional routes is noticeably thinner than in the city: some village connections run only a handful of times a day, and even less at weekends or outside term time.

We won’t quote specific line numbers here. Bus numbering on both networks is revised often enough that a number printed today can be wrong within a season; check the current Lignes d’Azur or Zou! app or website for the live route and timetable before you travel.

Lignes d’Azur: getting around Nice itself

Inside Nice, the bus fills in what the tram misses. The two tram lines run in straight corridors across the city and out to the airport; the bus network covers the streets in between, the residential hills, and the outer suburbs of the metropolitan area. If you’re staying somewhere in Vieux-Nice or near Place Masséna, you’ll rarely need a bus. If you’re staying further out, in a quieter residential neighbourhood covered in our guide to where to stay in Nice, a bus route is often the missing link to the centre.

A few practical uses worth knowing:

• Reaching Mont Boron or the hills above Nice, where the tram doesn’t climb.
• Getting to outer neighbourhoods and suburbs not directly on a tram line.
• Shorter hops within the metropolitan area that would otherwise mean a long walk or a taxi.

Ticketing and fares for Lignes d’Azur are separate from the regional Zou! system, so don’t assume one ticket or pass covers both. Check current fares before you travel, since they’re adjusted periodically.

Zou!: reaching villages and towns without a train

This is where the bus earns its place in a Riviera trip. The Alpes-Maritimes hinterland is full of villages worth a visit, and most of them have no railway station at all. Zou! regional buses are the practical link between Nice and this hillside world.

Typical uses for Zou! buses include:

• Reaching a perched village behind Nice that isn’t served by train — the hinterland is thick with these, and only a few, like the villages directly on the Nice–Tende line through the Roya valley, have rail access.
• Connecting towns that sit on different transport corridors and aren’t linked by a direct train.
• Getting closer to trailheads for hiking around the Mercantour foothills, where a bus can cover the approach before you’re on foot.

Because service to smaller villages is limited, sometimes just a few departures a day, always check the timetable both ways before setting out. Missing the last bus back from a small village with no taxi stand is a real, costly problem, not a minor inconvenience.

When the bus becomes your only reasonable option

Most of the time on this coast, the train and tram cover the obvious moves, and a guided day trip removes the transport question entirely. The bus becomes genuinely necessary, rather than just an option, in a specific set of cases:

A hinterland village with no train station. The Riviera’s perched villages sit largely off the rail line. If you want to reach one independently, on your own schedule, without joining an organised excursion or renting a car, Zou! is usually the only way in.

A cross-connection between two places not on the same line. The coastal train runs along the shore; a connection between an inland town and another inland or coastal point that isn’t a straight line along the coast often has no direct train option, and the bus fills that gap.

Getting the last stretch to a trailhead. For some hikes and outdoor routes around the hinterland, described in our guide to outdoor adventures around Nice, a bus covers the approach from the nearest larger town before the walking starts.

Travelling without renting a car but wanting flexibility beyond the coast. If driving in Nice doesn’t appeal, and neither does the cost or hassle of a car for a short trip, the bus network is what extends your reach past the coastal train corridor, even if it asks for more patience with timetables.

In all of these cases, weigh the bus’s limited frequency against the alternative: an organised excursion that handles the whole route for you, or a rental car for a full day covering several stops, as outlined in our guide to renting a car on the French Riviera.

Bus vs the other options: a quick comparison

Option	Best for	Limitation
Lignes d’Azur (city bus)	Getting around Nice off the tram lines	Metropolitan area only
Zou! (regional bus)	Hinterland villages and towns without a train	Low frequency, especially at weekends
Tram	Central Nice, the Promenade des Anglais corridor, the airport	Two fixed lines, no reach into the hills
TER coastal train	Coastal towns from Cannes to Menton and beyond	Nothing off the coastal line
Rental car	Multi-village hinterland days, off-timetable travel	Parking and driving in central Nice is hard
Organised day trip	Villages and sights in one planned route	Fixed schedule, less independence

Tickets and practicalities

Buy Lignes d’Azur tickets on board, at machines, or through the network’s app before travelling; the same applies to Zou! regional tickets, sold through their own separate system. Don’t assume a ticket bought for one network works on the other — check current terms before you set off, since fares and passes are revised from time to time. Neither network requires advance booking; the constraint is the timetable, not availability, particularly on the thinner regional routes into the hinterland.

Carry a little patience for regional buses: unlike the tram or the coastal train, they aren’t built around a tight, predictable frequency. Build in extra time either side of a hinterland village visit, and always confirm your return departure before you arrive, ideally with the timetable saved offline in case signal is patchy in a small village.

If your day includes a stretch that a guided tour covers more simply, that’s worth weighing against a bus connection with a long wait. For a Provence day trip or a hinterland outing where timetables are tight, a day trip such as Depuis Nice a Day in Provence handles the transport end to end. For getting around central Nice itself without worrying about tram or bus stops, a guided city tour such as Nice an Official Guided Tour or a Nice: Guided Segway Tour covers the same ground the city bus would, with none of the timetable-watching.

A realistic hinterland day without a car

Say you want to spend a day in the hills behind Nice, away from the coast. A workable, honest plan looks like this: take a Zou! bus out to a hinterland village in the morning, when service is at its most frequent, allow generous time for the visit, and confirm the return departure the moment you arrive rather than after lunch. Villages like those covered in our roundup of the best perched villages of the French Riviera reward an unhurried visit, but the bus schedule, not your own pace, sets the limit on how long you can stay.

If your plan involves more than one hinterland stop in a single day, the bus timetable will likely fight you: connections between smaller villages are thin, and a missed link can cost hours. That’s the point where a rental car, or a structured itinerary like our perched villages road trip, makes more sense than trying to stitch together regional buses.

Where the bus fits into a wider Riviera trip

None of this replaces the tram for central Nice, or the train for the coast — see our guides to the Nice tram and the French Riviera by train for those. The bus is specifically the tool for what those two don’t cover: neighbourhoods off the tram lines within Nice, and villages and towns off the rail line everywhere else in the Alpes-Maritimes. For a wider view of how all these pieces fit together, our overview of getting around the French Riviera lays out the full picture, and our French Riviera on a budget guide covers how public transport, buses included, keeps costs down compared with taxis or car hire.

Frequently asked questions about Lignes d’Azur and Zou! buses

Do I need the bus if I already have the tram and the train?

Only for places the tram and train don’t reach. The tram covers central Nice and the airport, and the TER coastal train covers stops from Cannes to Menton and on to Vintimille. Everything off that coastal line, including most perched villages and inland valleys, is reached by bus or by car.

Which network do I use to get around Nice itself?

Lignes d’Azur, the metropolitan network. It covers the city and nearby suburbs with frequent daytime service, and it works alongside the tram rather than competing with it.

Which network do I use to reach a village without a train station?

Zou!, the regional network run by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. It links Nice to towns and villages across the Alpes-Maritimes department, including hinterland villages that have no rail connection at all.

Can I buy one ticket that works on both networks?

Fares and passes differ between the metropolitan Lignes d’Azur network and the regional Zou! network, and they are not always interchangeable. Check current fares and validity before travelling, since they are revised from time to time.

Is the bus a good way to reach Monaco or Cannes?

The train is faster and simpler for Monaco and Cannes, since both sit directly on the coastal TER line. The bus becomes the better option for places the train doesn’t serve, such as hinterland villages or connections between towns that aren’t on the same rail line.

How often do regional Zou! buses run to hinterland villages?

Service to smaller villages is far less frequent than city buses or the coastal train, often just a handful of departures a day, sometimes fewer at weekends or outside the school year. Always check the return time before setting out, since missing the last bus back can mean an expensive taxi.

Do I need to book bus travel in advance?

No booking is needed for either network; tickets are bought on board, at machines, or through the relevant network’s app before travelling. Availability isn’t the issue, timing is: some hinterland routes only run a few times a day.

Is renting a car better than relying on buses in the Riviera hinterland?

For a single village visit reachable by bus, the bus works fine and removes any parking hassle. For a hinterland itinerary covering several villages in one day, or travel outside the limited bus timetable, a car gives far more flexibility.