MENTONE (Fr. Menton), a town in the department of the Alpes Maritimes in south-east France, on the shore of the Medi terranean, about 15 m. by rail E. of Nice. Pop. (1931) 20,055. Mentone was probably the Lumone of the Itineraries, but no Roman remains exist. After having belonged to the counts of Ventimiglia and a noble Genoese family, it was purchased about the middle of the 14th century by the Grimaldis, lords of Monaco. During the First Republic and the First Empire it belonged to France, but in 1815 it reverted to the prince of Monaco, who sub jected it to such exactions that in 1848 its inhabitants proclaimed the town (with Roquebrune on the west) independent, under the protection of Sardinia. In 186o both Mentone and Roquebrune were purchased by France from the prince of Monaco, and added to the department of the Alpes Maritimes then formed out of the county of Nice, ceded the same year to France by Sardinia. The
town is built in the form of an amphitheatre on a rocky promon tory, which divides its semicircular bay into two portions. Below, along the seashore, is the town of hotels and foreigners, while above, and inaccessible to wheeled vehicles, is that of the native Mentonese, with steep, narrow and dark streets, around the strong castle which was once its protection against pirates. In the old town is the church of St. Michel, partly rebuilt since an earth quake in 1887. Facing south-east, and sheltered on the north and west by mountains, the bay of Mentone has a good climate and is frequented by invalids. The mean for the year is 61° F, while that for the winter is about 46° F. Frost occurs on the average only once in ten years. Mentone has almost tropical vegetation, lemon-trees, olive-trees and pines rise in successive stages on surrounding slopes.