Located to the southwest of Nice and to the northwest of Antibes in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region of southeastern France, Sophia Antipolis is not your typical French community! A modern technology park, Sophia Antipolis was created in the 1970s and 80s. Today it is home to a wide variety of companies, mainly in the electronics, biotechnology, pharmacology and computing fields, as well as to the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web, known as W3C.

The park is named for Sophie Glikman-Toumarkine, the wife of famed French Senator Pierre Laffitte, and Antipolis, the ancient Greek name for the city of Antibes. It is a perfect stop on any road trip through the region, so consider reserving a rental car and hitting the Autoroute. The community of Valbonne, for example, is a historic old town in the area, and is located to the northwest of Sophia Antipolis.