Since 1 September 2026, anyone aged 65 or over who lives in the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur can ride the Lignes d’Azur trams and buses for free. The Conseil métropolitain voted it on 9 June, and it applies with no income condition.

It is not automatic, it isn’t quite free, and it stops at the Métropole boundary. Outside those 51 communes the same question gets a different answer in every town.

What the Nice scheme actually gives you

Unlimited travel on the whole Lignes d’Azur network, tram and bus, on a free named subscription, the same one an adult pays €30 a month for.

Two conditions carry over from the paid version. You must hold the subscription on a card and validate every trip, including when you change vehicles. An unvalidated subscriber card is a €10 fine on Lignes d’Azur, free travel or not. And it covers Lignes d’Azur only: not the TER trains, not the buses in Antibes, Cannes or Menton, and not the specially priced lines such as the ski shuttles.

Under-11s were already free across the Métropole on the same registration-and-validate basis, and from the same date the scheme also covers Nice’s prison service staff and the CHU hospital’s staff who live in the Métropole.

How to apply, and what “free” costs

Apply online at senior.lignesdazur.fr, or in a Lignes d’Azur agency, or at one of the extra sales points the network ran from 10 July to 27 September 2026 for the launch. Bring, or upload:

  • Original identity document
  • Proof of an address inside the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur
  • A current-year home insurance certificate (attestation d’assurance habitation)
  • One recent passport-style photo

Then the fees, which is where “free” needs a footnote: €2 to create the named card, €15 a year in administration fees, and €2.80 postage if the card is mailed to you. Budget €15 a year for free transport. That’s still a long way below the €360 a year an adult subscription costs.

Do you qualify if you live outside the Métropole?

No. The condition is residence inside the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, which runs from Cap d’Ail to Cagnes-sur-Mer along the coast and up into the Vésubie and Tinée valleys. Antibes, Cannes, Grasse and Menton are outside it and run their own networks with their own rules.

What Antibes, Cannes, Menton and Monaco do instead

Age thresholds and conditions change from one network to the next, so an offer that applies in Nice may not apply ten minutes down the coast.

NetworkSenior offerWho qualifies
Lignes d’Azur (Nice, Métropole)Free65+, Métropole resident, €15 a year admin
Envibus (Antibes, Sophia Antipolis)Free75+
Palm Bus (Cannes, Mougins, Mandelieu)Free or reduced65+ and resident a year; free only if non-taxable; €9 card
Autobus de MonacoFreeNationals and residents 60+; Monegasque pensioners 65+ in Beausoleil, Cap d’Ail, La Turbie, Roquebrune
Zest (Menton)NoneStandard fares, €38 a month

Two things stand out. Envibus’s threshold is ten years higher than Nice’s. And Palm Bus ties its free pass to tax status, which is assessed through your commune’s CCAS (centre communal d’action sociale, the social services office), so it’s a means test in practice even though Nice’s isn’t.

The trains have no senior fare

The TER along the coast, branded ZOU!, doesn’t offer a senior tariff. The only discount cards are the ZOU! Solidaire, which is means-tested, and the ZOU! Malin at €20 a year, which takes 30% off single tickets at any age. Four return trips to Cannes and it has paid for itself. If you hold a national SNCF Carte Avantage Senior, check the TER Sud site before assuming it’s accepted on regional trains here; the regional card is the one built for this line.

So a Métropole resident over 65 traveling Nice to Antibes still pays the train fare, currently €7 each way, or €4.90 with the Malin card.

What to do if you’re 65 or over and arriving

  1. If your address is inside the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, apply for the free Lignes d’Azur subscription as soon as you have a proof of address. Expect to pay €17 the first year.
  2. Buy a ZOU! Malin card for the train, whatever your age. It’s the only train discount on offer.
  3. If you’re settling in Antibes, Cannes or Menton, read the row for your network above before assuming anything, and for Cannes visit the CCAS rather than the bus office.
  4. Validate every trip, every time. The fine for not doing so is the same on a free subscription as on a paid one.

For how the whole coast’s transport fits together, including the passes that cover every network at once, see our guide to public transport on the French Riviera. It is also worth saving our list of useful and emergency numbers, which covers the out-of-hours doctor line and the number emergency services use to call you back.

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