French Riviera
or The Côte d’Azur, is in the département
of the Alpes-Maritimes. It runs along the coast
from the Italian border, through Monaco, and continues
to a point just beyond Cannes and reaches more
than 50km (30 miles) northward into the steep slopes of the
Alps, connecting the balmy coastal region with the ideal
ski resorts of the lower Alps. This part of the Mediterranean
coast has more visitors each year during July and August
than any other part of France, although many of the summer visitors
are French.
The two most famous French resorts, Cannes and
Nice, are to be found in this region and the area
is one of the most renowned resort spots in the world. Over the
centuries, it has attracted a lot more than tourists with artists
like Matisse, Picasso, Chagall and Dufy
heading here. There is an abundance of palm trees, blue sea and
beautiful beaches, sparkling cities and villages are set against
backdrops of high green mountains. The weather is wonderful with
long, sunny and hot summers. There is plenty of diversion here,
especially in the spring, summer and early autumn months.
The coastal resort towns include Cannes, made popular
as a resort by Lord Brougham in the 19th century when, because of
a plague in Nice, he was forced to stop here. Nice,
itself, the largest metropolis on the coast, a thriving commercial
city as well as a year-round resort (the annual carnival and battle
of roses perhaps date back to 350 BC. Napoule Plage,
a small and exclusive resort with several sandy beaches, a marina
and a splendid view of the rolling green Maure Mountains. Golfe-Juan,
now a popular resort town with many expensive mansions and hotels.
Juan-les-Pins, with a neat harbour, beaches and
pine forests in the hills which protect the village from the winds
in both summer and winter. Antibes and Cap
d’Antibes, very popular but expensive resorts, Villefranche-sur-Mer,
a deep-water port which has been used by pleasure yachts and navies
for centuries, St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, an exclusive
and expensive resort consisting of great private mansions and seaside
estates. Beaulieu, much less exclusive, yet a fine
resort town, and Menton near the Principality of
Monaco, once a fishing village and citrus-fruit-producing area,
now a pleasant vacation resort. Despite their reputations, there
is no denying that the beaches at Cannes and Nice
are poor, and many savvy travellers choose to base themselves at
better spots like Antibes, which offers a combination
of historic town centre and accessible, good-quality beaches.
The Côte d’Azur is an extraordinary
playground with every kind of amusement. There are excellent museums,
historic places dating from the pre-Christian era to the present
day, hills, mountains, lakes and rivers, gorges and alpine skiing
trails. The entire area has a generous supply of good, comfortable
hotels as well as luxury châteaux, restaurants with every
sort of food, and good bars everywhere. One of the greatest museums
in the world, the Maeght Foundation, is located
in St-Paul-de-Vence. Picasso, Braque, Matisse
and Léger museums also feature and there
is plenty of beautiful foothill countryside to explore.
Resorts further along the coast from Cannes include
St-Tropez, a terribly crowded, hard to reach yet
fashionable village and popular with the international jet set and
their outrageously expensive yachts, and Port Grimaud.
The ‘Port’, as many residents call
it, sums up many of the worst parts of the Riviera with ostentatious
wealth not making up for a lack of any local input, a dearth of
nightlife beyond ‘British’ pubs and a largely ex-patriate
population. Nearby are St-Raphael, at one time
a Roman resort, and now a comfortable middle-class vacation town,
and its twin resort of Frejus. Grasse,
just north of Cannes, is a charming hilltop town
famed for its perfume. |
