With its long history and a strong presence of the modern arts, Vence is the perfect destination for a walk through the Provencal countryside It would be silly to say that if you have seen one Riviera hilltop town, you have seen them all. No, worse than silly: unfair and, above all, ungrateful for the…
On country walk from St Paul-de-Vence to Vence, you can experience three different flavours of the fabled French “South” and get a taste of Provence. One of the French things that foreigners often struggle with is the fine distinction between the different regions in “the South”, a large area sometimes misunderstood as a single cultural…
If you blink at the wrong moment on your Riviera train journey, you may miss it, but that would be a loss and a pity We first discovered Cervo about a year ago when our train journey to some other place down the Italian Riviera had been interrupted, falling rocks having damaged the tracks, and…
With a trip to the Jardin Exotique, you always win Monaco mainly consists of concrete, and the few green spaces that you come across when exploring the streets of the principality all have an air of unrealness about them – as though the trees would all go up in a puff of smoke if you…
Walks on the Riviera coast work best when they combine colour and contrast The French and the Italian sides of the Riviera, while having much in common, also reflect many characteristics of the very different countries to which they are attached. The French Riviera, for example, is better “organized” and more clearly structured into individual…
A town with feet of clay and a reputation that owes everything to the world’s greatest artist of the 20th century Vallauris proudly calls itself “the world’s capital of ceramics”. But that is only half the story. The more complete version goes something like this: for centuries, Vallauris had been the place where the inhabitants…
What to do with only two hours in Genoa? Genoa is the capital of the Italian Riviera, more or less what Nice is on the French side, but with one important distinction: Whereas all visitors of the French Riviera will, sooner or later, get to Nice (to go shopping, to do sight-seeing or simply to…
Artists in the French Riviera Our sadly incomplete collection of the French Riviera on canvas from Cagnes-sur-Mer Many of the 20th century’s most famous painters spent some time – occasionally the most fruitful years of their lives – on the French Riviera. On good, sunny and clear days, of which there are many, the whole…
Happy Italian families, sunshine and local delicacies combine for a perfect winter walk on the Mediterranean Winter walks very much have their own logic: a successful outdoor experience between December and February requires more careful thinking than a journey at any time of the year, even in the relatively mild and balmy climate of the…
A Côte d’Azur gem and something to do outdoors during the “rainy season” on the French Riviera Normally, we are spoilt by the weather in our part of the world, but for the past six weeks, it has been raining and raining. And just when it felt that the worst was finally over, somebody up…