A multi-site exhibition in Nice celebrates the past and the present of France’s second most famous and most attractive boulevard The past is a foreign country, the novel “The Go Between” famously begins, and although we all know that “they do things differently there”, we are often insufficiently aware of the size of the gap…
Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life here, but there are many other reasons to visit this hilltop village north of Cannes. If the French Riviera is not exclusively famous for being a playground of people with more money than sense – from 19th century Russian aristocrats via eccentric East Coast heiresses during…
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…
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…
Easy Hiking in the French Riviera French Riviera Hikes that combine the genteel and the (semi)-wild Today’s walk completes our short series of excursions to Beaulieu-sur-mer, the small town to the east of Nice on the French Riviera which is genteel, effortlessly elegant and everything else that Monaco so feverishly wants to be. The trail…
Urban Walks in the French Riviera Sunny Menton is to die for When Menton’s old chateau was razed in the late 19th century, the city administration decided to convert the grounds into a municipal cemetery. This turned out to be an excellent business decision, because at the very moment the issue was decided, thousands of…
Easy Hiking in the South of France Oligarch for a Day in Cap Martin One thing many people know about the French Riv is that it’s for millionaires only. When I told my 87-year-old mum, God bless her, that we were moving there, she cried. She could not help it, she explained: the thought of…
Walking in the French Riviera Go walking on your holiday For as long as I have lived in Paris – and that’s 20 years this spring – I have been advising our visiting friends and guests to explore the city on their own two feet. When you go walking, not only do you see more,…
A Hiking Guide Book “26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Cote d’Azur” I have come across many a hiking guide book in my time, good ones and bad ones in sufficient numbers that I feel qualified not only to tell the difference but also to identify the criteria on which an assessment like this may be…
Urban Walks in the French Riviera Our one-week stay in Antibes has allowed us to savour the place like a real local. We managed to do leisurely strolls in and around the town in the evenings on days our hiking excursions were not too demanding. On one of those strolls, we discovered the charming alleys…