Sights in Côte D’Azur
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Parc du Château
From this 92m hilltop park the glittering views of Vieux Nice spires and the Baie des Anges are mesmerising. The shaded hill and park, at the eastern end of quai des États-Unis, are named after a 12th-century château that was razed by Louis XIV in a fit of pique in 1706 and never rebuilt.
The château after which the hill and park are named was established in the 12th century but was razed by Louis XIV in 1706. In the one remaining tower, the 16th-century Tour Bellanda, is the Musée Naval. The cemetery where Garibaldi is buried covers the northwest of the park.
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Jardin du Monastère
Surrounding the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez is Jardin du Monastère, filled with cypress trees and an abundance of sweet-smelling roses, and offering a sweeping panorama of the Baie des Anges.
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Musée des Beaux-Arts
In a resplendent 1878 belle époque villa, the Musée des Beaux-Arts displays works by Fragonard, Monet, Sisley and Rodin, as well as an excellent collection of Dufy works.
Fauvist appreciators will relish a roomful of Raoul Dufy's works. Also impressive are sculptures by Rodin, and some late impressionist pieces by Bonnard, Monet and Sisley. Local lads Jules Chéret (1836-1932), the 'Father of the Poster', and Alexis Mossa (1844-1926), who painted truly hideous symbolist works, also feature. The latter is more famous for adding wildly decorated floats to the Nice Carnival than for his watercolours. From the bus station, take bus 38 to the Musée Chéret stop outside.
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Le Groupe Épiscopal
Fréjus’ star sight is the Groupe Épiscopal, slap bang in the centre of town on the foundations of a Roman temple. At the heart of the complex is an 11th- and 12th-century cathedral, one of the first Gothic buildings in the region (although it retains certain Roman features).
The beautiful carved wooden doors at the main entrance were added during the Renaissance. The octagonal 5th-century baptistery (which incorporates eight Roman columns into its structure) is one of the oldest Christian buildings in France, and is exceptionally well preserved.
Stairs from the narthex lead up to the cloister, which looks onto a fine courtyard with a well-tended garden and well. Here …
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Plage du Gray d'Albion
Cannes is blessed with sandy beaches, although much of the stretch along blvd de la Croisette is for guests of top-notch hotels or those prepared to pay for the luxury of having a strip of carpet leading to the water's edge: rates range from around €15/around €19 per half-/full day for a mattress and yellow-and-white parasol on Plage du Gray d'Albion - it has a water-skiing school - to around €30/around €38/around €44 for a back-row/front-row seat/spot on the pier of exclusive Carlton Beach.
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Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (Mamac)
Designed by Yves Bayard and Henri Vidal, Mamac is worth a visit for its stunning architecture alone, but it also houses some fantastic avant-garde art from the 1960s to the present. Exhibits include iconic pop art from Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol’s 1965 Campbell’s Soup Can. The marbled towers’ glass walkways lead to highlights like Niki de St-Phalle’s papier-mâché sculptures and a shopping trolley wrapped by Christo. An awesome panorama of Vieux Nice unfolds from the rooftop garden/gallery, which features works by Nice-born Yves Klein (1928–62).
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Musée Masséna
Housed in a marvellous Italianate neoclassical villa (1898), this museum explores the city and Riviera’s history from the early 19th century to WWII. It’s a fascinating journey, with a roll call of monarchs, a succession of nationalities (British, Russians, Americans), the advent of tourism, the prominence of the carnival and much more. History is told through an excellent mix of furniture, objects, art deco posters, early photographs and paintings and the lovely setting – the city of Nice still uses the ground floor rooms for official occasions.
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Plage Publique des Ponchettes
If you don't like sand between your toes, Nice's beaches - covered with smooth, round pebbles - are for you. Free public sections of beach with lifeguards, first-aid posts and cold showers alternate with 15 private beaches equipped with restaurants, comfy sun-lounges (obligatory; at a fee) parasols (optional, at a fee), warm showers and changing rooms.
Plage Publique des Ponchettes, opposite Vieux Nice, is the busiest beach with oiled bodies either baking in the sun or punching a ball on the beach-volleyball court.
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Anatole Jakovsky International Naive Art Museum
Over 1000 works of naive art are gathered at the Anatole Jakovsky International Naive Art Museum, inside 19th-century Château Ste-Hélène, 2km west of the centre. Romanian art critic Anatole Jakovsky (1909-83), who moved to southern France in 1932, kick-started the museum by donating his vast collection. Pieces date from the 18th century to the present day. Take bus 8, 10, 11 or 12 from the bus station to the Fabron stop, from where it's a 500m walk, or take bus 34 to the Musée Art Naïf stop.
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Tomb of Émile Olivier
At the northern end of Plage des Salins, on a rock jutting out to sea, is the Tomb of Émile Olivier (1825-1913), who served as first minister to Napoleon III until his exile in 1870. Olivier's 17-volume L'Empire Libéral is preserved in the library of Château La Moutte, his former home on Cap des Salins.
Olivier's sea-facing tomb looks out towards La Tête de Chien (Dog's Head), named after the legendary dog who declined to eat St Torpes' remains.
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Marché du Film
The vast majority of films are 'out of competition'. Behind the scenes the Marché du Film (Film Market; www.marchedufilm.com) sees around €150 million worth of business negotiated in distribution deals. And it's this hard-core commerce combined with all the televised Tinseltown glitz that gives the film festival its special magic. For a concentrated dose, don your glad rags, stand up tall and strut into the bar of one of the posh hotels as if you own the place.
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La Tête de Chien
La Tête de Chien was named after the legendary dog who declined to eat St Torpes' remains. A grisly legend provided St-Tropez with its name in AD 68. After beheading a Roman officer named Torpes for becoming a Christian, the emperor Nero packed the decapitated body into a small boat, along with a dog and a rooster who were to devour his remains. Miraculously, the body came ashore in St-Tropez unnibbled, and the village adopted the headless Torpes as its saint.
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Église du Gesù
Jutting above the rooflines are the spires of some historic churches including the baroque Cathédrale Ste-Réparate and its stunning glazed terracotta dome, built around 1650; the blue-grey and yellow Église du Gesù, close to rue Rossetti, whose baroque ornamentation also dates from the mid-17th century; and the mid-18th- century Chapelle de la Miséricorde, next to place Pierre Gautier.
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Parc National du Mercantour Headquarters
Deeply isolated and breathtakingly beautiful, the Parc National du Mercantour is one of the last bastions of true wilderness in France. Spread across six valleys (Roya-Béréva, Vésubie, Tinée, Haut Var, Haut Verdon and Ubaye) and 685 sq km along the Italian border, it mixes Alpine snowy peaks with Mediterranean warmth. Parc National du Mercantour Headquarters is the headquarters of the Mercantour National Park.
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Cimetière du Vieux Château
What a shame the occupiers of prime real estate Cimetière du Vieux Château can't appreciate the immense views. Walk up montée du Souvenir to reach the main gates of the ornate 19th-century cemetery. Rugby inventor, Reverend William Webb Ellis (1805-72), is buried in the southwest corner. For more grave musing and marvellous vistas, continue north along steep chemin du Trabuquet to Cimetière du Trabuquet.
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Cap Taillat
Cap Taillat is protected by the Conservatoire du Littoral (which bought it from Club Med after it tried to turn the precious, nature-rich cape into the world's largest Club Med in the 1970s). The tiny spit of sandy land today supports a range of important habitats, from seashore to wooded cliffs, and hides some of France's rarest plant species as well as a population of Hermann tortoises. Can be accessed from Gigaro.
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Vieux Port
The Vieux Port (Old Port) is literally in the centre of town. It is bordered by the Gare Maritime (Marine Railway Station), the pretty Allées de la Liberté where the morning Marché aux Fleurs (Flower Market) is held, the Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall) and the main shopping streets. For boating enthusiasts, it has 750 mooring berths and 150 stopover berths.
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Château de l'Anglais
From Nice's port, glance up at Mont Boron, home to celebrities such as Elton John. The pink confection you see is Château de l'Anglais, built in 1859 for an English engineer called Robert Smith, renowned at the time as being the only foreigner to live in Nice year-round. Locals quickly dubbed his castle 'Smith's folly'. The historical monument has since been split into private apartments.
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Plage de Pampelonne
This beach is the continuation of Plage de Tahiti, studded with some of St-Tropez's most legendary drinking and dining haunts. To get here on foot, head out of town along av de la Résistance (south of place des Lices) to rte de la Belle Isnarde and then rte de Tahiti. Otherwise, the bus to Ramatuelle runs about 1km inland along the D93 - from which seven roads lead to the sand.
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Île Ste-Marguerite
Just 20 minutes away, the tranquil Île Ste-Marguerite feels far from the madding crowd. Only 3.25km (2mi) wide, the enigmatic Man in the Iron Mask was incarcerated in the fort during the 17th century. Immortalised in Alexandre Dumas' novel Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (The Viscount of Bragelonne), the identity of the masked man (or woman?) remains a mystery.
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Museum of the Sea
As you get off the boat at Île Ste-Marguerite, a map indicates a handful of rustic restaurants, trails and paths through the cool eucalyptus and pine forest. It also directs you to the 17th-century Fort Royal, which now harbours the 'Musée de la Mer'. Make sure you explore the old state prisons, built under Louis XIV, and see exhibits of the fort's history.
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Palais des Festivals et des Congrès
The first Palais des Festivals et des Congrès was built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival. As the festival grew, more space was needed, so the current Palais was constructed on the site of the municipal casino and opened in 1982. Today, the space (25,000 sq km/9650 sq mi) is used for exhibitions, screenings, shows, receptions and conferences.
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La Tête Carrée de Sosno
Outside the Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, the red concrete Jardin Maréchal Juin hugs MAMAC's eastern side and, more spectacularly, frames the giant square head of La Tête Carrée de Sosno.The massive 30m-tall sculpture designed by Sacha Sosno - a 14m-square concrete head sitting on a pair of shoulders - is, in fact, a building.
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Clos du Peyronnet
British artist and garden landscaper Humphry Waterfield's green-fingered triumph, designed around his Italianate villa. These terraced gardens with cypress-tree tunnels, wisteria-shaded porticoes and an incredible series of water pools tumbling down to the Med are exceptional. Pots and pots of rare South African bulbs are a horticultural highlight.
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La Maison des Papillons
Around 4500 butterflies collected by Dany Lartigue, son of Riviera photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986), are pinned to the walls in La Maison des Papillons. Find the House of Butterflies in the former home of Madeleine 'Bibi' Messager, the first wife of Jacques Lartigue (he had three) who remained in St-Tropez after the couple split.
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