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By carJean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

The French Riviera

Alpes-Maritimes and Monaco · France

Some seventy kilometres of coast between Cannes and the Italian border where winter tourism was born: it was the English of the 19th century who began coming here to winter, and the Nice seafront is theirs. Behind the beach line lie medieval villages perched on crags, a country of two square kilometres and the town where the world's perfume is made.

4 days3 nights185 km8 stopsBest season: April to June and September to October. May has the Cannes festival and the Monaco Grand Prix, which fill the whole coast and send prices soaring: if you are not going for those, avoid it. July and August are the hottest and busiest months. Winter is mild and there is still life here, which is exactly why the English came.

Day 1The promenade the English paid for Day 2The three roads and a tiny country Day 3Painters and perfume Day 4Picasso and the festival

Day 1 · The promenade the English paid for

Nice · on foot

Txllxt TxllxT — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Nice

culture

The seafront was paid for by the English colony in the 1820s, which is why it is called the Promenade des Anglais: a hard winter had ruined the citrus crop and left half the city out of work, so the English who wintered here funded the works to provide wages. Behind it lies the old town, Italian in everything but name: Nice belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia until 1860.

Tip

Go up the castle hill by the lift at the end of the promenade, which is free: from the top you see the whole bay. And eat at the Cours Saleya market, not on the Promenade.

Day 2 · The three roads and a tiny country

Èze, Monaco and Menton · 62 km

Tim Adams — CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Èze and the Grande Corniche

viewpoints

Between Nice and Menton run three parallel roads at different heights, the three Corniches, and the upper one follows the line of a Roman road four hundred metres above the sea. Èze is perched on a crag between two of them, and on the path that drops from the village to the sea Nietzsche walked while writing part of Zarathustra.

Tip

Take the Grande Corniche on the way out and the Moyenne on the way back: the same views from two different heights. And park below, because you can only reach the village on foot.

20 min to the next stop · 10 km

Tobi 87 — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Monaco

history

Two square kilometres of country, the second smallest in the world, ruled by the same family since 1297: that year Francesco Grimaldi took the fortress disguised as a friar, which is where the two sword-bearing monks on the coat of arms come from. The Monte Carlo casino was built in 1863 to pull the principality out of ruin, and it worked.

Tip

Monegasques are forbidden to gamble in the casino: it has been the rule since the 19th century. And park in one of the underground public car parks, because driving around the Rocher is awkward and in May, with the Grand Prix, impossible.

30 min to the next stop · 12 km

Piexv — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Menton

culture

The last town before Italy, and one of the mildest spots in mainland France: its lemon carries a protected geographical indication. In February the Lemon Festival is held, with floats built literally from tonnes of citrus tied on by hand.

Tip

The old town climbs in pastel ramps up to the Old Castle cemetery, which is right at the top and has the best view on the coast. Visiting a cemetery sounds odd: do it anyway.

Day 3 · Painters and perfume

Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Grasse · 90 km

MOSSOT — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Saint-Paul-de-Vence

culture

A 16th-century walled village inland that from the 1920s filled with painters because the village inn took paintings as payment when they had no money. That is how it ended up holding work by Picasso, Braque and Matisse. Chagall lived here for the last twenty years of his life and is buried in the cemetery.

Tip

A kilometre away is the Maeght Foundation, a modern art museum built in the sixties with sculpture gardens by Miró and Giacometti. It is better than the village itself, and almost nobody gets that far.

40 min to the next stop · 22 km

Olivier Cleynen — CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Grasse

gastronomy

The world capital of perfume since the 18th century, and for a practical reason: gloves were tanned here, the smell of leather was unbearable, and they began scenting them with the valley's flowers. The glove trade died and the perfume trade stayed. The May rose and the jasmine that go into some of the world's most expensive perfumes are still grown here.

Tip

Three historic perfume houses can be visited with an explanation of the process, and at some you can compose your own fragrance. Book ahead, because the workshops run to fixed times.

Day 4 · Picasso and the festival

Antibes and Cannes · 33 km

Abxbay — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Antibes

culture

A 16th-century walled town with Port Vauban, one of the great yacht harbours of the Mediterranean, on one side and the liveliest Provençal market on the coast on the other. In 1946 Picasso asked for somewhere to work and they gave him the Grimaldi castle; he painted there for a few months, left, and left all the work behind. Today it is the Picasso Museum.

Tip

The covered market on the Cours Masséna opens every morning except Monday out of season, and it is the best eating on the Côte d'Azur without paying Cannes prices.

30 min to the next stop · 13 km

Gil Zetbase — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Cannes

culture

The festival was born in 1939 as a democratic answer to the Venice Mostra, which Mussolini had turned into propaganda. The opening was set for 1 September 1939, the very day Germany invaded Poland, and it never took place: there was no festival until 1946.

Tip

The handprints of actors and directors are set in the ground around the Palais des Festivals and are free to see. And the best part of Cannes is not the Croisette but Le Suquet, the old quarter on the hill.

This getaway is in the app, day by day, with every stop on the map, the drives between them and where to sleep, and the option to save it for when there is no signal.

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