The French Riviera: Where Luxury Tourism Was Invented

Nice is the most complete city on the Côte d'Azur and the finest base for exploring the region — a city of 350,000 residents that receives 4 million tourists annually and has the busiest airport outside of Paris. The Promenade des Anglais — the 7-kilometer seafront promenade built by British residents in 1820 — is the defining symbol of Nice and one of the world's great urban waterfront walks. The Vieux-Nice old town, a dense Baroque quarter of ochre and terracotta buildings with narrow streets full of restaurants, markets, and small galleries, is the most atmospheric area in the city. The Cours Saleya flower and food market (Tuesday to Sunday mornings) is the finest outdoor market on the Riviera. The Matisse Museum (in the Cimiez neighborhood above the city) and the Chagall National Museum hold the finest collections of these two artists' work anywhere in the world.

Monaco — the world's second-smallest country at 2 square kilometers and the wealthiest per capita — is primarily experienced as a day trip from Nice (20 minutes by train). The Casino de Monte-Carlo (opened 1863, designed by Charles Garnier who also designed the Paris Opera) is the most beautiful casino building in the world — its Belle Époque interior of frescoed ceilings, gilded chandeliers, and gaming rooms is the definitive expression of 19th-century European luxury. Visitors may enter the casino free of charge (dress code enforced — no shorts or flip-flops) and take in the interior without gambling. The Prince's Palace, the Oceanographic Museum (founded by Prince Albert I in 1910), and the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix circuit (run each May) are the other essential Monaco experiences.

Cannes is most famous for the Cannes Film Festival (held each May — the world's most prestigious film festival, established 1946, with the Palme d'Or as its highest award) but is a genuinely beautiful city year-round. La Croisette — the 2-kilometer palm-lined boulevard along the seafront — fronts the city's finest beach clubs and the Carlton, Martinez, and Majestic hotels. Le Suquet, the hilltop old town behind the port, provides the most authentic Cannes dining at prices that are half those of La Croisette. The Lérins Islands (15-minute ferry from the Vieux Port) offer swimming in crystal-clear water and the Fort Royal prison where the Man in the Iron Mask was reportedly held.

The Corniche roads are the most scenic drives in France — three parallel coastal roads cut into the cliffs above the sea between Nice and Monaco, each offering different perspectives on the coast. The Grande Corniche (highest) provides the most dramatic panoramas; the Moyenne Corniche (middle) passes through the clifftop village of Eze (a medieval village 430 meters above the sea with the finest coastal views on the Riviera); and the Basse Corniche (lowest) passes through Villefranche-sur-Mer, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, and directly along the waterfront. Eze village — 30 minutes by bus from Nice — contains the Jardin Exotique (cacti and succulents with Monaco visible below) and the scent workshops of Fragonard perfumery.

Antibes — 20 kilometers west of Nice, accessible by train in 30 minutes — is the Riviera's most charming town after Nice: a walled old city (Vieil Antibes) with a daily covered market (Marché Provençal), the Château Grimaldi housing the Picasso Museum (where Picasso worked for several months in 1946, leaving 23 paintings and 44 drawings to the city), and a port full of superyachts. Antibes consistently provides the best value on the Riviera — accommodation, restaurants, and activities at 30 to 40 percent below Nice or Cannes equivalents, with equivalent or superior beaches at Juan-les-Pins.

The Côte d'Azur has one of the finest food cultures in France — a Provençal Mediterranean kitchen that draws on the region's exceptional olive oil (the AOC Riviera and AOC Nice oils are among France's finest), fresh Mediterranean seafood, herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, lavender), vegetables from the Var and Alpes-Maritimes farms, and the specific Niçois culinary traditions that reflect centuries of Italian (Piedmontese and Ligurian) influence alongside French cooking.

Socca is the quintessential Nice street food — a thin crepe made from chickpea flour and olive oil, cooked in a wood-fired oven on large copper pans and served hot, slightly charred at the edges, with black pepper. It costs approximately €3 at the Cours Saleya market stalls and from the many socca carts of Vieux-Nice. Pan Bagnat — the Niçois equivalent of a salade Niçoise in a round bread roll (tuna, anchovy, hard-boiled egg, olives, tomato, and olive oil) — is the portable lunch of the Riviera and available at every charcuterie and market stall. The salade Niçoise itself (made correctly in Nice — with raw vegetables, not cooked, and always with local anchovies and Niçoise olives, never with the additions sometimes added in Paris) is one of France's most copied but rarely correctly reproduced dishes.

The Riviera has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any comparable stretch of Mediterranean coastline. Mirazur in Menton, perched above the sea at the Italian border, was named the World's Best Restaurant in 2019 — Chef Mauro Colagreco's garden-sourced cuisine of extraordinary inventiveness represents the pinnacle of Riviera fine dining. La Chèvre d'Or in Eze village (two Michelin stars) provides the most spectacular dining room — a clifftop terrace 400 meters above the Côte d'Azur with the coast of Monaco visible below.