Things to See & Do on the Côte d’Azur
The French Riviera’s warm climate means there’s plenty to do all year round.
SHOPPING
Award-winning shopping centre Cap 3000, in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, boasts over 300 shops, from fashion and watches to eyewear, perfumes and homewares, plus 50 or so restaurants, 15 of them with views over the Med.
STREET ART
All along the Côte d’Azur you’ll spot dozens of amazing examples of street art, from the traditional and the surreal to the bizarre.
PERFUME
Grasse, the centre of the perfume industry, offers perfumery tours and even the chance to create your own scent. There are 30 or so perfumeries in and around the town. Three of the larger brands, Fraginard, Molinard and Galimard, offer free tours. (www.fragonard.com; www.molinard.com: www.galimard. com). There are also some boutique perfume workshops. In Grasse, you’ll find 1000 Flowers (www.1000flowers.ca), Parfums Gaglewski (www.gaglewski, com) and Olivier Durbano (www.olivierdurbano.com) while in Saint-Paul de Vence there is La Maison Godet (www.parfumsgodet.com).
Grasse1
MINI-ADVENTURES
On a whistle-stop tour of the Côte d’Azur, you may not have time to spend several days on excursions, so the tourism office has collated a selection of mini-adventures designed to get you in the great outdoors, from donkey-trekking, kayaking and outdoor spas to survival courses caving, swimming, stargazing and
landscape painting.
FESTIVALS
Carnaval de Nice
Over a million visitors attend every February/March to see the colourful parades with hundreds of musicians and dancers, and the famous flower battles on the Promenade des Anglais.
Fête du Citron
This festival attracts 200,000 visitors every February with its enormous citrus-fruit sculptures, light shows, bands, dancing, and parades where juicy lemons and oranges take centre stage.
MUSIC FESTIVALS
There’s no shortage of music festivals across the region. Antibes hosts the Festival Nuits Carrées (June 12-14) with a mixture of hip-hop, rap, electro and pop. At Villefranche-sur-Mer, La Crème Festival (June 20-22), features mainly dance and techno bands. Cannes hosts Les Plages Électroniques (August 8-10). with Charlotte de Witte, Eric Prydz, Peggy Gou and Tiësto headlining this year.
Not to be left out, Nice has its Crossover Festival, featuring multiple genres and both a spring and an autumn version (May 2-4 and September 5-7).
menton-fete-du-citron_CRT-Cote-d-Azur-France_GeorgeVERAN
TRAIN RIDE
The Train des Pignes
This 151km train line twists up through the hills from Puget-Théniers to Le Fugeret at 800m above sea level, using antique trains, some steam-powered.
ARCHITECTURE
Palais Bulles
Built in the 1970s and 1980s by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag in Théoule-sur-Mer, Palais Bulles is a labyrinth of curvy walls which was once Pierre Cardin’s summer residence. Not open to visitors but well worth viewing from the outside.
Villa Kérylos
Overlooking the Baie des Fourmis, this Ancient Greek-style villa is built around an open-air courtyard and features imitation frescos, furniture and mosaics.
Villa Noailles
A beautiful Modernist villa with adjacent gardens, this haunting concrete 1920s structure was designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens and now hosts exhibitions of art, photography, fashion and various installations.
Villa Kerylos Cote dAzur Tourisme Camille MOIRENC
SNORKELLING
Just 100m off the southem shore of Île Sainte-Marguerite, 4m below the surface, there’s an underwater museum, with six statues created by the artist Jason deCaires Taylor: You can scuba dive if you’re qualified, and snorkel if you’re not https://bit.ly/4bxRZvP
HORSE RACING
Located in Cagnes-sur-Mer Hippodrome de la Côte d’Azur covers 60 hectares and can hold 12,000 spectators. More than 80 horse races are staged here every year. www.hippodrome-cotedazur.fr
MARKETS
The perfect way to sample local fare is to visit a market. The market halls in Menton open every moming. The Cours Saleya in Nice, the Provençal market in Antibes and the Forville market in Cannes open every morning. except Mondays. The Cours Creps market in Grasse opens Wednesday momings.
GLASSMAKING
Biot is considered the capital of contemporary glass in France. with many glassmakers based here, including the Verrerie de Biot (www.verreriebiot com) and the Centre du Verre Contemporain (centreduverrecontemporain. com).
OCEAN MUSEUM
The Musée Océanographique in Monaco is home to 4,000 species of fish. musee.oceano.org
THEME PARK
Parc Phoenix in Nice is home to 2.500 species of plants and 70 species of animals. www.parc-phoenix.org
From France Today Magazine
Lead photo credit : Carnaval_de_Nice-Cote_d_Azur_France_Tourisme___Anais_BROCHIERO-3
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