June 11, 2026
I should tell you upfront: my introduction to Menton involved a stolen taxi, a yacht boy we named Thurbert, and the kindest stranger who drove us home in the dark.
But we’ll get to that.
Visiting the French Riviera for the first time — or the fifth — the coastline never gets old. The Côte d’Azur stretches along the southeastern coast of France from the Italian border down to Toulon. It’s glamorous, yes. It’s also surprisingly laid back and full of towns that each have a completely distinct personality. The Cannes Film Festival version of this coastline is real, but it’s only one week a year. The rest of the time, this is just a spectacularly beautiful place to eat well, sit by the sea, and watch the world go by.
One practical note before we dive in: all of these towns are connected by train. The regional rail runs right along the coast and makes day-tripping between them incredibly easy. You can base yourself in Nice, hop on a train, and be in Cannes, Antibes, Villefranche, or Menton within the hour. No rental car required. No parking nightmares. Just the Mediterranean out the window and your next stop waiting.
What to Know Before Visiting the French Riviera
Nice is the ideal base when visiting the French Riviera. It has the best infrastructure, the best hotels across every price point, the most to do, and now, non-stop flights from Atlanta year-round. For East Coast travelers, flying into Nice and out of Paris (or vice versa) is one of the most seamless routing options in all of France.
Start in Old Town. The Cours Saleya flower and food market is one of the best in France, and that’s saying something. Get there in the morning while the flowers are still fresh and the vendors are still happy to talk. Pick up some socca (a chickpea flatbread that’s a Nice specialty), grab some pissaladière (a caramelized onion tart with anchovies and olives) and eat it while you walk.
After the market, wander up to Colline du Château for the views, then work your way back down through the old town streets. The shopping is excellent. The restaurants are everywhere and mostly good. The light in the afternoon is extraordinary.
Where to stay: For a high-end experience, the Negresco is iconic and worth it. But my personal gem is the AC Marriott Nice: rooftop pool, rooftop bar and restaurant, one block from the beach, right by Old Town. Centrally located, excellent value, and the rooftop alone is worth the booking. Not every trip requires the most expensive hotel on the block.
Beach clubs: Nice has several excellent beach clubs right on the Promenade, they’re the best option for lunch with a view and a spot to actually get in the water without fighting for a patch of public pebble beach. Yes, pebble. Most of the beaches in Nice are not sand. Bring water shoes or buy some there.
Cannes: Not What You Think
Everyone pictures the Film Festival: the red carpet, the yachts, the celebrities. That’s one week in May. The other 51 weeks, Cannes is a surprisingly relaxed, charming beach town.
It’s smaller than Nice, which gives it a completely different energy. More walkable, less overwhelming. Yes, there are expensive shops. This is still the Riviera, but the vibe is bohemian and laid back.
There’s a great market in the old quarter. There’s a hilltop castle you can hike up to with views of the bay. And the bay itself is beautiful: calm, clear, perfect for a boat rental or water sports. My family stayed at the Marriott Cannes and went tubing in the bay. Our two Pomeranians even came with us. The hotel is dog-friendly, the beach is right there, making this one of the most family-friendly stops when visiting the French Riviera.
Don’t let the Film Festival reputation put you off. Cannes in any other month is a completely different place.
Beach clubs: Cannes is known for some of the best beach clubs on the Riviera: think loungers, rosé, lunch with your feet in the sand, and views of the Med. Several are right on the Croisette. And if you want to venture further, boat shuttles run out to the Îles de Lérins, two small islands just offshore, with their own beach clubs, a medieval fort, and a monastery that still produces its own wine and liqueur. It’s worth the 15-minute ride.
Villefranche-sur-Mer and Antibes
Villefranche is the town people discover by accident, usually spotted from the train window, and then immediately start planning a return trip. It’s tiny. It’s a 14th-century fishing village with a deep natural harbor, cobblestone streets, and a citadel overlooking the sea. The water in the harbor is extraordinarily clear. The old town is colorful and compact and feels completely relaxed.
This is not a town for checking things off a list. It’s a town for sitting at a café above the harbor, watching the boats, and ordering another glass of rosé. Walk down to the Citadel St. Elmo. Walk along the waterfront. Find a restaurant and stay for two hours. There are excellent villa rentals nearby making this a great spot if you want to stay longer than a few days.
Antibes sits on a peninsula between Nice and Cannes and has been drawing artists and writers for over a century. Picasso is the most famous. After World War II, he lived and worked in the Château Grimaldi, an old castle overlooking the sea. When he left, he donated the work he created there to the city. That collection became the Musée Picasso, and the setting alone is worth the visit. The château’s terrace looks out over the Mediterranean with sculptures by Picasso and other 20th century artists arranged outside. Beyond the museum, Antibes has a beautiful old town, an excellent market, and some of the best beaches on the coast.
Menton: The Last French Riviera Town Before Italy
Menton sits almost exactly on the Italian border. And I mean almost exactly. Cross the border and you’re in Italy. There’s a gas station right at the crossing that stocks wonderful Italian products. Pop in, grab something, cross back into France. It’s one of those small travel moments that sounds ridiculous and is so much fun (see the bottle of bubbly and ancient payphone above 🥂).
Menton is known for its lemons. They’re grown everywhere, and the annual Lemon Festival (Fête du Citron) draws visitors from around the world with elaborate sculptures built entirely from citrus fruit. The town itself is one of the warmest on the Riviera in winter, and it has a gorgeous half-moon bay and a beautiful old town that climbs up the hill in pastel colors.
It’s also home to Mirazur, one of the best restaurants in the world, perched in the hills above town overlooking the Mediterranean. The tasting menu runs fifteen courses. The plating is extraordinary. And the people-watching, on the night we were there, was even better.
Which brings me back to Thurbert.
We had arranged a taxi to take us back to our hotel after dinner. The restaurant is in the middle of nowhere and midnight options are limited. When we went to leave, the maître d’ delivered the news with appropriate French resignation: our taxi had been commandeered by a fellow guest who decided Monaco was a more interesting destination than Menton.
No one was coming back for us.
The maître d’ called his wife. She drove an hour each way to take us home. We tipped her everything we had. She waved it off like it was nothing.
That’s the Riviera. Completely glamorous and also a little absurd. The best nights usually are.
Getting Around When Visiting the French Riviera
This is the practical tip that changes everything: the regional train runs right along the coast and connects all of these French Riviera towns. Nice to Cannes is about 40 minutes. Nice to Menton is about 35 minutes. Villefranche and Antibes are even closer.
Base yourself in Nice and explore the coast at your own pace. You don’t need a car. You don’t need to plan too far ahead. You just need to show up at the station and pick a direction.
Ready to plan your trip to the French Riviera? Book a complimentary 20-minute planning call here.
About the Author
Hello, I’m Jennifer Verville, founder of French Escapes Travel. I’ve been traveling to France for more than 30 years and visit a minimum of four times a year to stay current for my clients. I specialize in France, French Polynesia, and European travel, with deep expertise in Paris, river cruising, and food-forward itineraries. France isn’t just where I send my clients. It’s where I go regularly to make sure I’m giving them the best possible advice.
French Recipe of the Week: Salade Niçoise
From Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking
A note before we get to the recipe: the Salade Niçoise you’ll find in Nice bears very little resemblance to the composed salad on most American menus. In Nice, it’s a simple, honest dish: good tuna, good olives, good tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, anchovies if you want them. The dressing is a classic French vinaigrette, not something creamy or complicated. The key is the quality of each ingredient. This is the perfect summer salad. Make it with whatever is best at your farmers market this week.
This recipe is straight from Julia Child. It serves 6 to 8.
Ingredients:
– 3 cups cold blanched green beans
– 3 or 4 quartered tomatoes
– 1 cup vinaigrette (French dressing with herbs)
– 1 head Boston lettuce, separated, washed, drained, and dried
– 3 cups cold French potato salad
– 1 cup canned tuna chunks, drained
– 1/2 cup pitted black olives, preferably dry Mediterranean type
– 2 or 3 hard-boiled eggs, cold, peeled, and quartered
– 6 to 12 canned anchovy filets, drained
– 2 to 3 tablespoons minced fresh green herbs
To assemble:
Just before serving, season the beans and tomatoes with several spoonfuls of vinaigrette. Toss the lettuce leaves in the salad bowl with 1/4 cup of vinaigrette and place the leaves around the edge of the bowl. Arrange the potatoes in the bottom of the bowl. Decorate with the beans and tomatoes, interspersing them with a design of tuna chunks, olives, eggs, and anchovies. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad, sprinkle with herbs, and serve.
Julia’s note: “You may arrange the salad in any manner you wish.”
A few notes from me: use the best tuna you can find, packed in olive oil, not water. The dry Mediterranean olives make a real difference over the jarred cocktail kind. And don’t skip the anchovies. They’re the whole point.