Cannes & French Riviera
Cannes & the French Riviera
From La Croisette to the Lérins Islands, from the hills of Mougins to the lanes of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, all the way to the balconies of the Grande Corniche: a guide in twelve tableaux to understand the Riviera from the inside — and choose where to spend your stay.
01First glance
Cannes, the Riviera on its own terms
Set between the Estérel hills and the turquoise waters of the Bay of Napoule, Cannes has never been an ordinary seaside town. Since 1834, when Lord Brougham built the Villa Eléonore, the city has cultivated a discreet, refined and exacting art of stay.
La Croisette traces its perfect curve facing the Lérins Islands, the Old Port welcomes the Mediterranean's finest yachts each summer, and the hills of La Californie, Super Cannes and Oxford shelter the villas that built the Riviera's legend. Away from the coast's turmoil, Cannes keeps its measure: one comes for the sea, for the gardens, for the light — and for the rare balance between urban life, protected nature and access to the treasures of the hinterland.
Les Villas Cannes hands you the keys to that Riviera: nine private villas and one pool-house, chosen for their location, their architecture and the quality of service that accompanies them — from private chef to chauffeured car, day yacht to 24/7 concierge.
02La Croisette
The Mediterranean's most coveted boulevard
Three kilometres of palm trees, private beaches and palace hotels. La Croisette is to Cannes what Fifth Avenue is to New York: a manifesto of elegance.
Inaugurated in 1862, La Croisette runs from the Palais des Festivals in the west to Palm Beach and the Pointe de la Croisette in the east. The private beaches of the Carlton, Martinez, Majestic and Grand Hyatt unfold their striped parasols from spring to autumn; yachts anchor offshore as far as the horizon. Here unfolds, each May, the choreography of the Film Festival — red carpet, Carlton dinners, rooftop parties.
Outside Festival weeks, La Croisette returns to a softer tempo: morning stroll between palm trees, lunch at La Plage du Festival, shopping on rue d'Antibes, sundowners on the Bâoli terrace. Our villas in the Banane and Oxford districts sit a ten-minute walk from this stage — close enough to savour every moment, far enough to retreat from it when night falls.
03Film Festival
May in Cannes — fifteen days outside time
For two weeks, the Palais des Festivals becomes the nerve centre of cinema. Demand for top-tier accommodation has no equal — anticipate your stay twelve months in advance.
Since 1946, the Cannes Film Festival has welcomed each year some 40,000 professionals and 4,000 journalists. Beyond the red carpet, an entire ecosystem converges on the city: Marché du Film at Riviera, brand parties (Chopard at the Martinez, Vanity Fair at the Eden Roc), private events on the rooftops of the Croisette Beach.
For the 2026 and 2027 editions, our villas are already heavily booked for the period. The concierge can secure Marché credentials, organise private dinners, provide a 24/7 chauffeured car and coordinate red-carpet logistics — evening attire, hair stylist, official car. The golden rule: do not wait until January to book.
04Old Port & Le Suquet
Where Cannes began
Before the palaces, before the Festival, before La Croisette, there was a fishing village clinging to its hill around the Notre-Dame d'Espérance church. Le Suquet still gives the city its soul.
At the foot of Le Suquet, the Vieux Port of Cannes — the Port Pierre Canto and its bigger sister the Port Canto — welcomes alike fishermen's pointus, 30-metre motor yachts and classic sailboats. It is the embarkation point for the Lérins Islands, the address of the sea-urchin bistros along Quai Saint-Pierre, the theatre of the simplest — and most moving — sunsets on the Riviera.
Up in Le Suquet, you lunch under bougainvillea at La Brouette de Grand-Mère or Aux Bons Enfants, you visit the Musée de la Castre housed in the former Lérins monks' castle, you wander the steep cobbled lanes. The view from the Suquet Tower, 22 metres above the sea, embraces La Croisette, the port and the Estérel in a single sweep.
05Le Suquet
The lanes of a medieval village
An hour in Le Suquet and one understands that Cannes is not a modern city in disguise — it is a village that grew up without forsaking its stones.
The 12th-century ramparts, the square bell tower of Notre-Dame d'Espérance, the Sainte-Anne stairs, the lime-washed pink and ochre façades: Le Suquet is the antithesis of La Croisette. Here you find the city's best Provençal markets (Forville market every morning except Monday), artisan workshops, garage-style wine cellars, and tables that don't follow trends — La Palme d'Or by Christian Sinicropi, La Mère Besson, La Pizza Cresci.
For guests of our villas in Le Cannet or La Californie, Le Suquet is never more than ten minutes by car. It is the obligatory stopover of any Cannes stay — the truer flip side of the palace next door.
06Lérins Islands
Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Honorat
Twenty minutes by boat, two islands of umbrella pines and eucalyptus, fifteen hundred years of history. The Mediterranean as one no longer imagines it.
Sainte-Marguerite, the larger, shelters the Fort Royal where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned (1687–1698), now turned into a Maritime Museum. Its shaded paths lead to crystal-clear coves — the Pointe du Dragon, the Anse du Loubier — where one moors a day yacht for lunch on the water.
Saint-Honorat, smaller, remains monastic: Cistercian monks have lived there since 410 and produce an excellent wine (Cuvée Saint Honorat) and a liqueur, Lerina. The walk around the island, its four chapels, its fortified 11th-century monastery make Saint-Honorat one of the most soothing excursions of the Côte d'Azur. The Les Villas Cannes concierge can arrange private boat transfers, lunch by the water and a tasting at the monastery.
07Mougins
The village of artists
Fifteen minutes from Cannes, at 260 metres altitude, Mougins is one of the most beautiful perched villages in the South — the one Picasso chose to end his life in.
From 1961 to 1973, Pablo Picasso lived at the Mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie, on the edge of the village. Before him, Cocteau, Picabia and Man Ray had already found refuge there. Today Mougins remains a culinary destination (the Mougins International Gastronomy Festival each autumn), with tables such as L'Amandier, Paloma (two stars, Nicolas Decherchi) and Le Moulin de Mougins.
This is where Villa Sarah unfolds its 6,000 m² of garden, mirror pool and tennis court. The neighbouring villages — Valbonne, Opio, Châteauneuf-Grasse — shelter the region's best golf courses (Royal Mougins, Golf de Cannes-Mougins) and the most authentic Provençal markets. Another Côte d'Azur, more intimate, ten minutes from the sea.
08Cap d'Antibes
The Riviera's most secret peninsula
Between Cannes and Nice, Cap d'Antibes has sheltered Picasso, Fitzgerald, the Shah of Iran and so many others. Today, its properties behind high walls remain among the most expensive in the world.
The coastal path known as the «sentier Tirepoil» loops around the cape over 5 km from Garoupe beach — one of the most beautiful walks on the Riviera, between wild coves and Belle Époque villas. The Garoupe lighthouse and its sanctuary offer a 360° panorama at 73 m altitude: the Bay of Angels to the east, the Golfe Juan and Estérel to the west.
The mythical Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, the Eden Roc with its pool carved into the rock, the restaurant Bacon — temple of bouillabaisse — sit 25 minutes from our villas in Le Cannet and La Californie. A day at the Cap is an invitation to see Cannes from the opposite shore.
09Saint-Paul-de-Vence
A village of art above the olive groves
Thirty-five minutes from Cannes, on a rocky spur: Saint-Paul-de-Vence is probably France's most photographed village after Mont-Saint-Michel.
One comes for the Fondation Maeght (Calder, Miró, Giacometti, Chagall — who rests in the village cemetery), for La Colombe d'Or — the inn turned open-air museum where Picasso and Léger paid their bills in canvases —, for the ramparts drawn by Vauban in 1547, and for the cool lanes during heatwaves.
Nearby, Vence and the Rosary Chapel designed by Matisse, Tourrettes-sur-Loup and its saffron, Gourdon perched at 760 metres altitude. The Cannes hinterland is a succession of villages of art and craft from which the concierge can assemble a full day, including lunch at La Colombe d'Or or at Jacques Chibois' Bastide Saint-Antoine in Grasse.
10Èze & the Grande Corniche
On the Mediterranean's balcony
The village of Èze, clinging at 429 metres above the sea, and the Grande Corniche traced by Napoleon offer what the Riviera has most vertiginous to show.
The Jardin Exotique d'Èze unfolds its giant cacti before a panorama that embraces, on clear days, Corsica 200 km away. The old village lanes, where Nietzsche wrote the third Zarathustra (the path descending to the sea now bears his name), are home to galleries, perfumeries and La Chèvre d'Or, a two-Michelin-starred hotel-restaurant.
Forty-five minutes from Cannes, Èze marks the eastern edge of our territory — beyond it lie Monaco and the Italian Riviera. It is also the occasion for an unforgettable loop: out via the Lower Corniche along the sea, return via the Grande Corniche at sunset, stop at the Garoupe lighthouse and dinner on the cape.
11Grasse
World capital of perfume
Twenty minutes from Cannes by winding roads, Grasse supplies the world's greatest perfume houses with jasmine, rose centifolia and tuberose since the 17th century.
Fragonard, Galimard and Molinard open their workshops year-round — you can compose your own perfume under the guidance of a nose. The International Perfume Museum, set in an 18th-century private mansion, traces 4,000 years of essence-making, from the Egyptians to Chanel N°5.
But Grasse is also Fragonard the painter's hometown, its ochre roofs cascading toward the sea, the Provençal markets of cours Honoré Cresp, and Jacques Chibois' table at La Bastide Saint-Antoine, sheltered by 12 hectares of olive trees. The concierge can arrange a private visit to the jasmine fields (harvest at sunrise between August and October) and a bespoke perfume-creation workshop.
12Monaco & the Eastern Riviera
One hour from Cannes, another world
The Principality of Monaco, the port of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, the Monte-Carlo Casino: an hour from our villas, another chapter of the Riviera opens.
For the Formula 1 Grand Prix (every May), for a night at the Sporting d'Été, for dinner at Alain Ducasse's Louis XV at the Hôtel de Paris, or to visit the Oceanographic Museum carved into the cliff by Albert I: Monaco is an essential excursion.
Along the way, Villa Kérylos in Beaulieu (a reconstitution of a 5th-century BC Greek palace), Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat — where Somerset Maugham wrote his last novels at Villa Mauresque —, Villefranche and its dead-end bay, Beaulieu and its palace hotel La Réserve. The concierge arranges chauffeured cars, helicopter transfers (Cannes-Monaco in 7 minutes) and private jets from Cannes-Mandelieu.
Curate your stay
Our concierge writes each of these days with you.
Private boat to the Lérins Islands, Michelin dinner in Mougins, perfume workshop in Grasse, helicopter to Monaco: tell us what you want, we orchestrate the rest.
Photo credits
The photographs illustrating this page are sourced from Wikimedia Commons and released under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY-SA 3.0 and 4.0). Authors: Txllxt TxllxT · trolvag · Txllxt TxllxT · Spike · Miniwark · BeatrixBelibaste · Patafisik · Txllxt TxllxT · Berthold Werner · Spike · Spike · Tobi 87.