Discovered by aristocrats, revelled in by royals and gilded by movie stars, the Riviera is a place where centuries of sophisticated travellers have dipped their toes in the Mediterranean. If you’ve business to attend to in London, Rome, Paris or any other European city, a weekend stop-over gives you time to leave your shoes on the quayside and find out why so many of the rich and famous have been drawn to its charms.



You can leave the office after the day’s business on Friday and be boarding your yacht later that evening. Nice airport is within a 1½ hour flight of most European cities and the major carriers fly frequent and convenient timetables. Last September we had six guests aboard our sailing yacht DreamCatcher, two of which flew in from London, one from LA, two from Amsterdam and one from Geneva!

Whether you’re sailing or motoring and no matter what the size, a yacht is most definitely the way to see the Riviera. Ashore the roads can often be busy (especially in mid-summer), parking impossible and travelling time-consuming but a private yacht gives you the freedom to reach the most beautiful places whilst topping up your tan and relaxing with a cold drink. You’ll also feel much more of a sense of participating in Riviera life, rather than merely spectating. However, the coast’s reputation for style and gracious living may be legendary but, like anywhere else, you need to know where to look and a knowledgeable crew can help ensure you don’t miss out.

On arrival at Nice it’s a brief, twenty minute taxi ride to board your yacht at Antibes, the largest yacht harbour in Europe and an ancient city still with the remains of its ramparts and fortifications. Used as a trading port by the Greeks then the Romans, it was the wild and secluded Cap (headland) that first began to attract wealthy foreigners at the beginning of the 20th Century. Luxurious villas were soon built to accommodate European royalty whilst neighbouring Juan-Les Pins was becoming a fashionable resort frequented by the likes of Rudolph Valentino, Picasso and Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. The Cap d’Antibes rapidly became something of a party destination for the Fitzgeralds, in particular, who were renowned for their outrageous and often eccentric behaviour; the police had to intervene on one occasion to prevent Fitzgerald and his drinking partner Charlie MacArthur from sawing a barman in half in order to settle an argument!

One of the great strengths of the Riviera is its extensive programme of events. A huge variety of concerts and performances take place throughout the year and the Cap d’Antibes is particularly noteworthy for the Juan Les Pins International Jazz festival. Since 1960 many famous musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald have appeared and each year the list of performers sparkles with both new and established talent from around the world. If you’re a jazz fan, the time to come is mid-July.

On Saturday morning you can take a leisurely start to the day before sailing across the Bay of Angels and around one of the world’s most exclusive pieces of real estate - Cap Ferrat. The pretty little town of St Jean lies on the Eastern side of the Cap. It was once a major fishing port and one corner of the marina is still crowded with brightly painted fishing boats like a shoal of tiny tropical fish alongside the sleek yachts. The calm bay is ideal for a refreshing swim before lunch. Here, the view ashore from a yacht is truly magnificent: velvet green gardens, sculptural umbrella pines with their contorted silver grey trunks, gracious palms and neatly manicured cypresses standing guard against the pristine blue sky. Elegant villas peep from behind the lush landscape dropping hints about the luxury within and colourful climbing plants tumble over private terraces and steep cliffs towards the sea. If you wanted to shoot a movie about the Belle Epoque, this is your location.

It’s well worth a trip ashore to visit the Villa Ephrussi. This pastel coloured palazzo was built in 1905 by Baroness Ephrussi de Rothschild. Married to a wealthy banker, she devoted her considerable fortune to building sumptuous residences and amassing a huge collection of priceless objets d’art and paintings. At Cap Ferrat she also commissioned the design of seven gardens, each inspired by her travels. Go in the late afternoon when it’s quieter and stroll along the narrow paths which meander about the hillside. Each corner you turn offers another spectacular coastal vista, framed by clever planting and graced here and there by a statue or a stone pillar. There are terraces, fountains and pools, with everything on a scale that gives it the feeling of a very private piece of paradise.

Afterwards, a gentle cruise takes you back around to the Western side of the Cap to one of the most famous harbours on the coast - the Rade de Villefranche. The marina is a short walk from the town centre so it’s more convenient to anchor in front of the quayside. Here, you can dine in privacy but you won’t miss out on any of the lively atmosphere.

Villefranche-sur-Mer is one of the deepest and easiest anchorages to defend on the Riviera, protected by its very imposing citadel built in 1557 by the Duke of Savoy. At that time it was not part of France but the Kingdom of Piémont, which included Nice and a large part of the Alpes Maritimes stretching North East to Turin. In the 17th and 18th centuries the British anchored their naval ships here so that they could defend their trading interests in Nice from a safe haven. The town has also played host to the Russian and American fleets and would often be virtually taken over by the crews of whichever warships were occupying the harbour. Still intact, it has a unique character and the narrow streets rising steeply from the quayside include one which is completely covered  – described by author William Sansom as “…truly a tunnel, a good place for a knifing, and nicely called the Rue Obscure.” It’s quite safe today of course but it’s easy to imagine a time when the shadows cast by flickering candlelight made the good people of Villefranche quicken their step.