The early bird catches the worm at dawn… Beautiful and very peaceful view at 6.25am this Monday morning over the port of Monaco after a very early start (one of the “perks” of working with partners in Asia!): it’s starting to get very warm here on the Riviera now and the transition to summer is well underway. I’m also adding some nice pictures of the transition from night to day, all taken this morning… Have a fantastic week!
Some inspiration for the weekend… This amazing view was taken in late February (basically last Wednesday), from the village of Grimaldi Inferiore, just across the Franco-Italian border, on my way to the Villa Hanbury botanical gardens. Across the turquoise water, you can basically see the Tête de Chien mountain that overlooks Monaco, the luxuriant Cap Martin and in the foreground, the old town of Menton. Wishing all my readers an amazing weekend 🙂
This rather bizarre lunar landscape caused by both sea and wind erosion can be observed at the tip of Cap Martin, between Monaco and Menton. On a stormy day, the views looking west towards Tête de Chien and Cap Ferrat in the distance are particularly stunning! The walk from Monaco to Menton via the tip of Cap Ferrat takes around 3 hours along the Sentier des Douaniers and is a great breath of fresh air, just make sure that you bring plenty of sun cream and water in the summer – find out more in this article.
Morning view of the Old Port of Saint Tropez
Whilst I ran Hotel Notre Dame in Nice, I often got questions from guests asking whether it was worth travelling over to Saint-Tropez and I basically told them no – given the hassle getting there from Nice (either a two hour minimum bus ride in summer traffic or an extortionate boat trip), people wishing to experience a snazzy and sophisticated French Riviera atmosphere could head off to Cannes or Monaco instead in under 30 minutes on the train.
But whilst writing this blog, I recently became curious about the near-mystical attraction that Saint-Tropez has over visitors and that’s why a couple of weeks ago on a bright Sunday morning I decided to get up early, see what all the fuss was about by visiting it from a tourist’s perspective and definitely figure out whether 8 years later, I would have replied the same thing to my guests. So here’s the lowdown on what Saint-Tropez is all about and what to see and do there.
THE FRENCH RIVIERA BLOG BY KEVIN HIN 