You may not be able to go to Europe’s most glamorous coastline right now, but you can still dream about it.
With 115 km (71 miles) of coastline, the Côte d’Azur is synonymous with its legendary beaches (plages in French). Although all are beautiful to behold, each one has its own unique character, from glamorous St-Tropez and St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to the paradisiacal calanques. In high season—from mid-June through September—sun worshipers jostle for a position on pretty much every Riviera beach.
The beaches on the Riviera are a mix of public and private, with hotels and restaurants occupying long swaths of beachfront reserved for paying customers. There are usually public areas interspersed, but they can be quite crowded—and hard to spot—in summer. The true public beaches usually have no lifeguards or rental chairs and are free. Public beaches “en régie” (meaning they’re run by town authorities) offer public showers and beach rentals for a small entrance fee. Municipal beaches are usually “supervised,” meaning there are lifeguards on hand. Dogs are forbidden on all beaches and smoking is increasingly frowned upon. For an introduction to the Riviera’s glittering world of fun in the sun, here are 10 of the region’s most idyllic beaches.