4 Best Sights in The French Riviera, France

Looming over the sea at Pointe des Pendus (Hanged Man's Point), the Château de la Napoule is a spectacularly bizarre hybrid of Romanesque, Gothic, Moroccan, and Hollywood styles cooked up by the eccentric American sculptor Henry Clews (1876–1937). Working with his architect wife, Clews transformed the 14th-century bastion into something that suited his personal tastes and then filled the place with his own fantastical sculptures. The couple reside in their tombs in the tower crypt, its windows left slightly ajar to permit their souls to escape and allow them to "return at eventide as sprites and dance upon the windowsill." Today the château's foundation hosts visiting writers and artists, who set to work surrounded by Clews's gargoyle-ish sculptures.

Crowning Haut-de-Cagnes is the squat, crenellated Château-Museé—an imposing fortress with banners flying from its square watchtower—that was built in 1310 by the Grimaldis (Prince Albert of Monaco's family) and reinforced over the centuries. You are welcomed inside by a grand balustraded stairway and triangular Renaissance courtyard with a triple row of classical arcades infinitely more graceful than the exterior. Beyond lie vaulted medieval chambers, a vast Renaissance fireplace, and a splendid 17th-century trompe-l'oeil fresco of the fall of Phaëthon from his sun chariot.

The château also contains three highly specialized museums: the Musée de l'Olivier (Olive Tree Museum), which highlights the history and cultivation of this Provençal mainstay; the obscure and eccentric Collection Suzy-Solidor, a group of portraits of the cabaret chanteuse painted by her artist friends, including Cocteau and Dufy; and the Musée d'Art Moderne Méditerranéen (Mediterranean Museum of Modern Art), which contains paintings by some of the 20th-century devotees of the Côte d'Azur, including Chagall, Cocteau, and Dufy. If you've climbed this far, continue to the tower and look over the coastline, just as the guards once did while on the lookout for Saracens.

This spectacular Belle Époque villa houses the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Museum of Art and History), where familiar paintings from French, Italian, and Dutch masters line the walls. Be sure to see the palace gardens, set with towering palm trees, a marble bust of the handsome General Masséna, and the Jardin de la Légion d’Honneur (a memorial to victims of the July 14 tragedy), all backdropped by the ornate trim of the Hôtel Negresco; this is one of Nice's most imposing oases.

A listed heritage building, this palace was built in 1648 for Jean-Baptiste Lascaris-Vintimille, marechal to the Duke of Savoy. The magnificent vaulted staircase, with its massive stone balustrade and niches filled with classical gods, is surpassed in grandeur only by the Flemish tapestries (after Rubens) and the extraordinary trompe-l'oeil fresco depicting the fall of Phaëthon. With a little luck, you'll be in time for one of the many classical concerts performed here. Note, however, that the building has no elevator.