6 Best Sights in The French Riviera, France

A few blocks south of the Château Grimaldi, aka the Picasso Museum, is the Commune Libre du Safranier, a magical little neighborhood with a character (and mayor) all its own since 1966 (it's not technically a part of Antibes). The commune even holds its own festivals throughout the year, celebrating a variety of things like chestnuts, grape harvests, and the Christmas Yule log. Not far off the seaside promenade, Rue de la Touraque is the main street to get here, and you can amble around Place du Safranier, where tiny houses hang heavy with flowers and vines, and neighbors carry on conversations from window to window across the stone-stepped Rue du Bas-Castelet.

This long pedestrian thoroughfare—half street, half square—is the nerve center of Old Nice, the heart of the Vieille Ville, and the stage for the city's marketplace and café life. Shoppers come to smell the roses (and mimosas and orange blossoms) before browsing at stalls selling local produce, spices, olives, and little gift soaps in the single row set-up, the overflow of which sprawls into leafy Place Pierre Gautier. Market days are Tuesday through Saturday, 6 am to 5:30 pm and Sunday 6 am to 1:30 pm. Arrive early, especially in summer, to avoid being at the mercy of the crowd (and a target for the rampant pickpockets).

On Monday morning, antiques and brocantes (collectibles) draw avid vintage hounds, and, from June to September, there's also an artisanal craft market selling jewelry, pottery, purses, and paintings. At Place Charles Félix on the east end of Cours Saleya is the imposing yellow stone building where Matisse lived on the third and then fourth floor from 1921 to 1938. Today, there’s no plaque that bears his name, only a broken shutter of his workshop to serve as a commemoration. Its future remains uncertain, but for many Niçois, this building is a part of Nice’s heritage.

Climb up Rue St-Antoine into the picturesque Vieille Ville neighborhood known as Le Suquet, on the site of the original Roman castrum. Shops here proffer Provençal goods, and the atmospheric cafés provide a place to catch your breath. The pretty pastel shutters, Gothic stonework, and narrow passageways (not to mention the views) are lovely distractions. In July, you can hear young musicians perform free open-air concerts in the Place de la Castre during the Jeunes Talents festival.

Walk along Quai Suffern where the statue of the Bailli de Suffren, an 18th-century customs official, stands guard. Continue past the quayside streets lined with famous cafés to the Môle Jean Réveille, the harbor wall, where, if the wind isn't too strong, you can walk out for a good view of Ste-Maxime across the sparkling bay, the hills of Estérel, and, on a clear day, the distant Alps. Retrace your steps along the digue to the 15th-century Tour du Portalet, and head onward to the old fishermen's quarter, the Quartier de la Ponche, just east of Quai Jean Jaurès. Here you can find the Port des Pécheurs (Fishermen's Port), on whose beach Bardot did a star turn in And God Created Woman. Complete with gulf-side harbor, St-Tropez's Old Town is a maze of twisting, narrow streets—designed to break the impact of the mistral—that open to tiny squares with fountains. Trellised jasmine and wrought-iron birdcages hang from the shuttered windows, and many of the tiny streets dead-end at the sea. The main drag here, Rue de la Ponche, leads into Place l'Hôtel de Ville, landmarked by a mairie (town hall) marked out in typical Tropezienne hues of pink and green. Head up Rue Commandant Guichard to the Baroque Église de St-Tropez to pay your respects to the bust and barque of St-Torpes, every day but May 17, when they are carried aloft in the Bravade parade honoring the town's namesake saint.

Go down the steps to Rue Mirabeau and lose yourself in the dense labyrinth of the Vieille Ville, where steep, narrow streets, austere facades, discreet gardens, and random flights of stairs are thrown into shadow by shuttered houses five and six stories tall.

Bordered by Quai de l'Épi, Quai Bouchard, Quai Peri, Quai Suffren, and Quai Jean Jaurès, Vieux Port is a place for strolling and looking over the shoulders of artists painting their versions of the view on easels set up along the water's edge. Meanwhile, folding director's chairs at the famous portside cafés, Café de Paris and Sénéquier, are well placed for observing the cast of St-Tropez's living theater play out their colorful roles. While here, be sure to take the time to enjoy a scoop of ice cream at Glacier Barvarac on Rue Général Allard.