Hire a convertible, pop on your shades and spend five days on the trail of cinematic and literary fame along France’s most celebrated coastline
Cinematic history began on the Côte d’Azur but, while the Lumière brothers terrified early audiences with moving images of a train, later filmmakers preferred to use the region’s gorgeous coastal scenery and twisting, exciting roads to create their thrills and spills. Legendary as a playground of the rich and famous, the Côte d’Azur is also classic driving territory, immortalised in everything from Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief to countless car commercials. The early spring is the ideal time to drive it, before the summer traffic jams build up.
Marseille to Bandol
Enjoy breakfast on Marseille’s Vieux Port at Brasserie Samaritaine (2 Quai du Port, tel. +33 (0)4 9190 3141) sipping café au lait with a view of the traffic racing along the quay. Marseille isn’t the gentlest of cities for drivers, which is perhaps why, when they made the sequel to The French Connection here, they didn’t repeat the original’s car chase. Avoid the maelstrom by taking the coastal route south from the Port, snaking around rocky headlands and soaking up the vistas of the Château d’If, the offshore fortress that was Dantès’ prison in The Count of Monte Cristo.
The route swings inland then climbs to a wild landscape where garrigue – aromatic Mediterranean scrubland – carpets the hills. Finally, it descends to Cassis, hemmed in by cliffs and a popular spot for lunch, its harbour lined with places to sample bouillabaisse or oursins (sea urchins).
From Cassis the spectacular Route des Crêtes follows the vertigo-inducing clifftops. It’s one of the most breathtaking drives in the South of France, and if anywhere deserves a tyre-squealing cinematic car chase it’s here, but you’d be better advised to drive carefully and pull over to admire the scary views. The clifftop road ends at the little resort of La Ciotat, huddled around a harbour and dominated by weird cliff formations. It was in La Ciotat in 1895 that the Lumière brothers filmed the first motion pictures, without which the Côte d’Azur’s fame might never have spread so far and wide.
Press on to Bandol, to sample the wines of the Bandol AOC, Provence’s finest. The Maison des Vins is on the harbour, with the town’s best hotel, l’Ile Rousse, nearby, overlooking a sandy cove and with a fine restaurant.
Bandol to Saint-Tropez
Bandol’s neighbour, Sanary Sur Mer, is another picturesque port with a claim to fame. In the 1930s it provided a temporary haven to German intellectuals fleeing the Nazis; the refugees included Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht. Beyond Sanary, traffic builds as you speed through Toulon towards Hyères.
Hyères is an alluring spot with a peaceful old quarter heaped up towards the ruins of its castle. Hyères’ most famous resident was the novelist Edith Wharton; the gardens of her house, the Castel Ste-Claire, provide spectacular views out to sea to the Iles d’Hyères while, further downhill, the Bistrot de Marius (1 Place Massillon, tel. +33 (0)4 9435 8838) is a wonderful spot for lunch.
East of Hyères, the Corniche des Maures is one of the most unspoilt stretches of the coast, with exceptional beaches overshadowed by dense, dark forest. The drive along it to Saint-Tropez can take an eternity in summer, but out of season it’s a delight.
So, too, is Saint-Tropez without its summer crowds and traffic. Sneak into town the back way through Ramatuelle, taking a barefoot stroll on the sandy Plage de Pampelonne, where Brigitte Bardot cavorted in Roger Vadim’s 1956 film And God Created Woman – the film that made international stars of Bardot and St Tropez alike. At any time of year St Tropez can seem a little insane, with huge limousines navigating its narrow lanes and vast yachts filling the harbour. Maintain your sanity at the delightful boutique-style Hôtel B Lodge, slightly removed from the hype and hubbub of the port.
Saint-Tropez to Cannes
From Saint-Tropez the coast road skirts the Golfe de Saint-Tropez past Port Grimaud, where Joan Collins spends much of the year, and Sainte Maxime, where Jean de Brunhoff wrote the first of the Babar the Elephant children’s books back in the 1930s.
Beyond Saint Raphaël, the coast turns wild and rocky again, as the rust-red Massif de l’Estérel crashes into the sea. The road follows the twists and turns of the coast, with thrilling views towards the approaching sprawl of Cannes – it’s another perfect location for a car chase. Reaching Cannes at a more sedate pace, check in to the Beau Séjour, a smart three-star hotel close to the restaurants and buzz of the old quarter, Le Suquet.
Cannes to Nice
Even out of season Cannes has star quality. Spend an hour browsing the boutiques in rue d’Antibes, then check out the hotels on the Promenade de la Croisette – the majestic Carlton was one of the locations for Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, the film that brought the future Princess Grace of Monaco to the Riviera, while the nearby Martinez is a film-festival favourite, particularly for its Michelin-starred restaurant, La Palme d’Or.
From Cannes it takes just minutes to reach Juan-les-Pins. A brace of splendid art-deco hotels – one a gigantic ruin, the other the exquisitely restored Belles Rives – recalls Juan’s prewar heyday, when film stars including Charlie Chaplin, Maurice Chevalier and the long-forgotten Lilian Harvey cavorted on its beaches. Discreet mansions line the road out of town towards Cap d’Antibes, at whose tip the Hôtel du Cap Eden Roc – the model for the Hôtel des Étrangers in F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night – overlooks the fabled ‘bay of millionaires’. Soak up the Cap’s relaxed, glamorous ambiance over lunch at Restaurant de Bacon (Boulevard de Bacon, tel. +33 (0)4 9361 5002), with views across the water towards Antibes.
Nice soon beckons as the coast road becomes the Promenade des Anglais. Careful with that headscarf, for it was a flowing scarf that ended the life of dancer Isadora Duncan on the Riviera’s most famous seafront one balmy night in 1927, as it caught in the wheel of the car in which she was travelling. Admire the Promenade’s flamboyant architecture before heading inland to Le Petit Palais, a pretty, discreet belle époque mansion that was once the home of the actor Sacha Guitry.
Nice to Monaco
The final stretch of the drive is the most familiar – you’re sure to have seen it in the car chase from To Catch a Thief or in one of the many car commercials shot here. The twisting Corniche is the ultimate symbol of motoring freedom. There are actually three corniches, but for maximum thrills and spills take the Moyenne Corniche from Nice, negotiating its tight bends with the wind in your hair and the sea glittering far below.
The Moyenne Corniche ends at Monaco, where the streets’ swoops and curves might seem familiar. This is because you’re following the circuit used by Formula One drivers during the annual Grand Prix. To round off your trip, a blend of motoring history and celebrity glamour is provided by the royal automotive collection in Fontvieille, where you can admire Nigel Mansell’s Formula One Ferrari, and a Renault Florida coupé driven by Princess Grace.
In the know
Useful travel planning tips
Where to stay
Did you know?
Princess Grace may have been known the world over as the movie star Grace Kelly, but after her marriage to Prince Rainier her films were banned in Monaco.
What to read before going:
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
Riviera – The Rise and Rise of the Côte d’Azur, by Jim Ring
Tender Is the Night, by F Scott Fitzgerald
FR Sur la route de la Côte d’Azur De Marseille à Monaco
Entrée dans la légende comme l’aire de jeu de la jet-set, la Côte d’Azur est aussi un parcours classique des voyages par la route, et le début du printemps est la période idéale pour en profiter. Démarrez le long de la bordure côtière au sud du Port de Marseille. La route swingue vers l’intérieur du pays, grimpe vers des paysages sauvages pour redescendre ensuite vers Cassis. De là, la spectaculaire Route des Crêtes suit les sommets vertigineux des falaises. C’est l’une des conduites les plus époustouflantes du sud de la France.
Bandol mérite un détour, tout comme la Corniche des Maures, où des plages exceptionnelles sont ombragées par une forêt dense, épaisse. La route qui la borde jusqu’à St Tropez est un délice, ainsi que St Tropez sans ses rues bondées de l’été. Déambulez le long de la Plage de Pampelonne, où Brigitte Bardot a tourné dans le film culte de Roger Vadim en 1956 Et Dieu créa la femme. La route de la côte ensuite contourne le Golfe de St Tropez, et les vues au-delà de Saint Raphaël sont surprenantes avant d’arriver sur le paysage étendu de Cannes, qui respire le parfum de star même en dehors de la saison. Réservez une heure au lèche-vitrine dans la rue d’Antibes, ensuite allez jeter un œil aux hôtels sur la Promenade de la Croisette.
Rejoindre Juan les Pins depuis Cannes ne prend que quelques minutes. Un groupe de splendides hôtels art déco rappellent les jours glorieux de Juan, avant la guerre, lorsque les stars dont Charlie Chaplin se prélassaient sur ses plages.
Au sortir de la ville, des manoirs discrets s’alignent le long du parcours en direction de Cap d’Antibes, et la charmante cité de Nice surgit, lorsque la route devient la flamboyante Promenade des Anglais. Allez à l’intérieur de la région vers Le Petit Palais, une magnifique demeure belle époque autrefois la maison de l’acteur Sacha Guitry.
La dernière partie du voyage est la plus familière – vous l’avez certainement vue dans la poursuite de voitures du film To Catch a Thief (La Main au collet) ou dans l’une des nombreuses publicités tournées à cet endroit. Pour un maximum de frissons et de vertiges, empruntez la Moyenne Corniche de Nice, qui se termine à Monaco.
NL Karren aan de Côte d’Azur Van Marseille naar Monaco
De Côte d’Azur is van oudsher de achtertuin voor al wie rijk en beroemd is. Het is echter ook een klassieke bestemming voor adembenemende autoritten, vooral dan in de vroege lente. Neem de kustweg ten zuiden van de haven van Marseille. De weg slingert het binnenland in, klimt door een ruig rotslandschap en daalt af naar Cassis. Daarna volgt de spectaculaire Route des Crêtes de kustlijn met duizelingwekkende kliffen. Het is een van mooiste routes in Zuid-Frankrijk.
Bandol is charmant, net als de Corniche des Maures, waar prachtige stranden worden overschaduwd door dichte dennenbossen. De rit naar Saint-Tropez en het stadje zelf zijn hemels, zeker zonder de zomerdrukte. Wandel aan de Plage de Pampelonne, waar Brigitte Bardot ronddartelde in Roger Vadims film Et Dieu créa la femme uit 1956. Verderop volgt de kustweg de baai van Saint-Tropez. Voorbij Saint-Raphaël bereik je na een aantal adembenemende vergezichten de sterrenstad Cannes, die ook buiten het seizoen schittert. Spendeer een uurtje in de boetieks van de rue d’Antibes voor je naar de hotels aan de Promenade de la Croisette trekt.
Van Cannes is het maar enkele minuten rijden naar Juan-les-Pins. Prachtige art-decohotels herinneren aan de vooroorlogse hoogdagen van Juan, toen sterren als Charlie Chaplin er over het strand struinden.
Volg de weg langs discrete sterrenvilla’s naar Cap d’Antibes. Eenmaal in Nice gaat de kustweg over in de flamboyante Promenade des Anglais. Trek het binnenland in tot aan Le Petit Palais. Die mooie villa uit de belle époque was ooit het eigendom van acteur Sacha Guitry.
De laatste etappe zal je misschien vertrouwd lijken. Je kan ze herkennen van de achtervolgingsscène in To Catch a Thief of van een van de vele autoreclames die hier worden opgenomen. Voor de ultieme kick volg je de Moyenne Corniche van Nice tot in Monaco.
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