Here’s some great budget accommodation in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins on the Mediterranean coast. Both these places, located on either side of the Cap d’Antibes but a short distance apart, are particularly popular holiday destinations, so hotels tend to be relatively expensive. But there’s some good budget accommodation that I’ve discovered on my trips there.

Rates

Book as far in advance as you can to get the best rates. They will vary according to which season you choose. Generally the high season runs July and August and mostly into September. Some places give specific dates; others are vague. Remember that all prices these days are fluid, except for bed and breakfasts which have fixed prices throughout the year.

The prices shown here are for double rooms for 2 people per night; breakfast is per person. Most of the hotels, and some of the bed and breakfasts, will have triple and family rooms as well. So pick the accommodation you like the most and go from there.

I have included two hotels which are more expensive (Hôtel Juan Beach and Hôtel Mademoiselle, both in Juan-les-Pins). But they are excellent value out of season, and very enjoyable hotels at any time of the year so I’ve got these in this list as well.

Bed and Breakfast in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins

If you prefer something a little less hotel like, try a bed and breakfast. They provide good budget accommodation in Antibes/Juan-les-Pins

L’Air du Temps

There are 3 bedrooms and one small apartment in this pretty Provençal house with its sand coloured exterior and tiled floors. It was built by the present owners, the Scassus, and its delightful rooms have individual character. Mitsouko has a chandelier and a pink/red colour scheme; Vent vert’s green walls are echoed in the garden you step into from French doors. There’s a terrace to laze on, a garden to look at and a pool to swim in or take breakfast beside. Rates include breakfast.

Villa Plein Sol

This bed and breakfast has just three spacious, ground-floor rooms, elegantly decorated with antiques. Just five minutes on foot to the beaches of Juan-les-Pins, the stone-built house is restful and welcoming and has a terraced garden. Take a lazy breakfast outside, and if it rains there’s a communal room with books and games. Rates include breakfast.

Hotels in Antibes

La Jabotte

Tucked down a lane leading to the Salis beach, La Jabotte is a rare and unexpected one-off. It has just 9 rooms, 7 of them on a private terrace looking onto a shared patio, and 2 of them on the first floor of the main hotel. No TVs in the rooms around the terrace for peace and quiet, an attraction that is fiercely protected by the owner. Rooms are prettily decorated in rustic style; bathrooms are very good. There’s a delightful breakfast room which doubles as the reception area, full of odd objects on the walls. The musical can try the keyboard or take down one of the guitars hanging on the walls and don their inner folk star. They have a 24h/24h bar and snacks on site.

There’s a sauna (and also wellness massages), and private parking, plus free bicycle and kayak rental (subject to availability). They provide everything you need for the beach from parasols to towels. There’s a very cheap laundry service which is great if you’re staying some time.

Take their delightful little tuk tuk ride through Antibes. And for a late check-out, like the Hotel Cecil, there is a shower guests can use before setting off.

Hôtel La Place

Centrally located near the old town, but just enough off the main streets to be peaceful, this hotel is delightful. It’s owned by Bernadette Walberer who will probably be there to greet you. 14 rooms on three floors, each with its own fresh and muted colour scheme, are well sized and recently refurbished. Bathrooms are equally good. Book the corner bedroom with its balcony overlooking the street. Take breakfast in the downstairs restaurant or outside on the terrace. The restaurant also acts as a bar and has good plates of cheeses and charcuterie during the day. There is no lift in the hotel.

Modern Hôtel

Right in the heart of Antibes this is the place for a budget stay if you like being in the centre of the action. A few minutes from the outdoor market, the old town and the beaches, it’s near most of the small restaurants. 19 bedrooms are small, plain and functional, but pleasant; atmosphere is friendly and casual. There’s also a small bedroom with kitchenette and small bathroom on the top floor with its own entrance. It’s now run by the grandchildren of the original owners, so you’ll be greeted by Laurence, Jean-Marie or Vincent Fecheno.

Hotels in Juan-les-Pins

Beau Site

Near the small Garoupe beach on the Cap, the 29 rooms are simply but prettily decorated with old wooden furniture in a style dating back to the 18^th century. Views from the windows and balconies look to the sea or the mountains or onto the tree-filled garden. There’s a bar, a decent sized swimming pool and a shady terrace and bicycles to rent. There’s also a suite, plus a studio let by the week.

Eden Hôtel – La Baigneuse

A hop, skip and a jump from the beaches of Juan-les-Pins, the three-star Eden Hotel offers good value for money. The 1930s building looks just like a proper seaside hotel and has 17 refurbished, simply decorated bedrooms, with the ones at the front offering views down the street to the sea. You can take breakfast on the terrace. A major plus of the hotel is the warm welcome from the family who own it.

Hôtel Alexandra

Built at the end of the 19^th century, this 3-star family run hotel has high ceilings and a definite belle epoque feel. 20 good sized rooms are simply furnished in pretty colours. Some have garden views; others overlook the street. You can take breakfast in the pretty garden.

Hôtel Cecil

This is a real find and is my favourite of the small 3-star hotels in Juan-les-Pins. Bought by a Parisian couple five years ago, the hotel has been completely refurbished, re-opening as a boutique hotel a year ago. You’re welcomed by the owner, Delphine Boffy, whose expertise in décor is obvious as soon as you walk into the spacious breakfast room with its modern and quirky items. This is where you take a very good breakfast sourced from bio ingredients. Corridors are bright and airy with each room distinguished by specially commissioned wallpaper, which is echoed inside the room. Beds are a good size, there’s enough cupboard space and bathrooms are well done. One has a free-standing bath (all the rest have showers). There’s a little garden and a small terrace, and unusually for a small hotel here, an elevator.

Finally, there’s a small touch that other hotels should copy. A former single room is now a shower/WC with an iron and ironing board. Guests can use this if they arrive early when rooms are not ready or leave late after check-out. It’s free for guests and means you can have a last-minute swim, take a shower and leave for the airport on your final day. Genius!

Hôtel Des Mimosas

This pretty, three-storey hotel built in the early 1900s is surrounded by a delightful garden full of palm trees and flowering plants. The 34 bedrooms have been refurbished and are a good size and some have balconies overlooking the greenery. There’s an outdoor pool, bar and TV room. Free parking. Book for a minimum of 2 nights only.

Hôtel La Marjolaine

This modest two-star hotel has small rooms in a rather quirky building. It’s in a moderately quiet street and has a terrace-cum-garden in the front. The 16 rooms are old fashioned but delightful. There’s a small lounge and it has private parking.

Hôtel Mademoiselle

This small 3-star boutique hotel of 14 rooms is distinctive and quirky. It’s more expensive than the other hotels in this list, but worth it. Each room is different; some with bold colours; others with eccentric decorations like plaster rhino heads on the walls, or lamps that look like small clouds. It’s all done with style. There’s a small pool, an honesty bar and better than average in-room items like a Nespresso machine in each room. They can also provide meals as part of their room service, and special gluten free breakfasts.

Hôtel Juan Beach

White and blue, just like a seaside hotel should be, and close to the Juan-les-Pins beaches, this 3-star Art Deco 24-room hotel is bright, welcoming and just out of the main frenzy of the resort. Set back slightly from a quiet road, choose a room with a balcony overlooking the small heated swimming pool at the front. There’s no elevator but ground floor rooms. Take breakfast on the terrace in front of the pool or in the charming bar opposite where there’s an open log fire for chilly days. Again, it’s more expensive than most of the hotels here, and particularly during the big events like the Cannes Film Festival when it’s very popular and fully booked way in advance.

La Bastide du Bosquet

La Bastide du Bosquet is an 18^th-century, pink-washed house beautifully restored and now an elegant house to rent out for 4 to 7 nights. Pretty rooms overlook the garden of palm trees and laurels where you can take breakfast, and there’s a good library of books and family games making this a home from home, Provençale style. Guy de Maupassant wrote short stories and his novel Mont Orio while staying here in 1886.

And for a bit of sightseeing…

…You can’t come to this part of France without visiting the Queen of the Mediterranean. Here’s a short guide to what to do and see in Nice.

Check out the local Provence markets in Antibes and nearby

Guide to Provence

The French Riviera has always attracted the famous, literary, the outlandish and writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read Lisa Gerard Sharp’s take on the Riviera – Great Gatsby Style and walk in their footsteps.

More on Hotels in France

Here is information on the best cheap and good value hotel chains in France.

And if you are in Normandy visiting the D-Day Landing beaches, these are the hotels to book.

The post Budget Accommodation in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The works of one of the most important Post-Impressionist artists fill the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi.

But how much do we know about this diminutive figure, one of the most important Post-Impressionist artists, ranked with Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin?

Who was this small man who wore a pince nez, always sported a hat and walked with a stick? What was his family background? What was his relationship to the women he painted with such passion? What was his life like in Paris, among the bohemians, the intellectuals, the prostitutes, dancers and generally disgraceful lot who lived in Montmartre?

The Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi has some of the answers.

Those famous posters…

Everyone starts with those glorious, exuberant posters of the dancers who performed in the decadent nightclubs of 19^th-century Paris. I fell in love with them and the whole idea of the decadent demi-monde Parisian life at the age of 16. My bedroom walls were plastered with those images.

There’s so much more to discover about Toulouse-Lautrec so start in Albi. In the Midi-Pyrénées region of France, this was the city of his birth and early life. Much of the surrounding countryside has Toulouse-Lautrec connections.

Albi’s cathedral and the catholic supremacy

Albi is dominated by the buildings of the catholic church which stand at the heart of the walled medieval Episcopal City. The enormous red brick cathedral glowers over the surrounding countryside. Begun in 1282, it was intended to intimidate, to remind the population after the brutal suppression of the Albigensian, or Cathar heretics that the Catholic church reigned supreme.

Go on a cold, wet day and the cathedral takes on a menacing feel. You can imagine the locals scurrying past keeping their eyes on the ground, eager to get home and close their solid wooden doors against the authorities and the Inquisition. Medieval Albi was a dangerous place.

TIP: If you want a good novel on the times, read Zoe Oldenbourg’s book The World is Not Enough and its sequel, The Cornerstone. All medieval life is there in this seductive tale of a love affair and a noble family living through the time of the heresy.

Le Palais de la Berbie

Le Palais de la Berbie or Bishop’s Palace stands right beside the cathedral, as imposing and menacing as its neighbour. It was a fortress, a castle to keep the bishops and Albi safe but after the French Revolution lost its purpose.

The idea of a turning the Bishop’s Palace into a municipal museum was first mooted in 1905, just four years after Toulouse-Lautrec’s death. It was intended to be just another museum displaying local Roman finds. Then Maurice Joyant, Lautrec’s long-standing friend and art dealer, suggested that the new museum take the local artist’s many paintings that were in his possession and in Toulouse-Lautrec’s atelier.  

With major donations, many from Lautrec’s family, the collection grew to over 1,000 paintings, posters, drawings and sketches. In 1922 it became the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum.

But it was crowded and unable to show many of the works. So in 2012 the museum re-opened in its present magnificent building.

The life of Toulouse-Lautrec revealed

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (to give him his full name) was born in 1864. He died in relative obscurity in 1901 aged just 37 of a surfeit of the good life, alcohol and syphilis.   

Step into the museum and you step into Lautrec’s life. The first rooms give a glimpse of his early years plus intimate self portraits. There’s a drawing showing his adult body on top of his short legs, the result of a genetic disorder that stopped his legs growing after he broke them, the right leg at the age of 13, and the left a year later.

Early works

There are many surprises to discover and relish. He was a superb painter of animals, of his favorite dogs and particularly of horses and riders, a skill he learnt early in his life from René Princeteau, a friend of his father.

In the same room are some wonderful early portraits of his family and friends.

Toulouse-Lautrec the chef

A delightful painting by Edouard Vuillard shows him cooking. Later on in the museum come the menus he devised and the drawings he sketched on the invitations he sent to his friends.

He loved cooking for his friends, seeing a meal as a celebration every time he completed a painting or a poster. And there were many such occasions. After his death, Maurice Joyant collected his recipes and published them in a delightful book, The Art of Cooking. Along with Toulouse-Lautrec’s images come some startling recipes.

Toulouse-Lautrec the artist

You get glimpses of the influence of Degas on Toulouse-Lautrec in the paintings of dancers. Japanese ukiyo-e prints were another source of inspiration, not only in the style but also the subject matter. Many of the 18^th– and 19^th-century Japanese prints were of the Floating World. Shut off from the rest of the world, an artificial demi-monde was created to keep the samurai, and the rising middle classes, occupied while Japan was a closed country, shut off from the rest of the world.

Nightclubs and brothels

Then you move into familiar territory and the brothel scenes of Montmartre and the nightclubs of Paris where he spent much of his time in the 1880s. His dancers appeared at the Jardin de Paris and the Ambassadors. Most famous of all was the Moulin Rouge which opened in 1889 and took off when Toulouse Lautrec produced his flamboyant posters.

Dancer, prostitutes and friends

He painted La Goulue (‘The Glutton’), the French can-can dancer who performed at the Moulin Rouge, Her nickname came from picking up a customer’s glass and downing the contents in one.

He captured the jerky dances of Jane Avril, nicknamed La Mélinite who always covered her excessively long fingers with black gloves. Her style was described as being like ‘an orchid in a frenzy’ which conjures up all kinds of bizarre images. Looking at Toulouse-Lautrec’s poster, you get the sense of the description.

He caught the flamboyance of the cabaret artist Aristide Bruant, who wore a large black hat, cape and bright red scarf flung around his neck.

He depicted Yvette Guilbert in bright yellow, performing a selection of monologues which were referred to as ‘patter songs’, in effect a forerunner of today’s rap artists. She was admired by many including the English painter William Rothenstein who wrote about seeing her at the Moulin Rouge for the first time:

“…a young girl appeared, of virginal aspect, slender, pale, without rouge. Her songs were not virginal – on the contrary…”

She, like many others painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, was an extraordinary woman. She became a collector and expert on historic French folk songs. She died in 1944, aged 79 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

The end of Toulouse-Lautrec’s life

Then you see the late paintings produced after he left the sanatorium in Neuilly-sur-Seine where he was being treated for alcoholism. Returning to Paris, he added the circus to his subjects.  

He died in September 1901, aged just 36, at his mother’s château de Malromé in Saint-André-du-Bois. He is buried in the Cimetière de Verdelais in the Gironde, just a few kilometres away from the château.

More to see at the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi

The Toulouse-Lautrec collection is undoubtedly the main reason for visiting the Palais de la Berbie. But there’s a lot more, including an ancient room with a beautiful medieval floor of glazed terracotta tiles uncovered during the restoration. Take time to wander around the delightful garden.

There’s also a final series of galleries full of the works that filled the first museum. By this time, I had had enough which was a pity. If you can, pace yourself or allow yourself enough time as there are two more galleries with some significant 16^th- to 18^th-century paintings.

There’s also the long Amboise gallery with a ceiling that was again uncovered in the restoration, shaped like the hull of an upside-down boat and beautifully decorated. It’s worth saving some energy for this gallery; it has excellent images and information on Toulouse-Lautrec and his life and times.

I left the museum with a real affection for this artist who was such a genius, but clearly a man with a great zest for life despite his physical difficulties. It’s not often that a real personality comes to life through a museum.

Hotel Recommendation in Albi

I stayed at the Hotel Alchimy, a 4-star hotel just a 5-minute walk from the medieval centre. It’s in an old building renovated into a boutique hotel with an Art Deco feel. Each room is different; mine was Roman Empire with pictures of classical ruins and imperious portraits. A small entrance room led into a large bedroom and a marble bathroom of definitely Roman aspirations (huge bath which was very Roman), great shower (which was very modern), and acres of space). There’s a great brasserie with locally sourced ingredients, a good outdoor terrace for summer dining and a classically styled restaurant. This is a splendid hotel, well worth the expense.
Hotel Alchimy
10-12 Place du Palais
81000 Albi
Tel: +33(0)5 63 76 18 18
Website

Discover more about the Tarn

Tarn Tourist Website.
Check out all the official information about the Tarn on this website, including the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi.

Getting to the Tarn

Easyjet offers direct flights between London Gatwick and Toulouse up to 3 times a day during the summer months.

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Location

Getting to the Iles de Lérins is easy, it’s just a wonderful 15 to 20 minute ferry ride. And they are fabulous, these secret islands off Cannes. So here are the reasons to go! The Iles de Lérins represent the Mediterranean in miniature. The two islands are so near to chic but consumerist Cannes, yet so far away in spirit. This is the quiet Côte d’Azur before the cinema crowd moved in. Even the breezy crossing is cool Cannes – without the bling or billionaire company. While away an afternoon over a waterside picnic, enjoy a wine tasting with monks, or walk past creeks to the next dip in turquoise waters.

Both islands are made for walking, picnicking, swimming, snoozing and dreaming. Come for spiritual sustenance on the monastic island of Saint Honorat. The Cistercian brothers will also tempt you with their Bordeaux-style wines, monastic liqueurs and Mediterranean feasts in their island restaurant.

Whether picnicking or praying, come to clear your head of Cannes. There’s only so much chic boutique-hopping most mortals can take. And the unworldly Brothers are better salesmen too.

The article The Iles de Lérins off Cannes tells you all you need to know about visiting the islands: walking, swimming, wine tasting and dining.

Getting to the Iles de Lérins

It’s a short crossing to the car-free islands from Cannes (15-20 minutes) and slightly longer from La Napoule. You can’t visit both islands on one boat trip: return to Cannes for the second cruise or, even better, do it another day, combined with the ravishing Corniche d’Or cruise of the Esterel Coast.

Getting to Ile Sainte Marguerite

Ile Sainte Marguerite: do the boat trip from Cannes, Mandelieu La Napoule, Golfe Juan, or Nice. Different companies offer different ports of departure. It’s quickest (and cheapest) from Cannes, followed by La Napoule, Golfe Juan and Nice. If cruising from Nice, treat it as a day trip to include the Corniche d’Or (Esterel Coast) as well. Try a variant on the basic cruise, combining Sainte Marguerite with a dinner cruise, regatta, fireworks display, catamaran cruise, or a sail along the Corniche d’Or.

Compagnie Riviera Lines
Quai Laubeuf
06400 Cannes
Tel: +33 (0)4 92 98 71 31
Website

Cannes to Sainte Marguerite
Daily departures from 7.30am to 7pm (the crossing takes 15 minutes). Return services run from 7.45am to 6pm.
Return tickets: 15€ adults, 13.50 € for students, 11 to 14 years and seniors, 9.50€ for children 5 to 10 years; free for children under 5.

Cannes to Sainte Marguerite and the Corniche d’Or, the ‘Golden Coast’
Return tickets 34€ adults, 22€ children 4 to 10 years. Under 4 years free
Departures: April 4 to September 9: Wednesday and Friday
July 1 to August 30: Monday, Wednesday and Friday
This glorious trip combines the island and one of the loveliest stretches of coast on the Riviera.

Golfe Juan to Sainte Marguerite and the Corniche d’Or, the ‘Golden Coast’
Return tickets from Golfe Juan: 39€ adult, 28€ children 4 to 10 years. Under 4 years free
Same departure dates and times as for Cannes to Sainte Marguerite

Trans Côte d’Azur
Quai Laubeuf
06400 Cannes
Tel: +33 (0)4 92 98 71 30
Website

Cannes to Sainte Marguerite
Daily departures from Cannes run from 7.30am to 6pm (the crossing takes 15 minutes). Return services run from 7.45am to 6pm.
Return tickets: 15€ adults, 13.50€ students, 11 to 14 years and seniors, 9.50€ for the under 10, free for children under 5. Book online for a discount on these prices (tickets are valid for one month).

Nice to Sainte Marguerite
Departures from Nice run from 9am for 10am-6pm on Sainte Marguerite returning to Nice at 7pm for this full day cruising.
Dates: May 21 to June 30 and September 3 to 29: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
July 2 to September 1: daily except Mondays.
Return tickets: 41€ adults, 32€ children 4 to 10 years. Under 4 years free
Book online or by tel: (+33) (0)4 92 00 42 30

Nice to Sainte Marguerite and the Corniche d’Or
Departures from Nice 9am, return 7pm full day cruising to both islands
Dates: July 3 to August 30
Return tickets: 50€ adults, 40€ children 4 to 10 years. Under 4 years free
Book online or by tel: (+33) (0)4 92 00 42 30
Also cruises to see the fireworks off Cannes around Bastille Day, Monaco Grand Prix, Regattas and Flea Markets in St Tropez

Compagnie Maritime Napouloise
La Napoule Port
Tel: (+33) (0)6 25 33 40 84
Website

Mandelieu-La Napoule cruise to Sainte Marguerite
Departures: from 9.15am to 5.30pm returning from 9.40am to 6pm.
Dates: May 19 to September 22 daily except Mondays
Return ticket: 19€ adults, students, 11 to 14 years and seniors 17.50€. Under 4 years free

Mandelieu-La Napoule cruise to Sainte Marguerite and the Esteril
Catamaran cruise departures: May-September, Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm inc the chance to snorkel and bathe and meal on board.
Tickets: 108€ adults, 66€ children 4 to 10 years.
Half day afternoon tours are 3 to 5pm and cost 57€ adults and 47€ children 4 to 10 years.
See the website for more cruises.
They also depart from Théoule-sur-Mer.

Getting to Ile Saint Honorat

Ile Saint Honorat: there are fewer crossings to St Honorat as the resident monks value their privacy. Leave from Cannes on the island’s only ferry line, Planaria, and you can combine a visit with magnificent Corniche d’Or cruise.

Ile Saint Honorat
Planaria
Quai Laubeuf
06400 Cannes
Tel: +33 (0)4 92 98 71 38
Website

Cannes to St Honorat: (15 minute-crossing):
Daily departures hourly from 8am to 5pm. Return hourly from 8.30am to 5.30pm.
Return tickets booked online: 14.50€ adults; 14€ students, disabled and seniors; 13€ 13 to 18 year olds; 8.50€ 8 to 13 year olds, 5.50€ 4 to 8 year olds; children under 4 go free.
Check out the website for other possibilities like wine tastings.

Cannes – Office du Tourisme Palais des Festivals
1, Boulevard de la Croisette
06400 Cannes
Tel: (+) 33 (0)4 92 99 84 22
Website
Open daily, 9am-7pm, March-October
Cannes hotel booking on line

Walk to the hidden coves, go swimming off the rocks, take a picnic and chill out under the trees. Or see where The Man in the Iron Mask was incarcerated.
Check it all out here.

More about the South of France
Travel Guide to Nice
The Riviera – Great Gatsby Style
Essential Guide to Provence

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Two islands make up the Ile de Lérins off Cannes. Just a peaceful 15-minute boat ride from the glitzy resort, these islands are the place to unwind, enjoying a waterside picnic, swimming in hidden coves, wandering around the Abbey, and tasting monastic award-winning wines.

A little history

The islands have been occupied since Roman times but followed very different paths. While Saint Honorat has always been associated with peace and prayer, Sainte Marguerite has been more warlike.

In AD 410 St Honoratus landed on Saint Honorat, his private paradise, but word spread and soon the hermit had a successful monastery on his hands, including the future St Patrick as a disciple. By the fifth century, this was arguably the most illustrious monastery in Christendom. It eventually controlled abbeys and land stretching from the Cannes coast to the Loire Valley. A small community of Cistercian monks still runs the island.

Instead, the island of Sainte Marguerite chose war. In the 1630s, the island was occupied by the Spanish, who built a pentagonal fort on an ancient Roman site. Under French royal rule, the fort was finished and became a feared state prison, including for political prisoner and religious dissenters. The mysterious inmate known as ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’ was held there for 11 years from 1687 to 1698. The so-called Fort Royal is still formidable today.

Touring Ile Sainte Marguerite

The island of Sainte Marguerite is the closest, largest and lushest of the secret Iles de Lérins off Cannes. From the ferry, it’s a gentle five-mile circuit around the shore, but there are lots of short cuts back to the fort and the ferry landing stage. To get a sense of the island as a place of pillage and plunder, visit the Fort Royal first. For a picnic, choose one of the wilder creeks on the southern side of the island, along the Allée de Ceinture, or the lofty grounds of the Fort Royal, looking across the bay towards Cannes.

Fort Royal

From the pier, take a left towards the pentagonal Fort Royal, the island’s star attraction. This cliff-top stronghold and former prison overlooks Cannes and the coast, with romantic views from the ramparts. The Fort Royal was built by Cardinal Richelieu but remodelled by Vauban, the great military architect. During World War Two, the occupying Nazis added bunkers and a look-out tower.

The fort is most famous for being the prison of ‘the Man in the Iron Mask’. The mysterious masked captive was confined here for 11 years and might conceivably have been Louis XIV’s twin brother, or even a woman. His cell is oddly moving.

Behind the former prison is the Maritime Museum (Musée de la Mer) with a Roman boat and a collection of pottery recovered from ancient shipwrecks.

From here, if feeling lazy, take the Allée des Eucalyptus, where stately trees line the way to the wilder, southern shore, with its rocky coastline and sea breezes. Cars are banned so you should have the coves, trails and turquoise waters mostly to yourself, except in summer. The perfect micro climate means that the island is often balmy in April, even when clouds hang over the Cannes hills.

Instead, if feeling more energetic, retrace your steps from the fort to the pier and follow the coastal path in an anti-clockwise direction. Pass the island’s only proper beaches, between the pier and Pointe de Batéguier, to the Etang du Batéguier nature reserve. In spring and autumn this brackish lake is a welcome landing stage for migratory birds. Even outside these times you might spot herons, stern and wild duck, or a kestrel overhead. All proof that the island is attuned to birdsong not bling.

From here, follow the Chemin de Ceinture path, which hugs the waterfront and runs west to east the 3km length of the island. It takes you to the wilder waterfront, facing the contemplative monks, not consumerist Cannes. The dizzyingly natural scents evoke Corsica not Cannes. Breathe in the scented bush, a mix of eucalyptus and thyme, lentisk and lavender, honeysuckle and heather.In the secluded coves, it’s hard to believe that Cannes’ star-studded Croisette is just over a mile away.

For swimming, sensible sorts choose one of the island’s rare sandy beaches, facing Cannes, close to Chemin du Batéguier. Romantics and yachties prefer the wilder southern shore facing away from the city. Here, the coastline is riddled with tiny, crooked coves made for sunbathing and swimming. Edged by Aleppo pines and scorched brush, the creeks fill up with smug yachties in high summer.

Keep following the trail east, rounding the windswept Pointe de la Convention to reach the tamer northern shore. After a picnic or gourmet lunch, amble back to the jetty and chug home to Cannes. If rushing for a boat, cut across the forested interior via the tunnel-like paths.

Where to eat

Ponder a Mediterranean picnic of ham, cheese and olives picked up at Forville market in Cannes, before the cruise. Or try these places restaurants.

Visiting Ile Saint Honorat

Saint Honorat is tucked behind Sainte Marguerite, and easily overlooked. It’s not quite as accessible as its big sister – exactly as the monks like it. Even so, in August, the flotilla of moored yachts almost makes a bridge between the two islands. Sadly, you can’t hop across, but need to take the ferry from Cannes. It’s all part of preserving the monks’ peaceful way of life. This serene, mile-long island has been a place of prayer for over 1,500 years, bar the odd piratical invasion.

Monastic Life

The island is still a heady mix of scented paths, swaying umbrella pines and wafting monks. Around twenty Cistercian brothers share their retreat with the world. These black-and-white cassocked monks are among the holiest and happiest you’ll ever meet. As Brother Marie-Paques, the abbey spokesman says, “a community life means joy and inner peace.”

The community is contemplative and cloistered, as St Benedict envisioned. Their tenets are work, love, pray and self-sufficiency, an extension of the Benedictines’ devotion to “ora e labora” (`work and prayer’). It’s about simplicity, stripping life down to its essence, including communal prayers seven times a day. But these austere monks also observe the ancient Benedictine tradition of hospitality. You are welcome to join them for Sunday Mass, Vespers or even a spiritual retreat.

Take a clockwise tour of the island, respecting the monks’ private domain, signalled by symbols of cassocked monks. Resisting their gated pathways strewn with wild geraniums, hug the coast and you can’t go wrong. From the jetty, head east, passing well-tended vineyards and olive groves. On the east of the island are tiny bays and ruined chapels, a reminder that some date back over a millennium. Curiously, the island is also dotted with furnaces that forged cannonballs in Napoleonic times.

The fortified monastery is the most romantic building, standing sentinel on the southern shore, facing the open sea. Soon to be restored, this stark medieval citadel defended the community against Saracen raids.It is without equal in the Mediterranean. Climb the eerie staircase to the roof terraces for views over the honey-tinted abbey and the mountains beyond across the water.

The Abbey

From here, a path leads to the handsome abbey, mostly dating from the 19^th century. The abbey complex is worked by the twenty-strong monks, who toil in the vineyards, lavender beds and herb gardens. The black-and-white cassocked Brothers can be wafting through the wisteria-hung cloisters towards the winery. As monastic tradition dictates, the fragrant herbs often end up in potent liqueurs, fortified by Menton lemons and secret brews.

The abbey church is most compelling at Easter Day Mass, when the simple but heartfelt `service of light’ justifies the crossing. If doing a retreat here, you can even join the monks in the Saturday night Easter Vigil, held before sunrise on Easter Day. Later, if you are lucky enough to bump into the beaming Frere Marie-Pacques, he might be toasting the Resurrection with a glass of abbey wine.

Spirits for the spiritual

There have probably been vineyards here since the foundation of the abbey as wine was needed for Holy Communion. Brother Marie-Pâques, in charge of wine-making, began as a beekeeper before God called him to serve. Today, the 8-hectare vineyards are renowned for their unique terroir that produces wines of great subtlety, helped by the temperate, maritime climate and the minerality of the soil. After tasting the abbey wines, whether St Honorat or St Saveur, sacrilegious visitors have been known to cry: “Hallelujah, there is a god!”

If keen on Bordeaux-style wines, toast the monks in their own brew: Brother Marie-Pâques is certain that the island vineyards offer a unique ‘terroir’ that is behind the striking freshness and minerality of the wines, reinforced by the salty air and marine breezes. Sample the renowned wines in the abbey boutique, bar or restaurant (see below). Instead, the affordable liqueurs include: Lérincello, made with Menton lemons; citrussy Lérina Jaune; and herby Lérina Verte, made with mint, aniseed and verbena.

Where to eat

La Tonnelle,  the charming waterfront restaurant, is only open for lunch. Choose from reasonably-priced grilled meats, seafood, shellfish, foie gras and salads, matched with (pricey but special) monastic wines. This is a proper restaurant but Les Canisses (11.45am-5pm, open year-round) serves snacks such as panini, sandwiches, ice cream, coffee and cakes (lemon tart and chocolate cake for tea); lounge bar too.

Shopping in the Iles de Lérins

The islands are a shopping-free zone. But if you’re pushing the boat out, buy the renowned abbey wines (or better-value liqueurs) which can be sampled at the Abbaye de Lérins, or over the water in Cannes.

How to get to the Isles de Lérins off Cannes

More about the South of France
Travel Guide to Nice
French Riviera – Great Gatsby Style
Essential Guide to Provence

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