A scant years ago, the idea of visiting the French Riviera in the summertime was unheard of in polite society, who deemed the South of France in July and August to be far too hot and bothersome. Instead, the first-class trains and ornate horse-drawn carriages would start to arrive as the weather cooled and the first snows fell on the Alps, delivering queens and tsars, dukes and duchesses, writers and artists for a glittering winter season of parties and operas and promenading under the palms.
After buying a nearby villa the next year, they invited friends F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway for decadent, endless summers of jumping off the rocks into the sea, fabulous parties, and long boozy lunches under the shade of pine trees that buzzed with cicadas.
And so the fashion turned, quite fabulously quickly, as fashions tend to do. The French Riviera was soonβalmost resolutelyβa summertime resort, and the winter sojourn south rapidly fell out of favour. And so it has remained. Which is strange, really. For the French Riviera in the winter remains utterly breathtaking, with the mantle of snow on the Alps, a carpet of yellow mimosa flowers blanketing the marquis, and the Mediterranean Sea glittering in the winter sunshine.
For there is so much to see and do. The Christmas markets and New Year fireworks fade slowly into February, when the winter carnivals transform the coast into a riot of flower battles, float parades, and mimosa festivals. You can, quite famously, even be at the ski-fields for the morning run, before returning to lie on the beach in the afternoon.
And for those who understand the simple truth that the French Riviera must be seen from the water, luxury yachts are available for charter at remarkably reduced rates in the off season, meaning you can float along the French Riviera on a superyacht, looking up at the snow-capped Alps while you drink champagne in the heated sundeck Jacuzzi. On a winter France yacht charter , you might come into port for the opera in Monaco, have a winter picnic on the Cannes islands, shop the boutiques of Cannes, or just find a deserted anchorage to have a sunny lunch on deck, the wintry Mediterranean glittering all around.
