French Riviera Trips & Tours

The French Riviera in February brings back the winter sun, with 13°C / 55°F days, crisp blue skies and hillsides turning canary-yellow with mimosa.

Menton's Lemon Festival fills the seafront gardens with towering sculptures built from tonnes of oranges and lemons.

On the Monday before Mardi Gras, flower-decked fishing boats pelt the crowds with blooms in a pastel harbour town just east of Nice.

Grasse's perfume houses run workshops where you blend your own scent (and take the bottle home), a fragrant escape on a showery day.

A vintage narrow-gauge train chugs up from Nice into the mountains, with snow-dusted views of perched villages all the way.

Côte d'Azur weather in March is a mixed bag: spring edges along the coast at 15°C / 59°F, but the sea still bites at 14°C / 57°F.

The Estérel's rust-red cliffs glow against cobalt water west of Cannes, and March is the month to hike them before the heat (and the summer fire closures) arrive.

Menton's botanical gardens burst into subtropical bloom, with citrus, bougainvillea and rare plants gathered from across the globe.

The car-free Golden Isles off Hyères are at their prettiest in spring, and the March ferries are wonderfully quiet.

Hotels and restaurants reopen after their winter break, so you'll find the coast freshly painted and pleasingly calm before Easter holidays start.

March is fickle, with bright mornings giving way to squally afternoons. Pack a raincoat alongside the sunglasses.

The Riviera in April is bright and fresh, with 17°C / 63°F days and around eight hours of sunshine.

The coastal path east of Nice curls around coves of luminous turquoise, and it's at its loveliest before the heat sets in.

Beach clubs reopen through April, so you can bag a lounger without the summer scramble.

Wild cistus and orchids flower across the coastal hills, speckling the scrub with pink and white.

The sea is still too cold for most at around 15°C / 59°F, so treat April as a month for walking and long lunches.

The French Riviera in May is warm, green and scented, with Nice at 21°C / 70°F and the sea creeping up to 18°C / 64°F.

Grasse celebrates the rose de mai with its Expo Rose in early May, when the old town is smothered in thousands of blooms.

Pickers gather rose petals at dawn in the fields around Grasse, and a handful of family estates let you watch the harvest up close.

We rate May as one of the best months on the Riviera: long evenings, terraces open and hotel rates below summer's peaks (Cannes Film Festival week aside).

Markets pile up cherries, the first strawberries and baby violet artichokes, delicious sliced raw with a glug of olive oil.

French public holidays cluster in May, and the long weekends fill the coast, so book rooms and restaurant tables early.

Summer arrives with 25°C / 77°F days, cloudless skies and a sea warm enough to tempt you in at 21°C / 70°F.

June is the smart summer month: the sea is warm, the light lingers until 9.30pm and the July crowds haven't yet descended.

Kayak or paddleboard along the Estérel's jagged red coastline, slipping into tiny coves you can only reach from the water.

Snow clears from the Valley of Wonders in Mercantour National Park, where guided hikes reveal more than 40,000 Bronze Age rock carvings.

The best beach on the Golden Isles, once voted Europe's finest, is at its loveliest before the summer ferry queues.

The Riviera in July is hot and glittering, with 28°C / 82°F days, sultry nights and a sea at 24°C / 75°F.

July is rammed: gridlocked coast roads, packed beaches and prices at their peak, so book everything well ahead if you don't mind the crowds.

Escape the heat in the mountains behind Nice, where marmots whistle and chamois graze in alpine meadows barely two hours from the beach.

Coastal towns light up the sky for Bastille Day on 14 July, and watching the fireworks from a boat is quite something.

The hottest month, with 28°C / 82°F days, 21°C / 70°F nights and the sea at its warmest, around 25°C / 77°F.

It's the priciest, busiest month and jellyfish can drift in, so check the beach flags before you plunge in.

Grasse's Jasmine Festival, on the first weekend of August, fills the streets with flower-decked floats and perfumed water sprayed over the crowds (yes, really!).

The hills behind the coast stay a few degrees cooler, and a long lunch in a shady village square beats a sizzling beach at 3pm.

September is one of the best times to visit the French Riviera, with 25°C / 77°F days and a sea still at 23°C / 73°F.

The summer rush melts away, but the sea stays warm enough for long, lazy swims in the red-rock coves west of Cannes.

Classic yacht season begins in late September, with gleaming wooden hulls and towering white sails racing across the bays.

Flamingos wade in the salt pans near Hyères, easy to spot from the little road that runs right past them.

Hotel rates dip after the first week, and waiters have time to linger over your order again.

Mellow and golden but also the wettest month, with 21°C / 70°F days and the odd torrential downpour.

Larch forests in the mountains turn a blazing gold in late October, barely 90 minutes' drive from the coast.

The sea still hovers around 21°C / 70°F early in the month, so hardy swimmers can squeeze in one last dip.

Rates tumble after mid-October, and hotels and villas on Cap Ferrat and in Menton drop to shoulder-season prices.

Beach clubs pack up from mid-October, but the coastal paths and gardens are quieter than at any time since spring.

Cooler and quiet, with 17°C / 63°F days, frequent showers and the occasional glorious bright spell.

The olive harvest begins, and mills in the hills behind the coast press peppery new oil from the region's tiny black olives.

November is the Riviera's cheapest month, with the year's lowest rates at the grand hotels that stay open.

Grasse's International Perfume Museum makes a fragrant rainy-day refuge, tracing thousands of years of scent-making.

Many seasonal hotels, beach restaurants and island ferries scale back or shut, so check before planning a day on the islands.

The Riviera in December is mild by winter standards, with 14°C / 57°F days, clear skies and snow on the Alps behind the palms.

Short days and widespread closures, especially in Saint-Tropez and on the islands, mean December suits a city base such as Nice.

Snow-capped peaks rising behind the palm trees make a surreal (and rather lovely) backdrop to walks along the coast.

Christmas markets and ice rinks pop up in the coastal towns, and hand-painted Provençal nativity figures fill the shop windows.