Côte d'Azur hotels collection

One boards the train at Menton, on the sea side, and the coast never leaves the window. Lemon trees first, then the rocks of Roquebrune, then Cap Ferrat, slipping by beneath its pines, its villas barely to be guessed at. Next comes the harbour of Villefranche, whose façades run from pink to ochre. In Nice, the old town stacks its ochres up to Castle Hill; Matisse settled there for the light and never left. One gets off at Antibes, whose ramparts face the sea; beyond them, the Cap d'Antibes keeps its gardens at the end of gravel drives.