French Riviera

For the first time in nearly a decade, French Riviera landmark Le Beauvallon will welcome guests this summer as it transitions from a private events venue to a classic hotel ahead of its rebadging under the prestigious COMO brand.

A brand-new itinerary from PONANT EXPLORATIONS will take travellers along the Côte d’Azur, aboard Le Ponant from May 2026.

French Riviera town Villefranche-sur-mer will also ban larger cruise ships, under the same decree that will see neighbouring Nice turn away ships carrying more than 900-guests.

During an unforgettable ceremony on the evening of 8 June 2023, Hôtel Belles Rives in Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera, jury members of the 2023 Prix Fitzgerald, a French literary award created in 2011 by Marianne Estène-Chauvin, President of the Francis Scott Fitzgerald Academy and owner of Belles Rives Group, announced this year’s laureate.

This week LATTE chats with Francois Gelly, Director of Sales at the historic Hôtel Belles Rives on the French Riviera. A partner property of global luxury travel networks, Virtuoso and Serandipians, and a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, the independent, waterfront hotel is represented in Australia by La Collection’s Co-Founders Lea Seguier and Craig Farrell.

Lea Seguier is now the ambassador of the Hotel Belles Rives in Cap d’Antibes within the Australian and New Zealand market.

Luxury French hotel brand, Airelles, has debuted its newest addition to the Airelles Exceptional Properties portfolio; Airelles Saint-Tropez, Château de la Messardière.

onefinestay has this month added Saint-Tropez to its growing Villa Collection, catering for today’s travellers searching for additional privacy and space, with villa rentals set to become ever more popular choice. The portfolio of 40 villas in the French Riviera have all been personally vetted for their quality, location, elegance and comfort.

Of course everyone imagines themselves on the red carpet in May at the annual Cannes Festival, formerly called the International Film Festival. Any time of year, however, Cannes is a delight.  Even in mid-winter the sun just might be shining, and as long as it is not raining local residents, usually immaculately coiffed and groomed, will be walking their poodles or other miniatures along Boulevard, or Promenade, La Croisette.

The data doesn’t lie. Hayman Island by InterContinental is back bigger than ever, and it’s making waves globally with American Express card holders. The Great Barrier Reef-based resort is the sole Australian property to feature in the newly released 2020 ‘Trending Destinations’ report compiled by American Express Travel’s accommodation platform, Fine Hotels & Resorts.

Juan-les-Pins is under-the-radar French Riviera: those who want to be seen head for Cannes or St Tropez; those who do not want to be trailed by paparazzi are more likely to head for this part of the Antibes metropolis. It goes back to time immemorial, but its modern history really kicked off when Frank-Jay Gould opened a hotel in May 1927. Two years later, Russian-born Boma Estène and his wife Simone, who came from a family of Antibes hoteliers, converted the Villa St Louis, right on the coast, to what is now the luxury Hôtel Belles Rives, part of Small Luxury. Today, says the gal, it is owned by the Estènes’ great-granddaughter, Marianne Estène-Chauvin, and run by her son, Antoine Marianne Estène-Chauvin, and their GM, Stéphane Vuillaume.