Summer on the French Riviera: Preparing a Season in Saint-Tropez, Cap Ferrat and Antibes

One hundred and thirty kilometres of coastline, from Saint-Tropez to Menton. Five centuries of villeggiatura, from the Villa Ephrussi to the contemporary villas signed by the most celebrated studios. And each summer, between May and September, the same ritual — dinners on terraces facing the sea, days on boats moving from one cape to another, nocturnal conversations in the gardens of the great houses. The Côte d’Azur is not a destination to be summarised. It is a territory one learns like a language: with patience, allowing imperfections, returning. For our clients who compose their summer between Saint-Barthélemy and the Mediterranean, the Côte offers what few other territories propose: five distinct geographical scenes, connected by sea and road, where each village becomes an atmosphere, each address an encounter. Maison Silaïa composes these summers as one composes a notebook: with names one does not mention, hours one respects, and a keen sense of what distinguishes a chosen presence from a season endured.

Five horizons, one season

The Côte d’Azur has five scenes. Saint-Tropez to the west, vivid and theatrical. Antibes and the Cap d’Antibes at the centre, heirs to a Riviera invented at the beginning of the twentieth century. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Beaulieu, small peninsulas where elegance is worn without insistence. Monaco and its heights — Roquebrune, Cap-Martin, Èze — where the Principality extends into a peaceful hinterland. Each scene has its atmosphere, its rhythm, its clientele. To confuse them is to miss what the Côte offers.

High season traditionally runs from mid-June to mid-September, with an absolute peak the last week of July and the first three of August. These six weeks transform the coast into the world capital of leisure — and would close any possibility of discretion if one did not know the parallel routes. The weeks that precede and follow — June before the crowds, September after — are nevertheless the most beautiful. Sea at twenty-four degrees, villas available, restaurants accessible, light softer, evenings less saturated.

For our clients, the challenge of a summer on the Côte is less to choose a single address than to know how to compose among several scenes. Living the Grand Prix week in Monaco, gliding towards Cap Ferrat for three days of rest, sailing to Saint-Tropez for a dinner at Pampelonne, returning to Cap d’Antibes for a family weekend. Mobility by yacht or chauffeured vehicle makes this choreography possible. It is this, rather than a single location, that constitutes the true luxury of the Côte.

Saint-Tropez and Ramatuelle: the effervescence and the hinterland

Saint-Tropez is a stage. This is its charm, it is also its constraint. The entire village plays its role between mid-June and mid-September: the port as foreground, La Ponche as backstage, Pampelonne as great theatre. For those who know how to practise it, Saint-Tropez remains one of the most beautiful summer addresses of the Mediterranean. For those who discover it in August, it can become demanding.

Villas, from the historic town to Cap des Salins

The real estate falls into three zones. The old town — La Ponche, La Citadelle, Les Carles — offers a few historic residences transformed into private homes; these addresses are rare, full of character, but do not suit large families. The Route des Salins and Cap des Salins host contemporary villas of generous proportions, accessible a few minutes by car from the centre, with gardens, pools and sometimes private beach. Finally, the Chemin de Tahiti and Ramatuelle plage give access to the most sought-after villas — garden-villas directly on Pampelonne or the road that connects it to the centre.

These villas rent between ten and sixty thousand euros per week depending on period and size, with a minimum of two weeks in high season. Negotiation opens from the preceding autumn, and the most emblematic villas are booked from one year to the next by the same families. Our teams accompany our clients at every step, from upstream identification to turnkey installation — house staff, private chef, security, boat shuttle to Pampelonne.

Tables, beach clubs and nightlife

Tropezian gastronomy lives two rhythms. During the day, the table is taken at Pampelonne: Loulou, Club 55, La Réserve à la Ramatuelle, Cucina Byblos in the shade. The beach club at the heart of a four-hour lunch is an institution. In the evening, the village centre regains its importance: La Vague d’Or, La Ponche, La Table du Mas, the great tables of the hotel industry. For the night, Byblos remains the historic address; Les Caves du Roy maintain a tradition whose clientele changes each summer without the venue itself moving.

Ramatuelle, Gassin, La Croix-Valmer: the silence of the vineyards

Less than ten minutes suffice to leave Saint-Tropez and find the hinterland. Ramatuelle, Gassin, La Croix-Valmer: three villages south of the gulf offering a more discreet alternative. Villas on wooded hills, vineyards classified AOP, beaches of L’Escalet or Gigaro. Some clients prefer to rent here and come down to Pampelonne on request; the combination offers a more restful summer without losing anything of the access to Tropezian effervescence.

“The Côte d’Azur is not a destination. It is a succession of settings, each with its hour, its light, its public.” — Maison Silaïa

Antibes and the Cap d’Antibes: the historic Riviera

Fifty kilometres further east, Antibes and its Cap offer another Riviera. Older, calmer, more familial. Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso, Chagall, the Murphys — all spent summers here. This literary and artistic sedimentation has left a mark: one stays here less to be seen than to disappear into a different rhythm.

Cap d’Antibes and its grand houses

The Cap d’Antibes concentrates, over four square kilometres, one of the highest densities of historic villas in France. Villa Eilenroc, Villa Soleil, the residences of Boulevard JF Kennedy: each address bears a name, a history, an architecture. Some have belonged to families for generations; others are transmitted through private channels and never appear on an open market. Our teams know these channels — introductions, caretakers, managers — and open access to those of our clients whose summer justifies this level of discretion.

Antibes, Juan-les-Pins: the living centre

Antibes’ old town offers the life that the Cap lacks: Provençal market, shaded alleys, Picasso Museum at Château Grimaldi, seafood tables facing the Port Vauban. Juan-les-Pins, a few kilometres away, preserves the memory of its jazz evenings and still welcomes festival-goers each July. Between the two, the pine forest and the sandy beaches — a rarity on a coast that is largely rocky.

The Eden-Roc and the bathing tradition

The Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, opened in 1870, embodies the eternal Riviera. A few suites, a pool carved into the rock, service from another era. To stay here is a choice — the more recent palaces of Monaco or Cannes cannot offer the same relationship to time. The rates reflect this rarity, reservations are made a year in advance. For our clients who already know the hotel, we secure the preferred suites; for those discovering it, we prepare the approach — which suite, which periods, which moments of the day to favour.

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Beaulieu: discreet elegance

Thirty kilometres further east, a peninsula of less than ten square kilometres concentrates what the Côte d’Azur offers of most discreet: Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Belle Époque villas, Mediterranean gardens, customs path that circles the peninsula on foot. The absence of nightlife in the strict sense: Saint-Jean is a commune that retires early, which makes it, for some of our clients, the most desirable on the Côte.

Cap Ferrat and its residences

The peninsula counts a few hundred villas, most of them family homes passed down through generations. Only a handful rent — and only through a tightly controlled network. The most emblematic houses — La Fiorentina, the modern incarnation of La Léopolda, several residences along the Chemin Saint-Hospice — welcome each summer a faithful international clientele. The Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, a historic property converted into a palace, remains the reference hotel for those who prefer hospitality to rental.

Our clients who stay at Cap Ferrat compose their days between private terrace, villa pool, small harbours — Saint-Jean or Villefranche — and journeys by boat or helicopter for days to Monaco, Saint-Tropez or Cannes. Composing your stay on the peninsula requires meticulous preparation — villa access, house staff, boat logistics — which we orchestrate over several months.

Beaulieu and Villefranche: exceptional residences

On either side of Cap Ferrat, Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Villefranche-sur-Mer complete the geography. Beaulieu offers its historic hotels, its palm-lined promenade, its bay welcoming grand yachts in transit. La Réserve de Beaulieu and the Royal-Riviera remain the reference hotel addresses. Villefranche, smaller, nestled in one of the most beautiful natural bays of the Mediterranean, keeps a village character — stepped streets, coloured houses, fishing harbour. Many of our clients use Villefranche as a yacht arrival point: the bay is protected, the mooring is safe, the transition between yacht and coast is simple.

Monaco and its heights: the Principality without the crowd

Monaco in summer is a double Principality. The lower town — Monte-Carlo, Port Hercule, the Larvotto — lives the intense season of events: Formula 1 in early June, summer regattas, Sporting Monte-Carlo evenings. The heights — Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, La Turbie, Èze, Cap-d’Ail — offer another Monaco: residential, suspended, turned towards the sea.

For our clients who come to Monaco in summer, the key question is that of the base. Residing in a Monegasque palace offers proximity to starred tables, casinos, boutiques, but exposes one to summer tourist flows. Residing on the heights — villa in La Turbie, residence in Èze, home in Roquebrune — offers calm, panoramic view, and the possibility of descending to Monaco on demand. Movements are made by chauffeur or helicopter for longer distances (Nice airport, Saint-Tropez).

The Monegasque season has its highlights: the Grand Prix in June, summer concerts at the Sporting, the Red Cross Ball in mid-July, and regattas throughout the summer. For those of our clients wishing to participate, we compose a calendar that combines presence at events and time of rest in the hinterland.

Mediterranean yachting: navigating east to west

The most beautiful way to live the Côte d’Azur in summer remains by sea. One hundred and thirty kilometres of coast, countless coves, islands — Sainte-Marguerite, Saint-Honorat, Porquerolles, Port-Cros — and the immediate proximity of Corsica, Sardinia, the Gulf of Naples. A yacht of twenty-five to sixty metres opens, in a week, what no villa can contain.

Classic itineraries are organised around three axes. The Tropezian axis, with Saint-Tropez as home port and the bays of Pampelonne, the peninsula of Saint-Hospice, the Îles d’Hyères as extensions. The central axis, from Cannes to Cap d’Antibes, with the Lérins as natural stop and the possibility of descending to Saint-Tropez or climbing to Monaco. The eastern axis, from Monaco to Corsica, passing through Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Portofino in Liguria, the Tuscan archipelago.

Charter or ownership, each configuration has its codes. Classic charterers offer fully equipped yachts with crew, captain, chef and hostess on board — the rental lasts a minimum of one week, often two in high season. Owner-clients manage their yacht with a resident crew; our role is then to compose the stages, port reservations, restaurant reservations, helicopter transfers for land days. In both cases, our work is to make navigation transparent: the bespoke experiences we compose naturally extend at sea.

“Composing a summer on the Côte is not about adding up addresses. It is about choosing when to be seen, when to disappear, and where.” — Maison Silaïa

Composing your summer: the Maison Silaïa method

A summer on the Côte d’Azur lived well is prepared from the preceding winter. We compose each stay according to a proven method, in four movements.

A confidential brief to set the intention

The first stage is a detailed conversation, conducted in the strictest confidence. Travel as a couple or with children? Reception of guests, wedding, anniversary, simple time of rest? Desire to attend certain events — Monaco Grand Prix, Cannes Film Festival, Jazz à Juan — or to avoid them? Preference for a fixed villa, circulation between several, or a base aboard a yacht? Each answer orients the composition.

Pre-positioning six to ten months ahead

The best villas are booked from the preceding autumn. Large yachts are rented from winter. Suites in the grand hotels for July and August close in spring. Our role is to activate these calendars at the right moment for our clients, to identify three or four options consistent with the brief, to visit or arrange visits, and to negotiate conditions.

Integrated logistics, tested and pre-confirmed

Transfers from Nice airport by chauffeured car or helicopter, house staff (butler, housekeeper, private chef, additional chauffeur, security where appropriate), tender or water taxi for sea movements, restaurant reservations for the entire stay, tickets for events, access to beach clubs and private clubs, wellness services at home — treatments, coach, tennis, sailing, equestrian. Each element is prepared, tested, and confirmed before arrival.

A presence that is both attentive and invisible

Throughout the stay, a single dedicated contact remains reachable. She adjusts plans in real time, organises an improvised excursion, has a forgotten piece of equipment delivered, reserves an impossible table. Her presence is not felt; her absence would be immediately perceived.

Frequently asked questions