It was the magical light that first drew artists such as Picasso, Matisse and
Dufy to the French Mediterranean coast and earned it the name Côte d’Azur.
Then came the Cannes Film Festival, the beach clubs of St Tropez, topless
bathers and Brigitte Bardot. For more than 30 years the Riviera was the
essence of glamour, the place to be during the heady month of August.
This year, however, the gilded hotels are struggling. Luxury villas with
private pools stand empty. The reasons offered are many: the Côte d’Azur has
been abandoned by young revellers in favour of Ibiza or Sardinia; too many
Brits now own houses in Provence and are letting them to friends; last
summer was too hot.
While hoteliers and villa owners wring their hands, canny holidaymakers are
rubbing theirs together in glee. Prices are tumbling, with some villas
reduced by 40% and hotel rates down by as much as 60%. What’s more, flights
are good value: jetting down to Nice in August or early September ordinarily
costs several hundred pounds, but last week British Airways had returns from
£91. Some train fares are heavily discounted, too: Motorail has cut some
prices by a staggering 80%.
Fashion is cyclical. Next year, Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo might be all the
rage and prices will shoot up again. Now is the time to take advantage.
Hotel packages
THE RENOWNED Hotel Martinez (www.hotel-martinez.com), on the Croisette in Cannes,
is normally booked solid in summer, but this year it has an enticing deal:
stay for three nights and get a fourth free. The price of £435pp includes
British Airways flights from Gatwick to Nice, departing on September 1, with
Cresta Holidays (0870 333 3303, www.crestaholidays.co.uk). Transfers cost
extra.
The medieval town of Mougins, where Picasso set up home, sits
on a hill overlooking Cannes, surrounded by ancient olive groves and cypress
trees. A short stroll from the centre is Le Mas Candille, a luxury hotel
converted from an 18th-century farmhouse. It has exceptional views, a large
pool and a Shiseido spa. A week’s B&B, with car hire and flights
from Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester, now costs £991 — saving £318 — with
Kirker Holidays (0870 112 3333, www.kirkerholidays.com) for departures any
time until September 27.
In Nice, the Palais de la Méditerranée is a new luxury hotel
behind a 1930s art-deco facade, on the Promenade des Anglais. A week’s B&B
in September, including BA flights and private car transfers, costs from
£995 — saving £130 — with Carrier (01625 547050, www.carrier.co.uk), and
you’ll get a free upgrade to a sea-view room.
Book independently
IF YOU’VE never put together your own independent package — buying flights and
hotels on the internet — now might be a good time to start. The south of
France is easy: there are plenty of cheap air and rail fares, and hoteliers
are so desperate for your business that they’ll bend over backwards to help.
Here’s a selection of the hotels and villas bidding for your business.
HOTELS
The Cavendish (00 33 4 97 06 26 00, www.cavendish-cannes.com), which claims to
be the first designer hotel in Cannes, normally charges
£166 per night in summer, but has a special offer throughout August and
September: a four-night stay for two people for £312, including breakfast
and a free bar between 5pm and 11pm. For £417, two people can stay for five
nights, get breakfast, the free bar and access to the hotel’s private beach
with sunbeds, towels and parasols and daily limousine transfers to and from
the seafront.
Le Grimaldi (00 33 4 93 16 00 24, www.le-grimaldi.com), a chic boutique hotel
overlooking the Old Town of Nice and a minute’s walk from
the Promenade des Anglais, has a four-night package for two people that
costs £469, saving £111. The deal, available until October 31, includes
breakfast and a VIP day at the beach with a three-course lunch and wine.
In Cannes, the Château de la Tour
(www.hotelduchateaudelatour.com) has five nights for the price of four until
September 5 when booked through Special Hotels of the World (0800 032 4254,
www.shotw.com); doubles cost from £97 per night, room-only.
In St Tropez, La Tartane (00 33 4 94 97 21 23,
www.latartane.com) is a charming hideaway and a member of Small Luxury
Hotels of the World. It has discounts of 10% for the remainder of the
season: a double with breakfast costs £300 per night between August 20 and
29 and £219 from August 30 to September 19.
L’Auberge at the Château de Berne (00 33 4 94 60 48 88,
www.berneauberge.co.uk), near the village of Lorgues, has
four nights for two people during August for £1,408, a 25% saving. The price
includes breakfast and a free minibar on arrival filled with Château de
Berne wines. The hotel, set on a 250-acre estate, has a cookery school, gym,
infinity pool and makes a great base for visiting the nearby Gorges du
Verdon.
In the four-star bracket, the bargains are better still. The Boscolo Hotel
Park in Nice, for instance, has savings of 62% on its
published rates. Double rooms without meals cost £87 per night (£130 between
August 20 and 26) when booked with Active Reservations (0870 240 7060,
www.activereservations.com).
Throughout August and September, the four-star Hotel Splendid, also in Nice,
has doubles with breakfast for £111, a saving of 37%, bookable through Midas
Hotel Network (0870 445 0050, www.midashotels.com).
VILLAS
The villa specialist Wimco (0870 850 1144, www.wimco.co.uk) has several luxury
properties currently vacant for the remainder of the summer and says the
owners will consider any reasonable offer. These include one near St-Jean-
Cap-Ferrat (ref: AZR 216) that has eight bedrooms and a large pool and
normally sells for £25,200 per week. Another, just outside Mougins (ref: AZR
008), has five bedrooms and a pool and normally goes for £5,000. Why not try
your luck?
Balfour France (020 8878 9955, www.balfourfrance.com) has discounts of up to
40% on luxury villas, including Les Blayos, a country house between Gordes
and Roussillon with its own cherry orchard and olive grove,
four bedrooms and pool. It is down from £2,490 to £1,650 per week.
For the week beginning August 21, Interhome (020 8891 1294,
www.interhome.co.uk) has savings of 30% on a selection of properties,
including a well-appointed four-bedroom villa (ref: F8480/113) near Ste-
Maxime, with gorgeous sea views and a private pool, reduced from £2,315 to
£1,574. Quality Villas (www.quality-villas.co.uk) has savings in August of
up to 22% on its properties, all of which have private pools. The Villa
Elegant (ref: 286), at Cap d’Ail near Monaco, sleeps 8/9 plus a baby and has
two resident maids and cooks. It costs £7,295 per week in August, reduced
from £9,350.
Holiday Rentals (020 8743 5577, www.holiday-rentals.com) has a selection of
posh villas with pools, including one at Théoule-sur-Mer (ref: 12077) that
sleeps eight and costs £2,160 — a 20% discount — for the week beginning
August 21. A luxury apartment in St- Paul-de-Vence (ref: 13657), with a
large shared pool and two double bedrooms, is reduced by 25%. A week in
August costs £950 (£700 in September).
Susan Paradise (01395 597759, www.susanparadise.co.uk) has cut the prices of
its luxury villas with private pools for August, including a villa for five
in Mougins, available for two weeks from August 21 at £1,250, saving £250. A
restored bergerie in Valbonne that sleeps four and has a shared
pool is available for the week beginning August 21 for £750, down from
£1,000.
Direct Travel (020 8335 1810, www.directtravel.co.uk) has taken 10% off the
accommodation-only prices of villas, including Arbasias Rêveries near St
Tropez; it sleeps eight, has a private pool and now costs £2,541 for the
week beginning August 21. Chapters (0845 070 0618, www.villa-rentals.com)
also has 10% off selected luxury villas.
On a wine domaine just outside Ste-Maxime, The Individual Travellers Company
(0870 077 1771, www.indiv-travellers.com) has a small villa that sleeps four
plus a baby and child, with a private pool, and costs £1,642, reduced from
£2,052, for the week beginning August 21. The price includes a hire car but
not flights.
Getting there
THERE ARE flights to Nice from 13 UK airports, plus Dublin. Current good deals
for August/September include: Jet2 (www.jet2.com) from Leeds/Bradford from
£42; BMI (0870 6070 555, www.flybmi.co.uk) from Heathrow from £78; and
EasyJet (0871 750 0100, www.easyjet.com) from Liverpool from £54, Newcastle
from £79, and Stansted from £44. Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) has fares
from Dublin from €201.
Or British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) has fares from Gatwick to
Toulon from £95 and Marseilles from £69. Fed up with crowded airports? Then
take Eurostar to Lille and change platforms to catch a high-speed TGV to
Nice, Fréjus-St-Raphaël, Antibes or Cannes — all for just £109 return. Hop
on at Waterloo or Ashford in Kent and you’ll be on the Riviera by late
afternoon. For an additional £80 you can travel first class on all sectors.
Children under 11 pay £94. Book with Freedom Rail (0870 757 9898,
www.freedomrail.com).
One of the best bargains of the summer is Motorail’s £198 return fare from
Calais to Nice, Toulouse, Narbonne or Avignon — a total price for a car and
up to six passengers. This deal, which represents a saving of up to £952 on
the published fares, has spurred a flurry of late bookings, but last week
Railsavers (0870 750 7070, www.railsavers.com) still had availability on
most dates. Ferry and Eurotunnel crossings to Calais start at £111 return.
