The successive confinements have given rise to new desires on the part of people living in large cities and especially young executives living in city apartments. Although for a long time, holiday homes were considered a constraint and people preferred to spend their holidays in far-off exotic places, now there’s a certain kind of envy for those who were able to take refuge in second homes not too far away, where the sun was shining, and the temperatures were gentle. Now more than ever, having a place to retreat has become a desirable project.
The French Riviera is the perfect place to invest in a holiday home and we’ll tell you why.
The French Riviera is beautiful
If you have already experienced the wonderfully blue Mediterranean Sea, the sound of cicadas and the relaxed Southern French art de vivre, you won’t need to be convinced, you’ll just need us to find the perfect place for you.
For those who haven’t, did you know that although the Côte d’Azur is the home to approximately 5 million people, it remains an expansion of beautifully preserved nature which serves as the perfect backdrop to an elegant urbanisation? Take the charming peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat where the villas are set in the middle of a lush vegetation surrounded by the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Anywhere on the coastline, you will find a succession of typical little ports or hilltop villages with breathtaking views, national parks, secluded creeks and unsuspected viewpoints.
There are some larger cities such as Cannes or Nice, which offer beautiful historic centres featuring typical southern architecture and small paved streets with lively cafés as well as seaside promenades, such as the mythical Promenade des Anglais in Nice, bordering beautiful, large and clean sandy beaches.
The Mediterranean climate is wonderfully temperate
The Mediterranean climate definitely makes the Côte d’Azur a place where you will be able to share meals on a sunny terrace, moments of complicity with family and friends and create beautiful memories all year round.
Temperatures on the Riviera rarely exceed 30°C in the summer, and rarely drop below 10°C in the winter on the coast. However, in the inland villages, the temperature can drop lower due to the quickly rising altitude. Indeed, the Côte d’Azur literally lays at the foot of the Alps and you can ski, just an hour away from the coast.
The Côte d’Azur is culturally lively all year round
Between the Mediterranean beaches and the ski slopes of the Alps, there are many things going on, it’s really hard to get bored on the Riviera!
Paris, Marseille and Lyon are often referred to as true cultural capitals, but the Côte d'Azur has little to envy the three largest French cities. There are 6,000 cultural events organised every year such as festivals in numerous cultural disciplines, not to mention the famous Festival de Cannes, that the locals can enjoy as privileged guests, classical music, jazz, baroque, contemporary dance, operas, theatre, the Nice carnival, etc.
The Riviera is also home to 84 museums that cater to every taste, such as :
The Modern & Contemporary Art Museum of Nice known as the MAMAC with its four spectacular square marble towers linked by glass walkways and featuring a permanent collection of major works from Ben to Niki de Saint-Phalle, including Klein, Arman, Warhol, Rosenquist, and Christo.
The Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation, which is the first private foundation dedicated to art in France. It is a foundation for modern and contemporary art, located near the village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, also known as the Villa Île-de-France, is one of the most beautiful Renaissance-style palaces on the Côte d'Azur and it overlooks the sea on the Cap Ferrat peninsula.
And many, many more.
The Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis is dynamic and accessible
With the development of teleworking, new uses for holiday homes have emerged, and just because the Côte d'Azur is often referred to as the "dolce vita", it does not mean that it is cut from any economic activity. In fact, it is home to the Sophia Antipolis high-tech business park which hosts 1,400 international companies in sectors as varied as electronics, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
The metropolis also enjoys excellent accessibility: the A8 motorway, the second largest airport in France with 14 million passengers a year, a TGV station and a cruise ship port. It is 2 hours away from London, 1 hour from Paris and Geneva and 8 hours from New York.
Now is a good time to invest on the French Riviera so if you want to get privileged access to rare and unlisted properties in prestigious locations, contact us, we provide tailored luxury real estate search services.