Sunset is the time of a slow walk along the Promenade des Anglais in a setting of golden beaches and luxury hotels, the splendour of the Negresco still glowing.

Art enthusiasts meet their match in the Modern Art Museum and in the Chagall Museum, a celebration of the Biblical Message.

The immense Place Masséna (as well as its many side roads) offers a universe of possibilities to shop addicts, whereas night owls will enjoy after-hour fun in the bistrots of the old quarter by the port.

Gourmet travellers are recommended a portion of salade niçoise, a light dish that mixes sea flavours (les anchois!) and the fragrance of vegetables in a triumph of colour and taste reminding the glory of Ligurian cappon magro. Do not miss the great traditional French fish recipes, and if you feel like seafood enjoy the magnificence of the Plateau Royal.

Travel on to Cannes, the new destination of your tour. Cannes means cinema: the seventh Art is celebrated every May by world-famous Festival, the main event of this capital of European motion pictures (the triangle being completed by Berlin and Venice). Brigitte Bardot movies throng your mind as you stroll along the Croisette in a paparazzi open-eye fantasy between scoops and Grand Hotels. Before your departure from Cannes, spend a half day visiting the Lérins isles, a natural haven right in front of the seashore.

It is now time to turn your shoulders to the coast for the pleasures of the arrière pays. In order to whet your traveller appetites, we present only a rapid selection of hints, the joy of further investigation is left up to you: from Nice and Sospel the touching Val Roja, traversed by a tiny train; Grasse the queen of perfumes and essences; Saint-Paul de Vence, with its ancient charm and the wonder of the Maeght Foundation collection of contemporary art; Biot, with the Fernand Léger Museum; La Tourbie, with the Augustus’s Trophy, built at the end of the 1^st century B.C to celebrate the victory of Rome (for once, Asterix was defeated!).

Shopping suggestions range from soap bars (Marseille is just around the corner), to lavender (the fragrance of the Côte) and fruit jams (the ubiquitous confitures on sale in delicatessen shops)

do) reaches the verdant surroundings of the ancient Santuario della Madonna di Soviore.