What to see on the French Riviera: an itinerary of architecture and art

Despite a glittering mythology of grand villas, towering pines, and vast fortunes, few places evoke such wildly different visions from one person to the next as the French Riviera, the Côte d’Azur. The names – Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Saint-Tropez, Hyères – are etched into the mythology of the seaside getaway itself, born with the first wave of exclusive tourism between the late 19th century and the Belle Époque. And from that period, the region still carries an architectural language: a floral, eclectic style closer in spirit to the flamboyant tones of Paris’s Opéra than the sinuous lines of Art Nouveau – not by chance both the Opéra and Monte Carlo’s casino share the same architect, Charles Garnier. From there, the Riviera’s many narratives begin to branch out. There is the one immortalized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in “Tender Is the Night”, an Art Deco world that also seduced America, with villas by designers like Barry Dierks and architectural titans like Robert Mallet-Stevens. Then comes the post-war Riviera, where this glamorous image gave way to early forms of overtourism. And there is also an urban, metropolitan Côte d’Azur: a region that defies spatial limits. Monaco, for example, has continued to build upward, and when it ran out of land, it simply reclaimed more from the sea. Meanwhile, massive developments like the Baie des Anges in Villeneuve-Loubet and the tech district Sophia Antipolis redefined on otherwise low-rise, human-scale coastline and inspired one of J.G. Ballard’s best novels, Super-Cannes.

But even as it pioneered tourism – and arguably overtourism – since those novelistic 1920s and through the postwar boom, the Côte d’Azur also became a real-life laboratory for modern art and architecture. It’s hard to name a figure or a building from that era and places, that doesn’t appear in the pages of design history books. And today, it’s just as hard to explore the area without encountering museums, foundations, even parks, telling the stories of these visionary creators. It is from these stories that Domus begins its curated journey across the Riviera, tailored for design lovers, the curious, and experience-seekers. From Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, where the summer residences of Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray sit, to Josep Lluís Sert Maeght Foundation, from Henri Matisse’s Chapelle du Saint-Marie du Rosaire in Vence to Antti Lovag’s Palais Bulles, and the sprawling marinas developed from the 1960s onward for mass tourism. The route also takes detours inland, into the Provençal countryside, where estates like Château La Coste have been transformed into living anthologies of contemporary architecture.

In Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, not far from each other, are the modern (as well as legendary) residences of Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier, respectively Villa E-1027 (1929) and the Cabanon (1952).
In addition to these, there are also the Étoile de Mer and the villa of the Parisian architect Jean Badovici. Thomas “Robert” Rebutato, a plumber from Sanremo, worked on prototypes for cabins, inspired by traditional fishermen’s cabins, and in 1949 he opened a new building, l'Étoile de Mer, made with the same technique. It is said that Le Corbusier, guest of Badovici and Gray, set foot in the restaurant on opening day. A friendship was born between Rebutato and Le Corbusier, so much so that the spaces are decorated with the works of both of them. The Swiss-French architect, who passed away just as he was swimming in these waters, is buried in the village cemetery.

The world’s most densely populated state – its towers clinging to cliff faces few would have once deemed habitable – has expanded its territory several times by reclaiming land from the sea. Mareterra is the latest of these bold undertakings: a new district, a decade in the making, rising in front of the Grimaldi Forum. Split equally between public pedestrian spaces and private areas, the project features architecture by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Foster + Partners, Stefano Boeri Architetti, and Tadao Ando, woven into a masterplan by Valode & Pistre Architectes, with landscape design by Michel Desvignes.

The chapel of Saint-Marie du Rosaire was built between 1947 and 1951 by an older man, Henri Matisse, who regarded this work as one of his most notable. The small and simple structure, with an L-shaped plan and white plastered surfaces, houses a cycle of paintings by the master and his stained glass. History has it that the nurse Monique Bourgeois, who had treated Matisse in 1941 and later posed for him as a model, entered the Dominican convent of Vence in 1943. It was she who invited him to build the building: Matisse began work on the project in 1947.

Born from the friendship between Aimé and Marguerite Maeght with Josep Lluís Sert, Catalan architect, the Maeght Foundation opened its doors in 1964. The hub and meeting place of personalities such as Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, and Fernand Léger, the structure now houses the works of this artistic community. Today it represents one of the most important collections of the 20th century.

For those who are fascinated by the big structures of the modern and its speculations, Marina Baie des Anges is undoubtedly a place to include in the itinerary to Marseille. Born from the meeting between the designer André Minangoy and the promoter Jean Marchand, it is a continuous white body that embraces the area of the Villeneuve-Loubet port, which rises dizzyingly in four points.

The Picasso National Museum “La Guerre et la Paix” at the Château de Vallauris includes a chapel decorated by Pablo Picasso. The pictorial cycle deals with the themes of peace and war, following the path already traced with Guernica and Massacre in Korea. Painted in 1952, it gives its name to the museum. After his period in Antibes, Picasso lived in Vallauris from 1948 to 1955. In an old disused perfume factory, he devoted himself intensively to ceramics production.

Built by the Hungarian architect Antti Lovag between 1975 and 1989, the Palais Bulles was commissioned by Pierre Bernard, a French industrialist. In 1992, when Bernard died, it was the designer Pierre Cardin who bought it as his summer residence. The habitologue, as the architect liked to call himself, designed spaces in the complete absence of straight lines: the result is an enveloping and sculptural environment of concrete, in earth tones. The structure includes an open-air amphitheater, ten bedrooms, swimming pools, and waterfalls, set in a vast park. In 2016, the restoration of Odile Decq had been completed and is now on the market.

Listed since 1996, the structure is a modernist gem designed by Georges-Henri Pingusson and completed in 1932. The long, white body of the Hôtel Latitude 43 seems to float between the pine forest and the sea, like a ship. And it is no coincidence: the large horizontal openings, the long corridors and the rooms reminiscent of cabins betray the inspiration of Pingusson’s marine structures, in the wake of the pressing modernity suggested by Le Corbusier in 1923, with Vers une architecture.

It was June 14, 1966 when permission was issued to build this curious new city: a sort of French-style Venice. It was François Spoerry, architect, developer and urban planner who designed it as a new city, breaking with the principles of the CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture). Spoerry was a lover of density and the vernacular, and he brought them to this plot of land in the municipality of Grimaud. The shape is that of a city of water, where every resident has access to canals and, potentially, a boat.

Commissioned by Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles to Robert Mallet-Stevens, Villa Noailles was completed in 1927. The residence is one of the first examples of modernist rationalism in France. Enlarged several times, the villa sits in the Bay of Hyères and today represents a vital hub for the world of design. Its popularity is due, first and foremost, to the Design Parade, an annual event dedicated to interior design.

Tadao Ando, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, set among the vineyards of Provence. This is the essence of Château La Coste, an estate in Puy-Sainte-Réparade that has evolved its wine-making DNA over the years, into a sculpture park, and a landmark of contemporary Provence. With site-specific works by some of the most influential names in global art and architecture, the journey through Château La Coste continues to grow, now featuring Renzo Piano’s pavilion dedicated to photography, an auditorium designed by Oscar Niemeyer, and the late Richard Rogers’ Drawing Gallery, a bold cantilevered structure that reaches into the surrounding woods, and the final project of the High-Tech master.