The Lérins Islands

Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Honorat lie twenty minutes off the Croisette, and the channel between them holds the clearest water on this stretch of coast — bands of turquoise over pale sand, dropping into blue where the weed starts. There are no cars on either island, and in the pines there is a working monastery that has been there since the fifth century.

It is the anchorage most guests remember, partly because of the colour of the water and partly because it does not feel like the Riviera at all. Swim first, eat under the pines, and let the afternoon decide itself.