Discover the finest in French Riviera cuisine with our guide to 10 extraordinary gourmet excursions. Take a helicopter ride to a Michelin-starred restaurant, enjoy dinner in a vineyard, take part in a truffle hunt or a luxury cooking class, and dine at a clifftop restaurant overlooking a mediaeval town. Indulge in exquisite flavours as you sail along the stunning Côte d’Azur on your luxurious French Riviera yacht charter adventure.
The French Riviera is a heartland of gastronomic excellence. From the rustic romance of Provence to the refined elegance of Nice, tables throughout the French Riviera serve up world-class cuisine using fresh, seasonal produce every day, often in the most beautiful settings.
With dozens of Michelin-starred restaurants to choose from – some with the highly coveted three stars – you can expect an exceedingly high standard of cuisine on your French Riviera vacation. Classic dishes such as bouillabaisse and ratatouille which celebrate French cooking heritage share menu space with more sophisticated culinary delights that will appeal to even the most discerning of epicureans.
With its Mediterranean coastline, smart resort towns and picturesque villages, the South of France is a prime luxury travel destination. Here are 10 extraordinary culinary adventures to enjoy on your French Riviera holiday.
On a Cannes yacht charter, good food is a given, but wouldn’t it be great to be able to replicate some of the fine-dining Cannes dishes you enjoy on your holiday when you return home? By joining a Cannes cooking class, you can.
Week-long French Riviera cooking classes at the Campus Riera International in Cannes offer an excellent introduction to the tenets of French gastronomy. Students are taught about French cuisine through practical cooking lessons with a trained chef and visits to some of the region’s vibrant food markets – an essential part of the cooking process in France.
And, as well as learning cooking techniques, students will also be able to improve their French as they go, allowing them to present their finished dishes with a certain “je ne sais quoi”.
For those wanting to impress with their new-found knowledge of wine, the institute also runs wine-tasting courses, which any budding wine connoisseurs can then demonstrate over dinner onboard their luxury yacht charter in Cannes.
The picturesque town of Menton is one of the last places on the French Riviera before you reach the Italian border, and you could say the Côte d’Azur has saved the best for last.
Moor in the marina against the backdrop of stacks of pastel houses cascading down to the old port, before hopping ashore for a wander amid its warren of streets where Italianate facades mingle with Belle Époque villas, giving a sense of what the French Riviera was like before tourism took hold.
Restaurants here invariably use the Menton lemon – a locally-grown, golden fruit that is both sweet and sour – in its offerings. The fruit is so favoured by chefs that it’s been labelled the ‘caviar of the Riviera’.
The Fête du Citron held each February, is an annual festival that places the citrus fruit in the centre of celebrations and attracts an incredible 200,000 people each year, who come to enjoy the vibrant festivities and parades.
For something a little more low-key, you can join a food and drink tour of Menton at any time of year.
In terms of weight to cost ratio, truffle is one of the world’s most expensive foods and its popularity on French Riviera menus means it offers the chance to take part in one of France’s most enjoyable culinary experiences: the truffle hunt.
The family-run vineyard and organic farm of Las Pastras, near Marseille, offers full-day and half-day truffle tours in which guests can hunt for France’s ‘black gold’ amid its 11 hectares alongside expert guides and professional hunters. By the end of the hunt, you’ll be well acquainted with the different types of truffles and know how to clean, store and cook them.
The physically exerting part of the tour is followed by a rather less taxing tasting in which you’ll try a variety of truffle-infused dishes and oils, paired with champagne. The perfect reward to a hard day’s work.
If you like truffles but the hunt sounds too much like hard work, then you can board a helicopter in Monaco or Cannes and travel high above the Riviera to a Michelin-starred restaurant that uses the truffle that others have hunted to infuse its dishes.
Transporting you to a discreet vineyard amid the rural paradise of Provence, this extravagant dining experience is a meeting of pleasure and taste, with an aura of unparalleled refinement throughout.
Chez Bruno is renowned for its truffle-infused dishes and overall culinary excellence and Chez Bruno truffles are sourced from several different families, bringing a diversity of flavours and richness to its divine dishes.
There are lots of fashionable choices when it comes to fine dining in St Tropez and plenty of sommeliers to talk you through the best wine from the finest St Tropez vineyards, but for the ultimate St Tropez dining experience, treat yourself to a private dining experience in the lush surroundings of a vineyard.
With live music playing in the background, take a seat at the outdoor dining table, covered in crisp, white linen, with freshly cut flowers in the centre for an alfresco dining experience at Domaine de la Madrague that exemplifies the joie de vivre.
La Madrague is a sustainable vineyard with an excellent reputation for producing organic wines and guests at this dining experience will be able to watch their dinner being cooked right in front of them, adding to the stripped-back atmosphere.
Dining in the French Riviera is about so much more than enjoying good seasonal produce. For a truly unforgettable dining experience in the Riviera, book a table at one of the most dramatic dining tables in the region.
At Chateau Eza, a cliffside restaurant in Èze, for instance, you can enjoy sunset panoramas over the Mediterranean while you soak up the surroundings of a mediaeval village, from the safety of your sea-view terrace.
With a menu crafted by Michelin-starred chefs, the focus here is on innovative French cuisine with some Mediterranean influences, which perfectly suits the environment.
Perched on a rocky outcrop just off the Nice coast, in its early carnation as a glamorous ship placed on the rock, Le Plongeoir restaurant epitomised everything that was great about the Belle Époque era – a sense of daring, fun, optimism and debauchery.
Today the dive boards from which carefree diners once launched themselves into the sea are just for show, but the views are still sensational, as is the food, which includes locally sourced ingredients imbued with Mediterranean flavour.
If you are looking for fine dining in Nice, France, with a heavy dose of glamour, this is it.
So much of our enjoyment of food and drink relies on our senses, so what happens when you remove one of your main senses for the duration of your meal? At this now legendary dining experience, which has offshoots in London, Paris, and many more French locations, you can find out.
Translated as ‘in the dark’, at Dans Le Noir, in Marseille, you will be taken on a sensory adventure, eating the entire gourmet meal in darkness in order to enhance your other senses of smell and taste.
Often voted as one of the top 10 unique dining experiences in the world, Dans le Noir, Marseille, is something everyone should try at least once.
Combining excellent food with plenty of colour and entertainment, the Medusa nightclub in Cannes, which takes over the site of the legendary Palm Beach club on the famous Le Croisette, regularly attracts A-list clients, high-end socialites, VIPs and world-famous celebrities.
Part restaurant, part cabaret, part club, there is a global approach to the food on most nights, while during the regular Nu’Art night, you are encouraged to ‘taste, smell, hear’ as a series of performers take to the stage while you are served Italian dishes alongside superb cocktails. With luxurious furnishings and unabashed decadence, it’s a nice departure from the often more reserved dining experiences in the French Riviera.
With its designer shopping, a gilded casino, and a highly coveted marina, the principality of Monaco is often dismissed as a place of boundless wealth, but behind the headlines, Monaco has a more authentic side, too.
While a high-end clientele ensures Monaco’s restaurants retain their quality, you don’t have to dine at Michelin-starred restaurants to experience some of the best food in the area.
The Condamine Market, Monaco, which is open every day, is a great place to sample local produce at your leisure and will give you an understanding of Monaco culture.
Don’t miss the crepe-like Monaco socca, a popular dish made of chickpea flour and seasoned with herbs, which goes great with your morning coffee.
Whether an authentic taste of local life or an extravagant dining adventure, there are lots of ways to experience the cuisine of the French Riviera on your next yacht charter and your captain and crew can help organise all of them.
To book your next yacht charter, please contact the Edmiston team today.