A five-star Belle Époque stay in Beaulieu-sur-Mer

The smallest commune in the Alpes-Maritimes

Beaulieu-sur-Mer covers about 0.95 km², which makes it the smallest commune in the Alpes-Maritimes, and INSEE counted 3,874 residents in 2023. It lies on the coast between Nice and the Principality of Monaco, hemmed in by its neighbours Villefranche-sur-Mer and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

For most of its history Beaulieu was a hamlet of Villefranche. The railway station opened in 1868, and in 1872 the hamlet was declared a winter climatic resort. On 31 January 1891 the Chamber of Deputies voted the law detaching Beaulieu from Villefranche, and Hippolyte Marinoni served as the first elected mayor, from 27 September to 15 October that year.

The small size shapes a stay here: the station, the port, the two beaches and the Belle Époque seafront belong to one compact town, and the tourist office's suggested routes are all self-guided walks.

Belle Époque Beaulieu

During the Belle Époque, Beaulieu became a renowned winter seaside resort, drawing royalty, the upper middle classes and aristocrats from across Europe. The town's own history counts no fewer than 82 hotels in Beaulieu-sur-Mer by 1898. It also names the residents and visitors who gave the place its reputation: James Gordon Bennett, owner of the New York Herald, who died in Beaulieu in 1918; the engineer Gustave Eiffel, owner of the Villa Salles; the archaeologist Théodore Reinach; Igor Stravinsky, who composed part of his ballet Petrushka here in the winter of 1910–1911; and the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. A casino followed in 1929.

The building that sums up the period is La Rotonde. The Danish architect Hans-Georg Tersling, who also built the Villa Masséna on the seafront in Nice, designed it as an extra lounge for the dancing teas of one of the grand hotels of the time. During the Second World War La Rotonde became a hospital and received the First Free French Division.

The tourist office's self-guided Belle Époque walk takes about 45 minutes and is the simplest way to read the seafront villas and their gardens.

Beaulieu-sur-Mer hotels: La Réserve

La Réserve de Beaulieu Hôtel & Spa stands at 5 boulevard du Maréchal Leclerc, on the shore of the Mediterranean. It belongs to the resort's first era: the hotel describes itself as a house of tradition since 1880 and an icon of the Côte d'Azur since the Belle Époque, and the town's history lists La Réserve, dated 1880, among Beaulieu's early luxury hotels. The Atout France register records 39 rooms, which the hotel presents as rooms, suites and villas, and the current five-star classification dates from 24 May 2022. For what that classification involves, see our guide to what makes a hotel five-star in France.

The hotel says it offers four gastronomic universes. Le Restaurant des Rois is its gastronomic restaurant; La Table de Julien has a bistro atmosphere; Le Vent Debout has a sun terrace and a sea view; and Bar Gordon Bennett, which shares its name with the New York Herald owner who lived in Beaulieu, serves cocktails and spirits. Breakfast and room service are also listed.

The wellness area includes a heated pool, the Spa by La Prairie and Le Salon Rose. Small dogs are accepted in the hotel, the restaurants and the bars, but not in the spa or around the pool, and the hotel states that it is accessible to guests with reduced mobility.

Villa Kérylos, a Greek house on the Baie des Fourmis

Théodore Reinach, archaeologist and member of the Institut de France, bought a plot surrounded on three sides by the sea at the tip of the Baie des Fourmis. There, with the architect Emmanuel Pontremoli, he built Villa Kérylos: construction began in 1902 and took six years. Pontremoli drew on his travels in Asia Minor to reconstruct the kind of noble Greek house built on the island of Delos in the 2nd century BC, laid out around an open peristyle courtyard.

The villa combines decoration inspired by ancient frescoes, mosaics and vases with rooms dressed in marble, while hiding the latest comforts of the early 20th century, including plumbing and underfloor heating. Kerylos is a Greek word for the halcyon or kingfisher, a bird of good omen in Greek mythology.

On his death in 1928 Reinach bequeathed the villa to the Institut de France, and it has been listed as a monument historique since 1966. It is now a museum on a rocky promontory facing the sea, with a peristyle open to the Mediterranean and gardens that descend to the shore. The small Port des Fourmis lies at the foot of the villa, a harbour run as an association whose members are mainly local fishermen and yachtsmen.

Two beaches and a marina

Beaulieu has two main beaches. The Baie des Fourmis beach, on avenue Fernand Dunan in the station district, is a gravel beach that opens onto the bay, its footpath and the small marina, with Villa Kérylos as its backdrop. It is open all year, a bus stop is less than 500 m away, and in season a beach restaurant and deckchair hire operate there. In 2015 the singers Alain Souchon and Laurent Voulzy, inspired by the coast from Beaulieu to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, wrote and recorded a song named Baie des Fourmis.

La Petite Afrique is a gravel beach beneath the cliffs, known for its pine trees and its exotic atmosphere. It has a children's playground and a beach-volleyball court, and in season private beach concessions and watersports.

The marina has 723 berths and was the first port in its network to take up the 'Clean Ports' approach.

Walks from Beaulieu

Beaulieu's tourist office publishes self-guided routes that show how much fits into so small a commune. Besides the Belle Époque walk and the coastal path to Cap Ferrat, covered in the questions below, three routes stand out:

• The botanical walk, about 45 minutes, introduces the Mediterranean and exotic plants that grow in Beaulieu.
• The Chemin des Serres, about 1 hour, passes villas on its way to the Chapelle de la Madone Noire.
• La Petite Afrique, about 2 hours, looks down on Beaulieu from above, then descends through gardens and villas to the bay and the port.

Arriving by train or along the Basse Corniche

Beaulieu-sur-Mer station is served by regional TER trains that run west to Cannes and Grasse, and sometimes as far as Marseille, and east to Ventimiglia in Italy. On the coast line it comes after Villefranche-sur-Mer when travelling from Nice, and before Èze-sur-Mer, Monaco-Monte-Carlo and the stations of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. From the airport, the nearest station on the same line is Nice-Saint-Augustin, about ten minutes' walk from the terminals or a short tram ride to the Grand Arénas stop.

By road, Beaulieu sits on the Basse Corniche, the D6098 shore road, which comes in from Villefranche-sur-Mer and continues east through Èze and Cap-d'Ail towards Monaco and, at the Italian border, Menton. For other five-star addresses along this coast, see our French Riviera hotels.