Bronzes on the sea-facing sculpture terrace of the Musée Picasso, Antibes

Antibes Guide

Museums of the French Riviera

For over a century, artists have been drawn to this coast — and they left their museums behind. From your doorstep in Old Antibes, a dozen world-class collections sit within an hour’s drive. Here is the short list we give art-loving guests.

The Château Grimaldi, Antibes — the Musée Picasso, where Picasso worked in the autumn of 1946

In Antibes: the Picasso Museum

The Château Grimaldi, built on the site of Greek Antipolis, was Picasso’s studio from September to November 1946; he left the town 23 paintings and 44 drawings, and the collection has grown ever since. Two to five minutes’ walk from our houses — see our dedicated guide.

A hilltop village of the Riviera hinterland seen from its exotic garden, the coast and Cap Ferrat beyond

The painters’ hinterland

Within thirty minutes: the Fernand Léger national museum in Biot (20 min), a purpose-built showcase of his bold cubist world; the Renoir museum at Les Collettes in Cagnes-sur-Mer (30 min), where the painter’s house and two studios are preserved in their original state amid an olive grove; the Bonnard Museum in Le Cannet (30 min), dedicated to the master of Midi light; and the Mougins Museum of Classical Art (30 min), which pairs Greek and Roman antiquities with contemporary works.

Saint-Paul-de-Vence: the Maeght Foundation

Forty minutes away, the Maeght Foundation is one of Europe’s great private collections of twentieth-century art — Bonnard, Braque, Calder, Chagall, Giacometti, Léger, Miró — set in buildings designed with the artists themselves: Miró’s sculpture labyrinth, Chagall’s mosaics, Bury’s fountain.

The glass towers and rooftop garden of the modern art museum in Nice, above the roofs of the old town

Nice and Monaco

In Nice (45 min): the Matisse Museum on Cimiez hill, near the monastery gardens where the painter lived; the Chagall Museum, the most important permanent collection of his work, born of his donation to France; the MAMAC for the post-1960 avant-gardes; and the extraordinary Russian Cathedral of 1912 with its six gilded onion domes.

In Monaco (75 min), the Oceanographic Museum rewards the drive — its Shark Lagoon and coral aquariums are unforgettable for children and adults alike.

Stay in the heart of it