The Grand Drag Parade: Nice Turns Rue Bonaparte Into a Glittering LGBTQ+ Street Party

 

Summer on the French Riviera is far from over — and on Tuesday, August 25, Nice is getting ready to turn up the glamour.

From 7 p.m., Rue Bonaparte will be transformed into a riot of colour, glitter, music and outrageous drag as La Grande Drag Parade brings together some of Nice’s most fabulous drag queens for a very special evening in the heart of the city’s LGBTQ+ scene.

Forget the idea that summer entertainment on the Riviera winds down in August. On this night, the party is only getting started.

The event promises an evening of spectacular performances, flamboyant costumes and plenty of personality, with drag queens bringing their own unique brand of glamour and entertainment to one of Nice’s most lively streets. It is exactly the sort of wonderfully over-the-top celebration that feels right at home in this city.

And there is more to the evening than simply watching the performances. Rue Bonaparte — affectionately known by many as Nice’s “petite Marais” — is the perfect setting for a night built around community, cocktails, food and fun. The street’s restaurants, bars and venues will be welcoming visitors throughout the evening, making it easy to move from one spot to another, grab a drink, enjoy something to eat and soak up the atmosphere.

For Nice’s LGBTQ+ community, it is also a chance to come together and celebrate in a part of the city that has become increasingly associated with LGBTQ+ nightlife, culture and community. But you certainly don’t need to identify as LGBTQ+ to enjoy the party. Friends, visitors, locals and anyone looking for a lively Riviera evening are invited to join in.

Expect glitter, heels, feathers, fabulous costumes, cocktails, music and plenty of attitude — essentially, all the ingredients for a proper Nice night out.

There is something particularly appealing about an event like this taking over an ordinary city street. Rather than being tucked away inside a nightclub or theatre, La Grande Drag Parade brings the celebration directly into the neighbourhood, creating an open-air atmosphere where the boundaries between performers, venues and spectators almost disappear.

So if you are in Nice on Tuesday, August 25, consider this your invitation to put on something fabulous, head down to Rue Bonaparte and join the party.

La Grande Drag Parade begins at 7 p.m. — and summer on the Riviera clearly isn’t finished yet.

Come for the drag. Stay for the cocktails. Wander the street, discover the bars and restaurants, meet friends and enjoy one of those wonderfully spontaneous evenings that make Nice so much fun in August.

After all, there is always room for a little more glitter on the Côte d’Azur.

Please Don’t Let Your French Riviera Dream Turn Into a Nightmare

 

Some of the incidents I’ve seen around the Côte d’Azur over the past week have brought out my protective side again when it comes to visitors. I know there isn’t much I can personally do about what people choose to do, but sometimes you simply feel the need to say something.

Whether this is your first visit to the region or you’ve been here many times before, there can always be a learning curve. The Côte d’Azur has its own quirks, its own roads, its own transportation systems and, in some cases, risks that may not be immediately obvious to someone arriving here on holiday.

I’ve also been having conversations with friends lately about whether there seem to be more visitors here this summer or fewer. What’s the mood like out there? Are certain places noticeably busier than usual? Are we seeing different types of travellers or people exploring areas they may not have visited before? Those are the kinds of things locals tend to talk about.

So this isn’t really about rules. It’s about awareness. More importantly, it’s about making sure you have the best possible experience while you’re here.

A few days ago, I left the beach in Èze and was at the train station when five young women realized they were standing on the wrong platform for the direction they wanted to travel.

There was a very simple solution: take the tunnel underneath the tracks and walk to the other platform. It would have taken about a minute and they almost certainly would have had enough time to catch their train.

Instead, in a combination of panic and giggling excitement, they decided to run across the railway tracks.

There are signs in both French and English, accompanied by images, warning people not to do exactly what they were attempting. The platforms weren’t particularly busy, but those of us who witnessed it immediately started shouting at them to stop.

Then, as they were scrambling across the tracks wearing sandals, with a couple of them in heels, a train coming from the direction of Monaco began approaching the station.

The train immediately sounded its horn and attempted to stop. It was quite alarming to witness.

Two of the women barely managed to get themselves onto the platform while the others turned around and scrambled back toward the platform they had just left.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

But they were understandably shaken by what had just happened, and so was everyone else watching. What had begun as five friends trying to catch a train could have ended in an absolute tragedy.

And that is the point.

Sometimes the difference between a great holiday story and a horrifying one is a decision that takes only a few seconds.

That same morning, there was also a news report — which the people involved subsequently shared on Instagram — about a couple who had rented a scooter. It was their first time in the area and they weren’t familiar with the roads. The evening before, they were involved in an accident between Monaco and Menton on the Moyenne Corniche.

The male driver was injured and the female passenger was also hurt, although thankfully not as seriously.

Again, it was a wake-up call.

One of the things friends and I sometimes talk about when discussing visitors is how, for some people, the moment they step off the plane it’s almost as though the word “VACATION” has been stamped across their forehead.

And sometimes that holiday mentality seems to come with a strange sense of invincibility.

Perhaps it’s because you’re excited. Perhaps you’re relaxed. Perhaps you’re somewhere beautiful and you simply don’t want to think about anything going wrong.

But accidents don’t care whether you’re on holiday.

And the Côte d’Azur is not a theme park.

The roads can be narrow, steep and winding. Traffic behaves differently from what you may be accustomed to at home. Scooters are everywhere. Trains move quickly. Cyclists share roads with cars, buses and motorcycles. And some of the most spectacular places in the region are spectacular precisely because of their terrain.

I’m not saying this to frighten anyone or discourage people from coming here. Quite the opposite.

I want people to come. I want people to explore. I want them to rent the scooter, ride the bicycle, take the train, discover Èze, wander through Villefranche-sur-Mer, explore Cap d’Antibes and have that glorious French Riviera experience they imagined before arriving.

But do it with your brain switched on.

Would you do the same thing at home?

Would you cross railway tracks rather than take a pedestrian tunnel because you were running late for a train? Would you jump on a scooter in an unfamiliar city and immediately tackle roads you’ve never driven before? Would you get on a bicycle after not riding one for years and suddenly weave through unfamiliar traffic because you were determined to live out your French Riviera fantasy?

Hopefully not.

Another thing I see regularly involves bicycles.

Renting a bicycle is a fantastic way to experience this region. Imagine picking one up in Nice, cycling around Cap de Nice and continuing toward Villefranche-sur-Mer, perhaps stopping along the way to unpack a little lunch at the beach on Saint Jean Cap Ferrat.

You see the image: flowing summer dress, baguette sticking out of the basket, sparkling Mediterranean beside you.

It’s practically a French Riviera postcard.

But there’s another side to that postcard.

If you haven’t been on a bicycle for years, suddenly renting one and heading into traffic on unfamiliar roads is not necessarily the carefree adventure you imagined.

Then you hear an ambulance racing up the road.

Sometimes you don’t need much imagination to figure out why.

No helmet. Riding in and out of traffic. Unfamiliar roads. Drivers behaving differently from those in your hometown. Ignoring basic traffic rules. And perhaps a little too much confidence that nothing is going to happen.

Then, suddenly, there’s a damaged rental bicycle, a broken leg, serious cuts or a head injury — and that dreamy afternoon on the Côte d’Azur has turned into an emergency-room visit.

Obviously, this doesn’t happen to every person who rents a bicycle. But it happens often enough that locals aren’t necessarily shocked when they hear about such an incident or the sound of another ambulance.

None of this is intended as a lecture.

It’s a reminder.

Please take precautions. Please pay attention to your surroundings. Please understand that beautiful surroundings don’t eliminate real-world risks.

Have the plan to live out your French Riviera dream. Rent the bike. Explore the coastline. Take the train. Discover the little villages. Have long lunches. Swim in the Mediterranean. Sit in a café and watch the world go by.

Just do it wisely.

Because those of us who live here genuinely want visitors to have an incredible time. We want you to discover the places we love, make wonderful memories and, most importantly, leave wanting to come back.

The goal is for your French Riviera story to be “What an incredible trip.”

Not “You won’t believe what happened to us in the hospital.”

Come enjoy the Côte d’Azur.

Just remember: you’re on vacation — not invincible.

Le Trayas: The Côte d’Azur’s Quiet Coastal Secret Between Saint-Raphaël and Cannes

 

There are places on the Côte d’Azur that announce themselves loudly. Cannes has its red carpets and superyachts, Saint-Tropez has its celebrity mythology, and Monaco has its unmistakable glamour. Then there is Le Trayas—a much quieter corner of the Riviera where the landscape does most of the talking.

Tucked into the dramatic red-rock coastline of the Estérel Massif, Le Trayas feels wonderfully removed from the busier Riviera, despite being remarkably well connected to it. The deep red cliffs plunge toward brilliant blue Mediterranean waters, winding coastal roads disappear around rocky headlands, and small coves and beaches offer the kind of scenery that makes you wonder why everyone isn’t talking about this place.

For anyone looking for a Côte d’Azur lifestyle without necessarily wanting to live in the middle of the Riviera’s busiest towns, Le Trayas deserves a serious look.

A Different Kind of Riviera

Le Trayas is part of the commune of Saint-Raphaël, but geographically and atmospherically it feels like its own little world. Situated along the Corniche d’Or between Saint-Raphaël and Cannes, it occupies one of the most spectacular stretches of coastline in southern France.

The Estérel’s distinctive volcanic landscape is the star here. Unlike the pale limestone cliffs found elsewhere along the Mediterranean, the massif is famous for its rich ochre and red tones. Against the intense blue of the sea, the colours are almost theatrical—particularly in the late afternoon when the rocks glow in the Mediterranean sunlight.

And that scenery isn’t simply something you visit. If you live here, it becomes part of everyday life.

A morning walk can mean following the coastline with the Mediterranean on one side and the Estérel mountains on the other. A spontaneous swim can be as simple as heading down to one of the small beaches or rocky coves. Even an ordinary drive to the shops can turn into one of those moments when you pull over simply because the view is too beautiful to ignore.

Close to Saint-Raphaël, Yet Away From the Crowds

One of Le Trayas’ greatest advantages is its proximity to Saint-Raphaël.

Saint-Raphaël provides many of the practical amenities that make year-round living easier, including shops, restaurants, cafés, markets, medical services and transport connections. The town itself offers a much more relaxed rhythm than some of the Côte d’Azur’s internationally famous destinations while still providing plenty to do throughout the year.

Living in Le Trayas means you can enjoy that infrastructure without necessarily having to live in the centre of town.

It is a particularly attractive proposition for people who want a home surrounded by nature but don’t want to be completely isolated. You can have the feeling of living in a secluded Mediterranean retreat while Saint-Raphaël remains close enough for everyday life.

And Cannes Is Surprisingly Close

Then there is Cannes.

From Le Trayas, the famous film city is within easy reach by road, making it possible to enjoy the best of both worlds. Cannes offers sophisticated restaurants, beaches, shopping, cultural events, international connections and the extraordinary energy that arrives every year with the Cannes Film Festival and other major events.

But you don’t have to live in Cannes to enjoy Cannes.

That distinction can be important for buyers who love the Riviera lifestyle but find the density, traffic and intensity of the more famous coastal cities less appealing. Le Trayas allows you to retreat to a dramatically beautiful and peaceful environment while remaining within reach of one of France’s most glamorous cities.

The coastal journey itself is also part of the attraction. The Corniche d’Or is one of the great scenic roads of the Riviera, winding between the Estérel and the Mediterranean. It is difficult to think of many commutes that look quite like this.

A Place for People Who Value Nature

Le Trayas is particularly compelling for anyone who wants nature to be part of daily life rather than something reserved for weekends.

The Estérel offers hiking and walking routes through an extraordinary landscape of red volcanic rock, pine forests and panoramic viewpoints. The coastline provides opportunities for swimming, kayaking, boating and simply finding a quiet spot beside the sea.

There is also something increasingly valuable about Le Trayas: space.

The Côte d’Azur is famously developed, and finding a place where the landscape still feels dominant rather than secondary can be surprisingly difficult. Here, the mountains, forests and sea remain the defining features.

For someone working remotely, spending part of the year on the Riviera or looking for a second home, that combination can be enormously appealing.

A More Discreet Approach to Riviera Living

Le Trayas isn’t trying to compete with Cannes or Saint-Tropez—and that is precisely its charm.

There is no need for a glamorous façade or an endless parade of luxury boutiques. The luxury here is quieter: waking up to the Mediterranean, having the Estérel as your backyard, swimming in clear water and being able to reach sophisticated Riviera destinations when you want them.

It is the sort of place that tends to appeal to people who have already experienced the Côte d’Azur and are beginning to look beyond the obvious addresses.

Rather than asking, “Where is the most famous place to live?”, they start asking a different question: “Where can I actually enjoy living?”

Le Trayas makes a very convincing answer.

An Interesting Real Estate Proposition

From a property perspective, the area is also worth exploring for buyers who want something different from the conventional Riviera address.

Properties with sea views, terraces, gardens or direct access to the surrounding landscape can offer a very different proposition from apartments in the larger coastal cities. The combination of dramatic scenery, proximity to Saint-Raphaël and access toward Cannes gives the area an appealing balance between seclusion and connectivity.

Of course, buying in such a beautiful and topographically distinctive area requires careful consideration. Access, parking, road connections, orientation, maintenance and the exact position of a property can make a substantial difference. A spectacular view is wonderful, but understanding the practical realities of year-round living is equally important.

That is where local knowledge becomes particularly valuable.

The Riviera Without the Riviera Frenzy

Perhaps the best way to describe Le Trayas is that it offers the Côte d’Azur lifestyle without quite so much of the Côte d’Azur noise.

You are still within the orbit of Cannes. Saint-Raphaël is close. The Mediterranean is right there. Nice and the rest of the Riviera are accessible. Yet when you return home, the atmosphere changes dramatically.

The pace slows.

The red rocks and pine trees replace crowded boulevards. The sea becomes the soundtrack. Even in the height of summer, there are places where the landscape makes you feel remarkably far removed from the Riviera’s crowds.

And that is precisely why Le Trayas is so easy to fall for.

It isn’t necessarily the place you discover because you have been searching for Le Trayas. More often, it is somewhere you discover while looking for something else—a quieter Riviera, a beautiful second home, a place to escape the crowds, or simply somewhere that feels a little more connected to nature.

Then you see the coastline, the Estérel rising behind it and the Mediterranean stretching endlessly ahead.

Suddenly, the idea of living there doesn’t seem quite so crazy.

When The Estérel Turned Red: The Exhibition That Reveals the Artistic Soul of Saint-Raphaël’s Coast

 

There are landscapes that are beautiful, and then there are landscapes that seem almost impossible to paint realistically.

The Estérel is very much the latter.

With its extraordinary red volcanic rocks plunging toward an intensely blue Mediterranean, pine-covered hills and brilliant Provençal light, the coastline between Saint-Raphaël, Agay, Anthéor and Le Trayas has long possessed an almost theatrical quality. At the beginning of the 20th century, a generation of painters discovered that this landscape offered something more than a picturesque view: it offered a completely new way of thinking about colour, light and form.

That story is now being explored in a remarkable exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Draguignan: “Les roches rouges — Éclosion artistique dans l’Estérel à l’aube du XXe siècle.” Running until 31 October 2026, the exhibition brings together around 50 paintings and graphic works, along with archival material, to examine how the Estérel became an important setting for artistic experimentation.

For anyone who loves the Côte d’Azur — and particularly the Saint-Raphaël area — it offers an entirely different reason to visit the region.

The Landscape that Painters Couldn’t Resist

Today, it is easy to take the Estérel for granted. Drive the Corniche d’Or between Saint-Raphaël and Cannes and the landscape seems almost designed for Instagram: rust-red cliffs, turquoise water, umbrella pines and tiny coves appearing around every bend.

For artists arriving here more than a century ago, however, the landscape was something much more radical.

The intense red of the volcanic rock set against the deep blue of the Mediterranean and the greens of the vegetation created a combination of colours that seemed to demand a departure from conventional landscape painting. The exhibition explores precisely this phenomenon — how painters searching for stronger colour, light and material expression found an extraordinary laboratory in the Estérel.

Among the artists drawn to the area were Louis Valtat, Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin and Armand Guillaumin, alongside artists associated with post-impressionism, pointillism, Nabis and Fauvism.

The Estérel wasn’t simply somewhere they painted.

It helped change the way they painted.

Agay, Anthéor and Le Trayas Became an Artists’ World

At the turn of the century, the coastline around Saint-Raphaël was becoming considerably more accessible.

The opening of the Corniche d’Or in 1903 helped transform Agay, Anthéor and Le Trayas from relatively remote coastal locations into destinations that could be reached and explored by artists, tourists and travellers. Contemporary guides described the area as a “colonie nombreuse et distinguée d’artistes” — a sizable and distinguished colony of artists.

That combination of accessibility and extraordinary scenery proved irresistible.

Louis Valtat was among the artists who became particularly associated with the area, and his enthusiasm helped attract other painters. His Les Roches rouges à Anthéor, painted in 1901, is now part of the exhibition in Draguignan on loan from the Centre Pompidou.

The painting is a perfect example of what made the landscape so compelling: the rocks aren’t treated as a passive background. Their colour, shape and texture become the subject itself.

The French government’s Joconde heritage database describes the intense, almost fiery colour of the rocks juxtaposed against the deep blue sea as central to the work’s visual power.

Marquet and The Red Rocks of Agay

One of the names most closely associated with the exhibition is Albert Marquet, whose work helps demonstrate how differently artists could respond to the same landscape.

Marquet, Valtat, Camoin and others presented views of the Estérel around the time of the 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris, the exhibition traditionally associated with the public emergence of Fauvism.

But the exhibition is careful not to reduce the story simply to Fauvism.

That is one of its strengths.

The Estérel attracted artists with very different approaches. Some pursued intense, liberated colour. Others experimented with pointillist techniques or decorative compositions. Some focused on the changing effects of weather and light, while others introduced human figures into the landscape.

The result is a fascinating reminder that there was never one single “Estérel style.”

There was an Estérel experience.

A Landscape that Became a Laboratory

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Les roches rouges is the idea that the Estérel functioned almost as an artistic laboratory.

The exhibition examines how painters repeatedly returned to the same locations, experimenting with different viewpoints, seasons, atmospheric conditions and techniques. The massif became something they could study, reinterpret and reinvent.

The same red cliffs could therefore become completely different paintings depending upon who was looking at them.

Guillaumin explored variations in light and weather. Valtat responded to the explosive colour of the rocks. Marquet approached the landscape with a more restrained balance between sea, sky and land. Other artists incorporated figures, architecture or decorative elements.

It is a reminder that the Côte d’Azur has always been more than a pretty backdrop.

It has been a place of experimentation.

And Suddenly Saint-Raphaël Looks Different

This is where the exhibition becomes particularly interesting for anyone considering Saint-Raphaël as a place to visit — or even to live.

Seeing these paintings and then travelling out toward Agay, Anthéor or Le Trayas changes the experience of the landscape.

You begin recognising the views that captivated the artists.

The enormous red formations of the Cap Roux. The coastline around Anthéor. The sweeping bay of Agay. The rocky coves. The strange collision of Mediterranean blue with the rust and ochre of the volcanic massif.

And you realise that the artists weren’t exaggerating.

The colours really are that extraordinary.

The Exhibition is Also a Reason to Explore the Real Estérel

The smartest way to experience Les roches rouges may be to treat the museum as the beginning rather than the end of the experience.

See the paintings in Draguignan, then drive back toward the coast.

Follow the Corniche d’Or.

Stop at Agay.

Continue toward Anthéor and Le Trayas.

Look at the rocks.

Look at the sea.

Then look again.

The museum’s programme also includes guided visits and activities connected with the exhibition, including walks in the Estérel. Guided tours are scheduled on Wednesdays and Sundays at 11 a.m., with additional Friday tours during the summer and autumn holiday periods.

There is even a September conference exploring the artistic journeys between the Creuse Valley and the Estérel and the role of plein-air painting and improved transportation in the development of artistic communities such as Agay. 

A Fascinating Chapter of Côte d’Azur History

There is a tendency to tell the history of the French Riviera through its most famous names and destinations: Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Saint-Tropez.

But the artistic history of the coast is considerably more complicated — and considerably more interesting.

The Estérel was not merely somewhere artists stopped on their way elsewhere.

For a remarkable period around the beginning of the 20th century, it became a destination in its own right, attracting painters who were looking for new subjects and new ways to express the modern world.

And the landscape around Saint-Raphaël gave them exactly what they were looking for.

Go Before the Rocks Disappear Behind the Crowds

There is something particularly appealing about discovering this history today.

Saint-Raphaël remains one of the Riviera’s more understated destinations. It has the Mediterranean, the beaches, the marina, the Belle Époque architecture and the restaurants, but beyond the waterfront lies something even more remarkable: an extraordinary natural landscape that still looks remarkably close to the one that captivated those early modern painters.

Les roches rouges gives visitors the opportunity to understand why.

The exhibition runs until 31 October 2026 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Draguignan, 9 rue de la République. The museum is less than 50 kilometres from the Estérel itself, making it particularly easy to combine with a day exploring Saint-Raphaël, Agay and the Corniche d’Or.

And perhaps the best part is what happens after you leave the museum.

You drive back toward the Mediterranean, round a bend on the Corniche d’Or, and suddenly the landscape opens in front of you.

Red rock.

Blue sea.

Green pines.

Brilliant light.

For a moment, you see exactly what the painters saw more than a century ago.

And you understand why they kept coming back.