Boutique Hotels in Cagnes-sur-Mer

Haut-de-Cagnes is the medieval hilltop village at the commune's heart, escaped from the late-20th-century resort transformation that reshaped the Côte d'Azur coastline below. The cobbled lanes climb toward the Château-Musée Grimaldi at the village summit — the 14th-century Grimaldi castle that now houses the municipal museum of contemporary Mediterranean art and the Suzy Solidor portrait collection. The original city walls run intact around the village perimeter. Les Collettes on the southern edge now operates as the Musée Renoir, with Renoir's studio, his wheelchair, his bronzes and the olive grove that appeared repeatedly in his late paintings. Château Le Cagnard anchors the village's editorial centre as a genuine 13th-century defensive structure commissioned by Rainer I of Monaco to defend the neighbouring Grimaldi castle, now operating as a 30-room hotel with each room named for a painter who passed through Cagnes-sur-Mer.

Cros-de-Cagnes sits at the coastline three kilometres south of the medieval village, on the Mediterranean between Nice and Antibes. The district holds the original fishing port that predates the modern resort and the three-kilometre pebble beach running along the Promenade de la Plage. The morning fish market continues to operate from the harbour; the beachfront restaurants hold the Riviera tradition of fish-grill and bouillabaisse dining. The Hippodrome de la Côte d'Azur sits between Cros-de-Cagnes and the airport, hosting winter meetings December-March and summer meetings July-September.

April through October handles the principal Côte d'Azur season. The Riviera light that drew Renoir and the School of Paris painters reaches its strongest from May through September. Late spring and early autumn deliver the warm Riviera without the August crush. The Cagnes Hippodrome's summer meetings run July-September; the winter meetings run December-March for off-season visits. Château Le Cagnard closes November through March.