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.