La Plage: An Insider’s Guide to the Riviera’s Finest Beach Clubs

03.08.2026

On the Côte d’Azur, the beach club is not a leisure concept, it’s a ritual that has played out on the same sun-warmed rocks and private sands for over a century, drawing writers, painters, royalty and film stars to the same sequined edge of sea. From Le Provençal, three of the most distinguished private beach clubs on the entire French Riviera lie within effortless reach, each one a world unto itself.

Hôtel Belles Rives

Beginning next door, La Plage Belles Rives occupies the private beach of Villa Saint-Louis, the seafront retreat where F. Scott Fitzgerald once traded champagne for chapters, drafting Tender Is the Night within earshot of the waves, a novel that contains a passing reference to a Burberry coat. This summer, that connection has come full circle as Burberry have taken over the hotel’s beach club and terraces until 30 September, reimagining the Art Deco interiors in a bespoke Mediterranean blue check across loungers, parasols, the private jetty and even the hotel’s original 1920s elevator. The programme includes waterskiing in the very bay where the sport was first invented in the 1930s. For Le Provençal residents, privileged access is assured and this summer, there is nowhere more talked-about on the Riviera.

Plage des Pêcheurs

A ten-minute stroll along the shore leads to Plage des Pêcheurs, the only stretch of genuine sandy beach held privately anywhere along this coast. The loungers and parasols come in the palest shade of pink, set against a Palm Springs-meets-Mediterranean silhouette of white rendered walls. Days here unfold in a pleasing rhythm. A swim, a lazy hour on the sensory infinity pool’s pergola terrace, lunch at BABA’s circular bar as the music rises with the afternoon sun before evenings turn considerably more serious at Michelin Star restaurant, Les Pêcheurs, built on nothing more complicated than the morning’s catch.

La Guérite, Île Sainte-Marguerite

For the full theatre of the Riviera, a short journey by private tender delivers you to La Guérite and the crossing alone announces that something exceptional awaits. Reached only by boat from Cannes, the restaurant and beach club sits on Île Sainte-Marguerite, the island made famous as the setting of the Man in the Iron Mask legend, nestled beneath the ancient Fort Royal. Arrive for lunch and find a quiet, pine-shaded paradise of crystalline water and unhurried Mediterranean cooking. Chef Yiannis Kioroglou’s Greek-inflected menu of fresh fish, shared plates and aromatic barbecue is as seductive as the setting. Then as the afternoon deepens, something altogether more vivid unfolds as tables become dance floors, the music rises, and the bay of Cannes glitters in the distance. It’s said, Elton John has been known to sit down at the piano. Some days on the Riviera are simply like that.

Three beach clubs, one unmistakable lifestyle

Whether the afternoon calls for literary hush and fashion-world glamour, sun-soaked Riviera design or the theatre of the open sea, each lies close enough to Le Provençal to feel less like an excursion than an extension of home.

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