Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

The peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat seen from the coast

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat is a peninsula 10 km east of Nice, between Villefranche and Beaulieu. It has 15 km of coastline, some of the most expensive real estate on earth, and — the reason to come without a yacht — a public footpath around the whole thing.

Its own nickname is Presqu’île des Rêves, and no part of the Riviera is more thoroughly moneyed. King Leopold II of Belgium owned much of it; Somerset Maugham wrote here for thirty years; the Rothschilds built the villa that is now the main sight.

The coastal paths

A small cove with turquoise water on the Cap Ferrat coast

This is the best thing here and it is free. French law keeps the shoreline public, so a marked path runs right round the cape below the gardens of the villas.

  • Pointe Saint-Hospice — the short loop from Plage de Paloma round the eastern point, about an hour, with the view back along the coast to Italy. A small chapel and a Belgian-built tower stand at the tip.
  • The full circuit — around 11 km all the way round the peninsula, three to four hours, alternating between rock, pine and the walls of other people’s houses.
  • Promenade Maurice Rouvier — the flat, paved kilometre between Saint-Jean and Beaulieu, easy in any shoes.

Take water and a hat; there is very little shade on the seaward side.

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

The pink Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and its French garden

Baroness Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild built this pink Italianate villa on the ridge between 1905 and 1912 and filled it with furniture, porcelain, tapestries and paintings. She left it to the Institut de France on her death in 1934, and it opens as the Musée Île-de-France.

The house is worth an hour; the gardens are the reason to come. Nine of them, on the narrow ridge with sea on both sides — French, Spanish, Florentine, Japanese, Provençal, an exotic garden, a stone garden and a rose garden at the far tip. The baroness had the ridge levelled with dynamite and the whole site is laid out like a ship’s deck, which was deliberate: the gardeners once wore sailors’ caps.

The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and its fountains in the evening

The main basin has musical fountains that run on the hour. The garden carries the national Jardin remarquable label.

The other villas

  • Villa Santo Sospir — decorated throughout by Jean Cocteau, who came for a week in 1950 and stayed a decade, drawing on every wall in the house. Visits are limited and need booking.
  • Villa Les Cèdres — once Leopold II’s, later home to one of the world’s great private botanical collections, and for a while the most expensive house ever sold. Closed to the public.
  • Villa Mauresque — Somerset Maugham’s, and also closed. He grew tired of being an attraction: when one determined visitor got through the gate, Maugham reportedly snapped, “What do you take me for, a monkey in a cage?”
  • Zoo du Cap Ferrat — a private zoo in the basin of a drained lake on the north-west of the peninsula

The village and the port

The harbour of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat with fishing boats and yachts

Saint-Jean itself is still recognisably a fishing village, with a small harbour where the fishing boats sit among the yachts, a row of restaurant terraces along the quay, and a handful of streets behind. It is a pleasant place to eat lunch and considerably more relaxed than the villas suggest.

Beaches

  • Plage de Paloma — the best known, on the eastern side at the foot of the Saint-Hospice path, part public and part private
  • Plage des Fossettes — a small sheltered cove, good for swimming
  • Plage de Passable — on the west, looking across at Villefranche, with the sunset
  • Plage de Cros dei Pin — by the village, small and handy

All of them are shingle rather than sand — this is the Riviera. Bring beach shoes. See the best beaches in the region.

Getting there

There is no railway station on the peninsula. The nearest is Beaulieu-sur-Mer, one stop from Villefranche and about ten minutes from Nice.

  • Bus 81 from Nice runs into the village of Saint-Jean itself, every 15–20 minutes on weekdays and every 30 on Sundays, about 30 minutes from the centre of Nice. This is the one to use.
  • Bus 15 / the coastal 100 from Nice to Menton stops at the neck of the peninsula, leaving a scenic 15-minute walk in. Coming back, take the 81: the 100 arrives from Monaco already full.
  • Both stop running around 20:30–21:00, which catches people out.
  • By car — the lower corniche. Parking on the peninsula is very limited and mostly paid; in season it is genuinely difficult. See parking in France.

Nice Côte d’Azur airport is about 25 minutes by road.

Around Cap Ferrat

  • Beaulieu-sur-Mer — next door, with the Villa Kérylos, a full-scale reconstruction of an ancient Greek house built in 1902 and every bit as odd and good as it sounds
  • Villefranche-sur-Mer — across the bay, with the Cocteau chapel
  • Èze — the hilltop village 10 minutes east
  • Monaco — 15 minutes by train from Beaulieu
  • Nice — 10 minutes, and the obvious base

When to go

May, June and September. The gardens are at their best in spring, the walking is unpleasant in August heat, and the whole peninsula is very quiet out of season — which, given what it is, is rather the point.

See when to visit Provence.

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