Serenity, the sea breeze and sweet citrus: Why you should hike the French Riviera out of season

The French Riviera may not be the first area that springs to mind when you think of places to walk and hike, but there’s more to it than casinos, beach bars, and designer shops.

Hotspots like Saint-Tropez, the lavender fields, and the Calanques National Park traditionally get overrun with visitors in the high season, but the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region is promoting alternative sustainable destinations, including ones you can explore off-season.

Taking their lead, I set out to see the azure coast from a different angle, in search of untamed beauty instead of manicured glamour.

I’ve picked a selection of distances, ranging from 5 km to 16 km, and a variety of terrain from tarmac to scrubland. The walks in Antibes and Menton are easy, but the one in Nice is more demanding and involves a big climb out of the city.

It’s a sunny late November morning, and I’m embarking on a 5 km flat walk around the southernmost tip of Cap d’Antibes. The path’s name, Sentier de Tire-poil, means ‘Hair-pull path’ due to the omnipresent sea breeze but today it’s gentle, and the skies are blue.

Driftwood - not yet snatched up to build tipi structures on the sand - crisscrosses Garoupe Beach, and a line of palm trees points the way to my starting point.

Cap d’Antibes, a large headland southwest of the town, is part of the Natura 2000 European network of natural sites that have been identified for their quality, fragility, and scarcity with an aim to protect marine and terrestrial biodiversity.

The inky line of the horizon bisects the blues of the sky and sea as I look back on the bays of Antibes, Nice, and further on to Italy. The snow-capped foothills of the Alps line up behind.

I’ve barely walked 100 m before I spot the geological stripes on