Cannes

This resort, on the world-famous Côte d'Azur, is the perennial favourite of wealthy scions and the shop-til-you-drop set. During the International Film Festival in May. Just offshore is the eucalyptus and pine-covered Île Sainte Marguerite, which was exploited so effectively by Alexander Dumas in his classic novel The Man in the Iron Mask. This small island is vectored by trails and paths while its beaches are considerably less crowded than those on the mainland. Even smaller is the nearby Île Saint Honorat, once the site of a renowned and powerful monastery founded in the 5th century, and today the home of a Cistercian monastic order.