Golf On The French Riviera
/Our golf trip to the French Riviera coincided with the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix, what a fantastic time to tour the playground of the rich and famous!
Golf
We loved the peaceful setting of the Royal Mougins Golf Club situated between the sea and the mountains. Designed by the late Robert von Hagge, the course stretches across a tree-lined valley surrounded by olive trees and ancient stonewall terracing. It has a real Provencal feel to it. Lunch with the well-heeled at Terrasse du 18 after golf was quite a treat.
We played the prestigious Cannes Mougins course. This private club founded in 1923 is well known for the quality of the fairways and the speed of the greens. For 14 years, the club hosted the Cannes Open. This flagship competition on the European circuit has included prestigious players such as Greg Norman, Severiano Ballesteros and Ian Woosnam among its winners.
The Gary Player designed course at Chateau de Taulane with its seven lakes in the heart of Gorges du Verdon was an outstanding course to finish the tour on. Our only shotgun start of the tour, in a full field of French golfers, made the round even more special. Definitely a course I’d like to play again.
French gastronomy
We seemed to stumble upon Michelin star restaurant after Michelin star restaurant. The food was simply outstanding. The tiny village of Mougin has produced more than its share of Michelin chefs - just the place for fine food lovers.
Places to see and be seen
La Promenade des Anglais in Nice is one of France’s most iconic seafronts and so very instagramable. Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild -the villa and gardens overlook the Mediterranean Sea and are simply stunning. We loved the charm of the stone architecture and the narrow alleys of Gourdon and St Paul de Vence. The genius of Henri Matisse is something to behold in the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence in which he combined the artistic and the spiritual. Matisse considered the chapel his ‘masterpiece’.
The golf courses we played were all in superb condition, the resorts we stayed at were excellent, the Michelin Star restaurants did nothing to stop our expanding waistlines, the art was sublime, the tour guides superb and the company outstanding! On The Tee cannot wait to bring this tour back to the market in 2020.
