Photographers can travel the world but they will find it hard to match the unique and unrivalled beauty of the Cote d’Azur to showcase their talents.

With so many inspiring landmarks, eccentric and unusual discoveries and stunning natural beauty, swathed by an azure sky and sea, achieving inimitable and motivating photographs on this stretch of French coastline is attainable for even the most amateur of photographers.

In celebration of the Cote d’Azur’s perpetual capacity to enthuse photographers, the Chateau St Julien d’Aille is holding a photography workshop.

Named the ‘Scrapbook Event’, the workshop will enable photographers of all abilities to speak to and gain advice from professionals to help them make photographic scrapbooks with their own photos.

Alongside attending talks dedicated to helping photographers mount and display their work in a professional scrapbook, the event will include several wine tasting sessions, allowing photographers to sample the delicious local wine that is produced in the Cote d’Azur region.

Situated close to Vidauban on the Cote d’Azur, is the grand and impressive Chateau St Julien d’Aille, which, for centuries, has been tended by people whose passion in winemaking has been proven by the quality of the wine produced here.

In combining both modern and ancient winemaking techniques, the experience visitors to this stately chateau discover delves much deeper than simply tasting some of the most divine wine that France has to offer.

Being blessed with 80 hectares of vines surrounded by a swarm beautiful natural resources including holly oaks, pine trees, heather, thyme, junipers and pine trees, it isn’t difficult to envisage why the photography professionals that will be gracing the Chateau St Julien d’Aille with their presence decided to hold the Scrapbook Event at this truly inspirational venue.

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When visiting a new country, the best way to ensure that you have the most luxurious stay is to book yourself into a 5 star resort. However, you can now experience an even more exclusive getaway by renting your own village!

Rentavillage.com is now offering its wealthy clientele the opportunity to rent an entire town for around $60,000 a night. The whole village would be at your disposal, ready for you to spend your stay however you please.

You could rename the streets and squares, have your name or company logo carved into the snow on a mountain slope, or even change the currency for the duration of your visit.

The inhabitants of your chosen location earn a living from the village and local businesses and clubs also contribute to any events you organise on your trip, offering their expertise in areas such as catering and indoor/outdoor activities.

Karl Schwärzler of Xnet (the company that runs the rentavillage website) reports that this concept has become a firm favourite with large global organisations who want to go all out to impress their clients.

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Southern France was once again been invaded by citrus fruits, as Menton celebrated its traditional lemon festival earlier this month.

The 79^th addition of the festival was not only a celebration of lemons, but also a celebration of France as the theme was ‘regions of France’.

The patriotic theme was demonstrated through the traditional sculptures, made up of around 145 ton of lemons and oranges. This year’s citrus fruit creations included a bottle of champagne, a stork and a Parisian Metro station sign.

La fete du Citron (as it is known in France) originated in 1929 when Menton became Europe’s premier producer of lemons. The local Hotel Riviera launched the festival to celebrate the first flowering of the citrus fruits.

The celebration also includes wagons that parade through the streets with a variety of entertainment. It is well known for being a unique event and attracts around 230,000 visitors a year.

2012’s festival is running  from 17^th February – 7^th March, and highlights included the “Corso des fruits d’or” – The golden fruits parade that runs along the Promenade du Soleil with floats decorated in lemons and oranges, as well as moving figures.

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Talk about an art exhibition being held in inspirational surroundings! Until 15^th April this year, the work of six sculptors will be featured on the sides of the ski lifts on the Verdons slopes, one of the most famous ski locations in Courchevel.

This ‘art museum in the sky’ will feature a range of popular, modern and street art, displayed at an altitude of 2,320 metres.

Alongside the masterpieces of six great contemporary sculptors shown at various stations within this popular French ski resort, including the work of the famous ‘Doggy John’, the works of 20 contemporary artists will also be suspended in the air on the ski lifts.

The artistic geniuses of the likes of Alain Godon, Franck Tordjmann and Robert Mars are being complimented proficiently by a backdrop of unblemished snow quilted across a dramatic range of mountains.

While the Cote d’Azur has been given the title as being a playground for the rich and famous, Courchevel is known as being a ski resort for the world’s richest skiers.

French billionaire business magnate, Bernard Arnault, who, according to Forbes Magazine is the world’s forth richest person in Europe, with a 2011 net worth $41 billion, is a regular face at the Courchevel ski resort.

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It’s one of the most glamorous locations in the world. Yet a trip to the Cote d’Azur can be made significantly even more glamorous by taking a helicopter transfer from Nice International Airport to Monaco.

This stretch of road is renowned for donning expensive sports cars, with their drivers and passengers enjoying an exhilarating drive in a hoodless vehicle with only blue sky above them journeying between two of the most glamorous cities in the world, in truly awe-inspiring surroundings.

This stimulating drive takes around 30 minutes in a car, 20 minutes on a motorbike, and can be drastically reduced in a helicopter to just seven minutes.

Heli Air Monaco has more than 20 flights daily departing from Nice International Airport to Monaco Airport.

While the views this journey provides are stunning enough by car, taking in the rolling and verdant countryside, the pretty and ancient hillside villages, the flawless turquoise Mediterranean blinking under the sun and breathing in the luscious aromas radiating from this stretch of coastline’s diverse and exotic flora, accomplishing the trip from Nice to Monaco by air is even more unforgettable.

Since 1976 Heli Air Monaco has been providing shuttles to passengers arriving in the Principality between hotels, homes and meeting places on the Cote d’Azur.

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