With yachts that are the epitome of class, luxury, style and affluence dipping in hormonal accord with the translucent waters of the Mediterranean Ocean, witnessing the enviable yacht scene at Saint Tropez’s world-renowned harbour is a sight to be savoured by all discerning yachtsmen any time of the year.

It is however in the late summer/early autumn when more than 300 of the most desirable sailing yachts from around the globe ascend on Saint Tropez, when one of the most glamorous town’s in the world opens its doors to a week of yachting rapture.

We are of course referring to Les Voiles de St. Tropez Regatta, a week-long event that marks the end of St. Tropez’s summer season in typical St. Tropez style of creating a sensational celebratory atmosphere.

Guy Ernest Debord, a French Marxist, theorist, writer and filmmaker, famously said in ‘The Society of the Spectacle’:

“The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”

Debord’s poignant description of what constitutes a spectacle can be applied to Les Voiles de St. Tropez Regatta, which never fails to fill the entire St. Tropez port with sailing enthusiasts seemingly from every inch of the globe, seeking social acquaintances and meeting with other like-minded yacht lovers but at the same time being mediated by the images, gawking at the sheer splendour of these marvellous vessels.

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Fancy visiting a truly unique and inspiring art exhibition in France this summer? If so, then let us draw your attention to two major exhibitions taking place at the ‘Villa Arson’ in Nice this summer.

‘Ben signe Nice’

You may or may not have heard of a movement known as Fluxus. If you haven’t heard of Fluxus, then it’s a name derived from the Latin meaning ‘to flow’, and is used to describe a network of composers, designers and artists from around the world, which in the 1960s, were noted for combining and blending various artistic disciplines and media.

It is within this premise that the ‘Ben Signe Nice’ exhibition has been crafted, which marks the 50^th anniversary of the Fluxus movement. From July 1 until October 28 2012, ‘Villa Arson’ is home to a temporary boxing ring, which is identical to the ring set up in Cologne in the ‘Happenings and Fluxus’ exhibition of 1970.

The boxing ring will be surrounded by various artworks and objects and various performances will take place in the ring to which the public can go and watch.

‘A la vie deliberee’

Also running from July 1 until October 28 2012 is ‘A la vie deliberee’ exhibition, which looks at the history of performance on the Cote d’Azur from the 1950s until the present day.

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In the 1800s, Monte Carlo wasn’t the glamorous, luxurious, fine dining and unparalleled shopping and entertainment, the ‘Las Vegas of Europe’ is world-renowned for today.

On the contrary, in the 1800s the town of Monte Carlo was a much quieter, passive and less well-known part of the Cote d’Azur. In fact, so ‘quiet’ was Monte Carlo, that in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, the Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois, due to a lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco, decided to open an opera house.

What is known as the Salle Garnier was opened in 1879 and was originally Prince Charles III’s private theatre, reserved only for himself and his family.

The design and construction of the Salle Garnier was carried out by the legendary French architect Charles Garnier, best-known for designing the Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world and a powerful symbol of Paris. The Salle Garnier was an exact replica of the Palais Garnier in Paris, although an albeit scaled down version, having just 524 seats.

In 1879 the first opera was performed at Monte Carlo’s Salle Garnier, the French composer of songs and operettas, Robert Planquestte’s Le Chevalier Gaston.

Throughout the twentieth century many great opera performers played at the Salle Garnier, including Feodor Chaliapin, Nellie Melba and Enrico Caruso and Monte Carlo quickly gained a reputation as being a thriving hub of opera sensations. Whilst the Salle Garnier’s “Golden Age”, which occurred in the early twentieth century, may have passed, today the legendary opera house still boasts a thriving production calendar, presenting between five and six operas a season.

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When we think of the Cannes Film Festival, images of Ginger Rogers, Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Dors sipping the finest champagne among a star-studded Palais des Festivals et des Congres, may spring to mind, with us mere imaginers of the ‘world’s most glamorous film festival’, being right to visualise scenes of hedonism, glamour and almost unimaginable wealth taking centre stage at what is irrefutably one of the world of movies most highly acclaimed annual events.

In fact since it first began in 1946 the Cannes Film Festival quickly became one of the world’s most prestigious movie events and being ‘invitation only’ has always attracted a wealth of media and public attention.

Although in spite of its seven-decade monopoly of being globally acclaimed as being a swanky Cote d’Azur “schmoozathon”, has the famous Cannes Film Festival and its “finely contoured head” about to be knocked off its pedestal in the film-festival-prestige stakes?

Hot on the Cannes Film Festival’s heels in the glamour recompenses, is the New York Film Festival. This highly prestigious annual event was founded in 2002 by  American film producer Jane Rosenthal, Hollywood actor Robert De Niro, and the American philanthropist and real estate investor, Craig Hatkoff, in response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.

The eleventh Tribeca Film Festival took place in April this year, generated approximately $600 million and drew in an estimated three million people.

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