Champagne, beautiful bronzed bodies, thrilling art galleries, exceptional beaches and world-class marinas, the Cote d’Azur is notorious for many delights and treasures, including its legendary gardens.

In fact gardens are big business on the French Riviera and, similar to a house itself, are a symbol of taste, prosperity and wealth. Although it’s not just the many private gardens brimming with colour, exoticness, fertility and grandeur that line this exclusive region of southern France from east to west, as the Cote d’zur is also home to many stunningly beautiful public gardens of which a visit is a must.

Take a look at three of the most sensational public gardens on the Cote d’Azur.

The Parc Floral Phoenix

Being situated opposite Nice International Airport, there could not be a more tranquil, relaxing and picturesque place to unwind after a flight and begin your holiday on the Cote d’Azur.

With duck ponds, an aviary with a ‘musical’ fountain, many picnic tables positioned under the shade of a tree’s boughs, and an exhibition centre that is home to seven different climate zones and an exotic aquarium, the Parc Floral Phoenix provides a fantastic family day out

Le Jardin Exotique de Monaco

For those yearning to experience a truly exotic garden on the Cote d’Azur then look no further than the Jardin Exotique de Monaco.

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Both golf and polo are big names in the hectic sporting calendar of the French Riviera. The International Polo Cup was held in July at the Polo Club in Saint Tropez.

Several prominent annual golf tournaments are also taking place at various spots along this exquisite stretch of coastline each year, it is safe to say that if you are a fan of golf and polo than the Cote d’Azur will do more than quench any aspirations for an annual golf or polo fix.

Although satiating both polo and golf yearnings at once is the France India Business Cup, which takes place at the Gassin Golf & Country Club and the Polo Club of Saint Tropez.

This prominent annual event is now in its fourth year and is being held on 17^th and 18^th October, 2012.

Players at the 4^th France India Business Cup have to be of either French or Indian nationality and a CEO,VP,manager or director of a French or Indian company.

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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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Alexander in Egypt, Lisbon in Portugal, Florence in Italy, Germany’s Berlin and St. Petersburg in Russia, these cities have got one thing in common – they have all at some point been referred to as being ‘Cities of Art’.

Perched in the fresh air on the hills between Nice and Antibes, the flower-lined town of Vence has also been cited as being a ‘City of Art’.

Bursting with sweet-smelling orange trees, aromatic flowers and olive trees in all directions and with a walled old town that is a sphere of medieval buildings with five ancient gateways known as “portes”, that looks virtually the same now as it did hundreds of years ago, it is not difficult to engage why Vence has attracted artists, writers and poets for centuries.

In the 12th century, Pierre Vidal, a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry  referred to Vence as “Le doux repaire” – “The sweet nest”. In the 13^th century, Italian poet and moral philosopher, Dante Alighieri, included the Lord of Vence, Romeo de Villenueve in his Paradise. Matisse, Soutine, Dubuffet and Dufy all spent time in Vence, working on artistic creations during some point of their careers.

The English novelist, poet, painter and playwright, D.H. Lawrence, spent the last days of his life on the Cote d’Azur in the town of Vence and died here in 1930. The legendary writer was actually buried in Vence for a short while, before his body was exhumed and taken to New Mexico.

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