When one thinks of swimming on the Cote d’Azur, one immediately thinks of golden beaches lapped by the Mediterranean, with bronzed and beautiful bodies bobbing up and down in the lucid water.

For swimming with greater solitude, privacy and tranquillity, making your way inland to the many cobalt mountain pools, waterfalls cascading into clear mighty rivers, framed by fertile plant life of colour and vivacity, and gorges tumbling down to form natural Jacuzzi’s providing a true haven for swimmers and snorkelling, certainly promises to be a memorable swimming experience.

If we’ve managed to get your natural water taste buds bubbling, then read on to discover three of the most stunning natural places to swim inland on the Cote d’Azur.

Gorges du Loup

Finding the Gorges du Loup is an experience in itself as following the winding road that weaves along the Loup River taking you into the heart of the Gorges du Loup has to be one of the most scenic drives on the Cote d’Azur.

Passing through coarsely carved tunnels, along nail-biting edges of sheer cliffs faces towering high above the Loup River and past breathtaking views of rural utopia, you eventually arrive at a terrace overlooking awe-inspiring waterfalls and pools just outside the village of Pont du Loup.

Clue d’Aiglun

The Clue d’Aiglun is one of a series of gorges known as the Clue de Haute Province, which can be found in the verdurous hills to the north of Cannes.

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Mightily dominating the crossroads of Saint Tropez, Cannes and Monaco is Chateau Diter, a magnificent Neo-Renaissance relic situated on the hills just to the south of Grasse. Sat among a preserved and verdurous rapture of trees, gardens and hills, blessed with the most splendid of views of the property’s orchid, olive groves and park, this extraordinary spectacular castle truly epitomises the essence of its advantaged position close to three of the Cote d’Azur’s most wealthy, elite and regal of towns.

The castle itself is a construction of Italian architectural chef-d’oeuvre, representing approximately 4500 metres squares of accommodation of the most lavishness. With arches and columns resonating a Roman marvel and with the ceilings and walls throughout the castle having been painted by several Italian fresco painters, Chateau Diter is at the apex of flamboyant and luxury accommodation even on the Cote d’Azur.

This opulence and grandeur of its interior drifting seamlessly into the exterior where antique ornaments, ancient sculptures, stunning ornamental ponds, inner courtyards encircled by Roman columns, thematic gardens and many extensive and immaculately kept lawns, create a harmonious embodiment of the unique charm and grandeur of the French Riviera.

This incarnation of the Cote d’Azur elatedness is heightened even further with the two helicopters landing pads on the property, which allow 11 landings per day, a high tech security and audio system which consists of 132 loud speakers and the three huge and stately swimming pools that enhance the castle’s recreational and relaxing activities.

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Somewhere along the rocky coastline between Cassis and Marseille, the Calanques can be found, a touch of coastal utopia. Nobody could deny the intense natural beauty of this stretch of coastline, these deep rocky inlets, possessing tiny harbours and beaches between high white rocks, that have provided a safe haven from storms for fishermen and sailors for centuries.

The Calanques stretch for more than 20 kilometres and despite of their irrefutable breath-taking aesthetical utopia of transparent water lapping limestone cliffs, have failed to reach the recognition they deserve, until recently that is.

The Calanques have recently become France’s tenth national park, being officially recognised as a place of “outstanding natural beauty”, an announcement which, for many, has been long overdue.

Situated just 22 kilometres from the city of Marseille, after the national parks close to Sydney and Cape Town, Calanques is only the third natural park in the world that is situated on the fringes of a major city.

In spite of its close proximity to cities, rare and adored sea creatures, reptiles and fish, such as turtles and dolphins, can regularly be seen shooting out of the ocean, causing gentle ripples to ripple across the crystal-clear water, meaning marine life enthusiasts are in heaven at Calanques, and justifiably the French government has set up an anti-fishing law in the region. When it was announced that the Calanques were to be made into a natural park, Francois Fillon, the French Prime Minister said that by the year 2020, he aims to have at least 20 percent of the coastlines, rivers and lakes in France, protected by schemes such as natural parks.

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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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Without wanting to sound like a cliché, the village of Gordes truly is a hidden gem on the Cote d’Azur. Built into a rock and clinging cosily to the face of a cliff, Gordes’ presence cries out a million tales and legends.

Whilst the beauty and overall charm of many of the villages and towns on the Cote d’Azur is augmented by the narrow cobbled streets that climb, wind and descend through a labyrinth of marvels, delights and treasures, the cobbled streets of Gordes, which gently coil past tall stone houses, stunning architecture, picturesque squares, until they finally reach the zenith of the village’s assets – a castle standing proudly atop the hill, keeping a watchful eye over the Gordes’ villagers and equally as beautiful Luberon valley in the distance.

This impressive castle was originally built in the tenth century and was rebuilt in 1525, and brings together a unique amalgamation of architecture from the medieval period and hints of a more contemporary Renaissance period. The inspiring castle is now home to Gordes Town Hall and the Pol Mara Museum, in honour of the late Flemish painter, Pol Mara.

Pol Mara died in 1998 and spent much of his life living in Gordes, where he was inspired by the beauty of the village and its surroundings. Although a visit to the Pol Mara Museum is not for the physically unfit, as to experience the museum in its most splendid form, one is required to climb a spiral Renaissance staircase that leads to the top of the castle, where one can then begin a transfixing chronological tour of the life and work of this extraordinary painter.

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