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.

The water here comes from the Alpes-Maritimes and is the personification of clean and clear mountain water. Rock pools and passages have been sculptured out of the white limestone from centuries of water erosion.

This magnificent waterfall leads to a series of natural pools, where the water dancing with infrequent ‘diamonds’ when the sun filters through the pine trees, entices you to take off your clothes and swim.

Clue de Pierrefeu

Not far from the villages of Roquesteron downstream from Aiglun, the more gentler stream of Clue de Perrefeu can be found, which being hidden deep in the thicket of a ‘magical wood’, is the perfect place for wild family swimming.

Following this enchanting brook downstream you arrive at a series of caves. Unlike the hoarse and jagged stone that normally forms caves, the caves of Clue de Pierrefeu are even and smooth to touch sculptured slickly from years of limbering mountain water.

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