Menton

Close to the French - Italian border, the pleasant Cote d'Azur resort of Menton has been attracting tourists for years. Easily reachable as as a budget destination from the UK, the town is interesting in itself, and also a good base if you're touring along the Riviera.

Although the pretty town is nowadays inside France, Menton once belonged to Genoa, is still Italian to look at and is as warm in winter as Capri. The Cote d'Azur resort is used to tourists, and has had a resident English 'colony' since the 1890s. Among assorted European nobility in Menton's beautiful hilltop cemetery lie the inventor of Rugby football and Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde's friend and illustrator. Above the posh yachts and fishing boats, Menton's old town rises in a tangle of stepped lanes, pink/cream/ochre houses and tall Italianate churches.

Menton is big enough to have most of what the tourist needs, both in season and out: plenty of shops, gardens, museums (including one to Jean Cocteau housed in an old fort) and plenty going on - but nothing too over-the-top rowdy. Menton hosts a famous Lemon Festival in February. Westward there is a curious 1930's Moorish-style Casino and a long promenade with a clean if pebbly public beach. Behind the town stands a sheltering line of mountains and several ancient villages on high ledges, connected by little lanes and footpaths. Surprisingly for the Riviera, there is a network of such routes, including parts of two 'GRs' - Grand Randonnees, French long-distance footpaths.