Menton
The warmest, easternmost French town — citrus gardens, an unspoilt old town, and the gateway to Italy.
The last town before Italy
Menton is the easternmost town of the French Riviera, pressed against the Italian border beneath steep, sheltered slopes. Its mild microclimate — the warmest on the coast — feeds famous citrus gardens and the annual Fête du Citron, and its tall ochre old town rises straight from the sea above two harbours.
For a yacht, Menton is the quiet far end of the coast: a destination for those cruising east past Monaco toward the Italian Riviera, with calm anchorages and a genuinely unspoilt old town. It marks the natural turning point — or the gateway to Liguria and beyond, toward Portofino.
Few Cannes day charters reach this far, which is precisely its appeal for a longer cruise: the crowds thin, the coast softens, and Italy is in sight. It is the natural staging point before a passage on toward Portofino and the Ligurian coast.