French Riviera

Our travel group took a wonderful trip to the French Riviera in September. The best thing about the trip were the guides: Jean Bardot, of the American University of Paris, and wine and food expert Patrick Bulteau. They are leading a trip to Provence from May 25-June 7 that will combine the history and spectacular scenery of Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Roman ruins and Van Gogh's art in Arles with wine tasting in the Rhône Valley. For more information, go to http://www.travelswithJeanandPatrick.com or call (775)

Our travel group took a wonderful trip to the French Riviera in September. The best thing about the trip were the guides: Jean Bardot, of the American University of Paris, and wine and food expert Patrick Bulteau. They are leading a trip to Provence from May 25-June 7 that will combine the history and spectacular scenery of Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Roman ruins and Van Gogh's art in Arles with wine tasting in the Rhône Valley. For more information, go to http://www.travelswithJeanandPatrick.com or call (775)

A flash flood on the French Riviera damaged hundreds of homes, cut roads and claimed at least one life, police said Thursday.

Boot camp on the Cote d'Azur? Yes, but it's more frill than drill at La Reserve Ramatuelle on the French Riviera. The resort, near St. Tropez, offers five days of early-morning yoga, fast-paced morning walks in the hills, spa treatments (balneotherapy, body wrap, jet shower and more) and, of course, meals. Healthful fare is prepared by a chef who uses local ingredients and flavors.  Dates: Sept. 18-23 and Oct. 10-15. Price: $7,885 for September, $7,161 for October, based on the current exchange rate.

A raging forest fire caused the evacuation of more than 2,000 people along the posh French Riviera today, including vacationers at a seaside Club Med resort. By late morning, the blaze in the popular southern France vacation haven had been controlled, but hundreds of campers remained stranded. Even the Cote d'Azur's famed private villas were threatened by flames, driven by 65 m.p.h. winds.

The French Riviera, growing weary of its image as a plush sandbox for the idle rich, is getting down to serious business. Not content to let tourism remain the dominant financial force in the region, officials from Cote d'Azur Development, the French Riviera economic development agency, have scheduled a six-city U.S. tour--including Newport Beach--to sing the praises of doing business in Southern France. "Everybody wants companies; it's the future!"

Tropical algae is choking part of the Mediterranean and threatens to cause an ecological disaster, French scientists said Tuesday. "It's spreading like cancer," said Alexandre Meinesz, director of Nice University's marine environment laboratory. The bright green weed with the scientific name of Caulerpa taxifolia is gathering in luxuriant banks stretching over nearly 75 acres off the exclusive beach resorts of the French Riviera.

Suspected arson fires fed by strong winds ravaged the French Riviera today, killing one person, destroying up to 20 resort homes and consuming thousands of acres of forest, officials said. Officials in Nice said at least 1,500 people were forced to flee the flames. One firefighter was seriously injured Thursday night by smoke inhalation and burns, and several others were slightly injured.

Here's a quiz for those who keep an eye on the celebrity scene: Name the place in the South of France where Geri Halliwell (a.k.a. Ginger Spice) went when she left the Spice Girls recently; where Jerry Hall (a.k.a. Mrs. Mick Jagger) just bought a beach house; where supermodel Kate Moss and Liam Gallagher of the rock band Oasis pulled up in a yacht together. It all happened here in St.-Tropez.

Forest fires swept through parts of the French Riviera on Tuesday, killing at least four people, devastating scenic woods and forcing thousands to evacuate. Authorities speculated that the blazes, which damaged or destroyed about 60 homes, were caused by arson. About 30 broke out nearly simultaneously Monday, and some Molotov cocktails were found, local officials said. Authorities were still investigating and had not definitively determined the cause.

"Sexual intercourse began in 1963," the poet Philip Larkin said of the revolution that liberated women and changed the world. And nowhere was that revolution more on display, literally, than on the beaches of the French Riviera, where the first bare breasts appeared just a year later. Scandale ! Some local mayors prohibited it, and the Interior Ministry declared it illegal. But as anyone who has visited a French beach in the last 40 years will know, public opinion was stronger than the bureaucrats' protests.

Sometimes our biggest enemy in travel is not our time or our budget but our imaginations. For a moment, envision seeing the world through a prism that refracts the sights in a different way. There is the French Riviera, and then there is . . . the Albanian Riviera? By cruise ship? There is going to Carnival in Rio, and then there is . . . dancing with your samba school as part of the official celebration? In a costume? Yes, yes, yes and yes. Here are five ideas that can turn a traditional trip on its head.

Nobody will be there, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown thought as he left the house early one morning last May. It was a few days after Cleveland's disappointing season ended with a bitter Game 7 loss on Boston's famed parquet floor and it was down time. The Cavs had dispersed to Cancun, the French Riviera and other vacation spots for rejuvenation and reflection. Brown was headed to the team's plush training compound with his son, Elijah. Time for some father-son bonding with nobody around but security guards.

Shows about French drag artistes and Scottish soldiers took top honors at the Laurence Olivier Awards recognizing the best of the London stage. The sequin-spangled "La Cage aux Folles" won the prize for best musical revival. Douglas Hodge was named best actor in a musical for his performance as high-stepping transvestite Albin in the show, set in a French Riviera nightclub. "Black Watch," Gregory Burke's powerfully physical play about a Scottish regiment's experiences in Iraq, took four prizes at the event Sunday night, including best new play and best director, for John Tiffany.

The honest, pathetic and irritating truth is that after devoting myself to travel the last 15 years -- going far north of the Arctic circle in Sweden or to crocodile-infested waters in South Africa; staying in igloos, grass huts and tree houses; traveling by train, plane, bus, car, bike, boat plus a few four-legged animals -- it turns out that I'm a total washout when it comes to taking a vacation.

Ted Lapidus, 79, the French fashion designer who helped redefine chic with the 1960s unisex look, died Monday at a hospital in Cannes, on the French Riviera. He reportedly had been suffering from pulmonary problems. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in homage to the designer, said Lapidus "democratized French elegance and classicism" and "made fashion accessible to men and women in the street." Born Edmond Lapidus on June 23, 1929, in Paris, the son of a tailor, Lapidus created his label in 1951, and in 1963, he became a member of the prestigious Paris fashion club that runs haute couture, La Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.

It slipped out of the harbor as silently as it came, without the three horn blasts most yachts use to announce their presence among Monaco's rich and famous. The Kremlin Princess had already commanded their attention. Resplendent in navy blue enamel, mahogany trim and a mast towering above the others, its quiet elegance was a fitting symbol of how wealthy Russians are living it up on the French Riviera.

IT'S RAINING chats and chiens in Cannes, and nobody cares. Penelope Cruz doesn't rush along the red carpet at the premiere of the new Woody Allen film or pause to brush away the dew glistening on her inch-long eyelashes. She waves. She smiles. She mounts a few steps in a Marchesa gown as white as her teeth and repeats the drill. The crowd -- beneath a sea of colorful umbrellas that look like scattered bonbons from above -- whoop and wetly applaud. Wait. White silk in the pouring rain?