From the glamour of Cannes to arty 丘の頂上 villages:?Inside Provence - one of the world's most magical 地域s

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There’s a sudden commotion on the beach. People are waving their 武器 and shouting as if they’ve seen something alarming in the water. Perhaps a swimmer is in 苦しめる ? although the lifeguards don’t seem the slightest bit 関心d.

On closer 査察, the 集会 swell is all smiles. What’s more, there’s plenty of jewellery on 陳列する，発揮する, 急落（する），激減（する）ing necklines and expensive hair-dos ? and that’s just the men.

This is a wedding 歓迎会 Cannes-style, and the bride and groom are about to arrive on a sleek, polished speedboat. They’re in for some party.

It’s 商売／仕事 as usual in the Cote d’Azur, this fabled, 後退，不況-proof honeypot. We’re talking high-octane wealth, grandiose glamour and a salutary lesson, if needed, that the divide between the 最高の-rich and those who, as Teresa May once put it, are ‘just about getting by’, has never been wider.

I’ve always 手配中の，お尋ね者 to visit Hotel Martinez, the oldest five-星／主役にする on La Croisette, where a seaview room starts at about £1,800 and the four-bedroom 控訴 on the seventh 床に打ち倒す, with its own terrace the width of the whole building, costs £50,000 a night.

On a 小旅行する of Provence, 示す Palmer visits the St Paul de Vence commune (pictured), which has been home to its fair 株 of famous artists?

There are Ferraris on the forecourt, Damien Hirst art on the 塀で囲むs in the atrium (or 一時停止するd from the 天井) and much of the luggage coming and going has a whiff of LA’s Rodeo 運動 about it.

The cantilever staircase is a marvel. How on earth it supports itself is baffling, but it’s here that the movie gods and goddesses practice walking 負かす／撃墜する the red carpeted steps during the Cannes Film Festival.

I’ve 説得するd the 管理／経営 to let our disparate bunch (範囲ing in age from two to 62) have lunch across the road at the hotel’s beach club. 十分な 公表，暴露 ? I’m not 支払う／賃金ing the 十分な whack. If I were, it would be £60-£90 per day for a sunbed (prices rise the closer you are to the sea) or £800 for a cabana on the pier, with a 瓶／封じ込める of bubbly thrown in.

In Cannes, 示す dines at Hotel Martinez's 'deliciously informal' beach club restaurant?

And, yet, the beach club restaurant (‘The best lunch of my life,’ says one of our group) is deliciously informal ? light on pretension, 激しい on irony, with the 指名するs of film 星／主役にするs on the 支援する of the director-style 議長，司会を務めるs. 地雷 belongs to Grace Kelly and I’m next to Paul Newman and Yul Brynner.

The next day, the juxtaposition could not be more stark ? though just as rewarding ? as we take the 20-minute 往復（する） from the old port of Cannes to Saint Honorat, the smaller of the two Iles de Lerins.

No Ferraris here. No cars of any 肉親，親類d in fact, although we 位置／汚点／見つけ出す a tractor and trailer in の中で the vines which produce half-decent ワインs and help 支える the 20 Cistercian 修道士s who live a life of 孤独 and 祈り, perhaps putting a word in on に代わって of the hedonistic （人が）群がる 支援する on the 本土／大陸.

There’s been a 修道院 here since about 405, though the French 革命 interrupted 事柄s. This was until Saint Honorat was bought in 1869 by the Bishop of Frejus, who oversaw its rebirth.

冷静な／正味の 位置／汚点／見つけ出す: 示すs stays at 郊外住宅 Jasmina (pictured) 近づく the 丘の頂上 hamlet of Opio

示す enjoys a 'celestial day out' on Ile Saint-Honorat (above)

It makes for a celestial day out. There’s no beach but you just 選ぶ your 位置／汚点／見つけ出す and clamber over 激しく揺するs into the water. Then 扱う／治療する yourself to a long, lazy lunch at the Torraine restaurant ? also owned by the 修道士s.

郊外住宅 Jasmina, our rented CV 郊外住宅s’ house, about 40 minutes inland 近づく the 丘の頂上 hamlet of Opio, is the colour of honey and surrounded by cypress, eucalyptus, pine, olive and モミ trees, all of which defer to the big old oak on the terrace. Sitting under it for dinner at the 石／投石する （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する is a joy.

There are three bedrooms in the main house, 加える an 別館 with two more. The swimming pool is long and thin ? and alarmed in 事例／患者 little ones should 宙返り／暴落する into it.

It’s the ideal base for 調査するing this gilded 地域 of Provence, which over the years has attracted the superstars of art. They （機の）カム (含むing Winston Churchill) and continue to come for the light ? a brilliant, 有望な light, 反して in Tuscany it’s softer, いっそう少なく sharp, more pink.

The commune of St Paul de Vence basks in its artistic 協会s. Marc Chagall bought a house here in 1949. As a Jew born in Belarus, he had been 認めるd French 市民権 in 1937 but was 軍隊d to 逃げる German 占領するd フラン during the war. He was later made an 名誉として与えられる 国民 of Vence.

Matisse, Picasso and Leger, の中で others, took up 一時的な 住居 in this 16th Century town perched on a hill, with its one main, 狭くする street, 適切な called Rue Grande, where Parisian-style galleries are happy for you to saunter in, take one look at the prices and hurry out.

The arty （人が）群がる used to gather at the Colombe d’Or at the 入り口 to the town. It was a humble inn in those days. Now it’s a five-星／主役にする hotel, with two beefy, ふさわしい 安全 men standing outside to 阻止する people like me from wandering in for a snoop.

示す travels to Grasse, the ‘perfume 資本／首都 of the world’, where he is 迎える／歓迎するd by hundreds of pink umbrellas (pictured)

Valbonne is terrific, too. Here, it’s the art of French living which is on 陳列する，発揮する in a village built beside the Chalaisienne Abbey in 1199 on a Roman, rectangular, grid-system. At its heart is the Place des Arcades, a fabulous little square with restaurants on three 味方するs.

A man in a 有望な yellow shirt seems to be 事実上の／代理 as a maitre d’ for 競争相手 設立s, only for us to realise later that three of them are owned and run by the same family. There are no cars here either ? so children scamper around while their parents tuck into escargots and steak tartare.

Then there’s Grasse, the いわゆる ‘perfume 資本／首都 of the world’. When we arrive it’s raining so hard that traffic is brought to a 行き詰まり. The good news is that we are 迎える／歓迎するd by hundreds of pink umbrellas ? the bad news is that they are all out of reach, hanging from wires 大（公）使館員d to lampposts.

The sophistication of the South of フラン is hard to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, but what I also like is the way old men with 直面するs lined like a London 地下組織の 地図／計画する still spend hours sitting at cafe （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs, smoking and, hallelujah, reading newspapers. In the evening, they might 延期，休会する to the nearest dusty boules 跡をつける and then 支援する to the cafe for a pichet of red ワイン and a moan about 大統領 Macron.

But, my goodness, the French can be surly. On one of our Carrefour supermarket runs I ask a member of staff as gently as possible if she could direct me to ‘les oeufs’ (eggs), where upon, without looking up, she を刺すs out an 積極的な finger and barks: ‘au fin’ [‘at the end’]. And their road manners are appalling. By the end of the week we 溝へはまらせる／不時着する games of I-秘かに調査する with the younger children in favour of 位置／汚点／見つけ出す The Smile a s we 運動 around, 申し込む／申し出ing 感謝する waves if, on the rarest of occasions, we are given 権利 of way. We find they are seldom 報いるd.

The French can be belligerent, chippy and aloof. They are our nearest 隣人s and yet forever distant. But to have this fascinating, infuriating and captivating country on our doorstep is one of our 広大な／多数の／重要な 特権s.