Mandelieu-la-Napoule

Mandelieu-la-Napoule sits between the Esterel, the Siagne river and the sea, at the western end of the bay of Cannes. The commune made its name with a flower: mimosa, brought from Australia in the nineteenth century, which covers its hills and blooms in midwinter. The Mimosa Route, running from the Maures massif to Grasse, stops here, and the mimosa festival is held every February.

On the shore, the La Napoule castle, a much-altered medieval fortress, was rebuilt from 1918 by the American sculptor Henry Clews and his wife Marie, who turned it into a work in its own right; it now houses a foundation and gardens open to the sea. Two marinas and several golf courses, one of them among the oldest in France, complete the picture.