Riviera Modernism: architecture by the sea

About Riviera Modernism: architecture by the sea

By the ULTIMATE French Riviera Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

The painters made the Riviera famous, but the architects made it modern. Between the wars, patrons and designers built some of the first modernist houses in France on its hillsides and rocks; after them came museums designed around a single artist, art schools in old villas and, most recently, galleries hidden beneath the ground. This is a guide to the buildings themselves, from Hyères to Menton.

The Villa Noailles

High above the old town of Hyères, the Villa Noailles is one of the founding houses of French modernism. Robert Mallet-Stevens designed it in the 1920s for two adventurous patrons, Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles: a white composition of cubes and terraces on the hillside, where the couple welcomed the artists and writers of their day.

Its most famous corner is the cubist garden by Gabriel Guévrékian, a triangle of coloured tiles and planted squares that reads like a painting from above. Today the villa is a contemporary art centre of national interest and the home of the Design Parade festivals: in 2026 the 20th festival of design in Hyères and the 10th festival of interior architecture in Toulon. In winter, from 21 October 2026 to 28 February 2027, it is open Wednesday to Sunday, 1pm–6pm.

On the Riviera, the modern house was born not in a city street but on a sunny hillside above the sea.

A villa on the rocks

At the other end of the coast, on the rocks of Cap Martin, the designer Eileen Gray built E-1027 between 1926 and 1929 with the architect Jean Badovici. Next to it stands Le Corbusier’s tiny wooden Cabanon of 1952. The restored villa and the Cabanon can be visited together as Cap Moderne, by booking on capmoderne.com; our companion story on the Riviera’s art and architecture tells the full tale.

The Fondation Maeght

In the pines below Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the Fondation Maeght was inaugurated in 1964 in buildings by the Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert. Building, garden and art were conceived as one: Giacometti’s figures stand in the courtyard and Miró’s labyrinth of sculpture winds through the garden. In 2024 the foundation opened an extension by the architect Silvio d’Ascia, designed to respect Sert’s original buildings. Give it a morning, and lunch in Saint-Paul.

Cimiez: a museum built for Chagall

On the Cimiez hill in Nice, the Musée national Marc Chagall was built for one artist’s gift. After Chagall gave works to the state in 1966 and 1972, the architect André Hermant, who had worked with Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier, designed the museum on land given by the city of Nice. It opened in 1973.

Villa Arson and Le 109

Higher on the hills of Nice, Villa Arson combines a national school of art with a contemporary art centre, residencies and a library, in a complex by the architect Michel Marot built around the old villa. Its gardens are open to the public every afternoon throughout the year, even between exhibitions.

Across town, Le 109 is the city’s pole of contemporary culture, in the former municipal slaughterhouses on the route de Turin. Built between 1957 and 1967 and saved from demolition in 2008, the halls were opened to artists from 2009 and now house the Forum d’urbanisme et d’architecture, 29 municipal studios for visual artists and performing-arts companies, with exhibitions and events through the year.

Menton: Cocteau by the sea

In Menton, Jean Cocteau has two museums. The old Bastion on the harbour and a newer building on the seafront, a white glass pavilion behind a sculpted colonnade, made to show the collection of more than 1,800 pieces that the collector Séverin Wunderman gave to the town. The museum opens every day except Tuesday, 10am–12.30pm and 2pm–6pm; check its site for what is showing in each building.

Concrete art in Mouans-Sartoux

Inland from Cannes, the Espace de l’Art Concret at Mouans-Sartoux shows the Albers-Honegger collection of geometric abstraction in a crisp building by the Swiss architects Gigon and Guyer, opened in 2004. It is a calm, rewarding detour between the coast and Grasse.

Porquerolles: art beneath an island

The newest addition is on an island. On Porquerolles, off Hyères, the Fondation Carmignac turned a Provençal villa into a museum of contemporary art, with its galleries set beneath the house, lit by daylight filtered through a ceiling of water. A 15-hectare garden by the landscape architect Louis Benech is set with sculpture. The villa opens seasonally (in 2026 from 25 April to 1 November) and is reached by boat; book on the foundation’s site.

Our advice: in summer, pair the Villa Noailles with a day on Porquerolles; book Cap Moderne early; and give Nice a day for Cimiez, Villa Arson and Le 109. Then follow the coast into Italy, to Tuscany’s modern buildings.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Riviera Modernism: architecture by the sea before you go.