# Villefranche-sur-Mer, the Deep Harbour — The South of France
> One of the deepest natural harbours on the Mediterranean, a stack of ochre houses above it, a Cocteau-painted chapel and a covered medieval street. Villefranche, on the Côte d’Azur.

*Source : https://the-south-of-france.com/en/french-riviera/villefranche-sur-mer/*

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By **The Editors** — _Villefranche-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes_

Spring 20268 min read Share LinkMail

Just east of Nice the coast bites in to form the **rade de Villefranche**, one of the deepest natural harbours on the Mediterranean — deep enough that navies and ocean liners have anchored here for centuries. Above the water the town piles up in ochre, red and yellow, a single curtain of old houses with the blue of the bay at their feet.

## I. The harbour and the old town

The waterfront is a line of fishermen’s houses turned to cafés, the **Port de la Santé** still landing the day’s catch. Behind, the old town climbs in stepped lanes to the **Citadelle Saint-Elme**, the sixteenth-century fort on the point — and through it runs the **Rue Obscure**, a vaulted medieval street roofed over for seven hundred years.

“A harbour deep enough for an ocean liner, a town small enough to walk in ten minutes.”

From the notebook

![A vaulted, dim medieval passage under old houses](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1491166617655-0723a0999cfc?fm=jpg&q=74&w=1400&auto=format&fit=crop)

The Rue Obscure — a covered street, roofed since the Middle Ages.

## II. Cocteau’s chapel

On the quay the little **Chapelle Saint-Pierre**, once a store for the fishermen’s nets, was decorated inside and out by **Jean Cocteau** in 1957 — the life of Saint Peter and the fishermen of Villefranche drawn in his light, looping line. It is small, strange and entirely his; the keys are kept just along the quay.

![A deep blue bay between green headlands](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1547768126-7baafccffdd8?fm=jpg&q=76&w=2400&auto=format&fit=crop)

The rade de Villefranche — deep water between Nice and Cap Ferrat.

## III. Between Nice and the Cap

Villefranche sits between **Nice** and the green peninsula of **Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat**, with its villas and gardens, and the coast path round the cap begins almost from the town. A short train hop from Nice, it keeps a quiet the bigger towns have lost — a working harbour that the twentieth century never quite tamed.

The Practical Carnet · Carnet pratique

### Plan the _visit_

Getting there

One stop from Nice on the coastal train, about 6 min; the old town drops to the harbour from the station.

When to go

Spring and autumn; the harbour is loveliest in the late afternoon light.

Where to stay

**Welcome Hôtel** on the quay, where Cocteau himself once stayed.

Read next

[Menton, the gardens and the lemon](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/french-riviera/menton-gardens-lemon/)

E

About the Author · L’auteur

#### Élise Marchand

Travel Editor — based in Marseille

Élise has been driving the back roads of the Midi for the journal since its first issue. She pays for her own rooms and her own lunches — and only writes about the places she would return to.

[More by Élise Marchand — voir ses articles](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/journal/)

Continue reading · À lire ensuite

### More from the _South_

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#### Where to stay on the Côte d’Azur

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