Menton: Old Town, Gardens & the Lemon Festival

Menton is the last town in France before Italy, and it feels like a hinge between the two: a mild, sheltered bay where lemons grow outdoors, a tall old town in shades of ochre, saffron and pink climbing from the harbour to the cemetery, and a long seafront that was once the winter haunt of British and Russian invalids seeking its famous microclimate. The old town is the essential walk: from the seafront, wide pebble-mosaic steps climb to the Basilica Saint-Michel Archange, a Baroque church with an Italianate façade, whose square hosts a chamber music festival in summer; above it, lanes wind up to the Vieux-Château cemetery with its sweeping views over the bay and the Italian coast. Jean Cocteau loved Menton: he decorated the town hall's Wedding Room with murals, which can be visited with local guides, and restored the Bastion, a small seventeenth-century fort on the harbour, as a museum of his work. Menton is also a garden town, with a remarkable collection of subtropical gardens created by botanists and expatriates: the Serre de la Madone, listed as a Remarkable Garden and visited on guided tours from January to October; Val Rahmeh, a botanical garden of tropical and subtropical plants; and others such as Maria Serena, Fontana Rosa, Les Colombières and Clos du Peyronnet. Every February, the town celebrates its citrus heritage with the Fête du Citron, the Lemon Festival, listed in France's inventory of intangible cultural heritage: giant sculptures made of tonnes of oranges and lemons fill the Jardins Biovès, and parades of citrus floats, the Golden Fruit corsos by day and the night corsos, roll along the seafront. The 93rd edition, themed Douce France, runs from 13 to 28 February 2027 and draws more than 200,000 visitors. The town itself is free to wander, and the Lemon Festival is ticketed.

Getting there: Menton is about thirty-five minutes from Nice by regional train on the coastal line, passing Monaco; the Menton and Menton-Garavan stations serve the town. Be aware that until 11 December 2026 the Nice-Ventimiglia line is closed from 10pm to 6am on Sunday to Thursday nights for works, with increased bus services between Menton and Nice, and that a national rail strike is called for 5 November 2026. Regional buses along the coast are an alternative. The Italian town of Ventimiglia, with its big Friday market, is a ten-minute train ride further.

A day in Menton: walk the seafront Promenade du Soleil, climb into the old town and the Basilica square, continue up to the cemetery for the view, then come down to the covered market (Halles du Marché) for lemon specialities and lunch. In the afternoon, visit a garden — Val Rahmeh is the easiest to reach — or see the Cocteau Bastion on the harbour (check opening and guided-tour days, which are limited). Finish with a citrus ice cream on the harbour as the sun sets on the old town. Menton is quieter and more residential than Nice, popular with retirees and with Italians crossing for the day; restaurants on the Italian side of the border make a fun lunch.

The Lemon Festival: everyone, including young children, needs a ticket for the parades and the Biovès gardens' ticketed areas, booked online through the festival's official site; the citrus exhibition in the gardens has free areas too. Choose between grandstand seats and standing tickets for the corsos, and book early for weekend parades. Combine the festival with the Nice Carnival, which runs from 9 to 28 February 2027, for a double celebration week: carnival parades and flower battles in Nice, citrus spectacle in Menton. Hotels on the whole coast fill up on festival weekends, so book early.