Mougins

Mougins stands on the heights behind Cannes, among pines, olives and cypresses, with the Valmasque forest around it. In 1056 the Count of Antibes gave the hill to the monks of Lérins, who held it until the Revolution; their courtroom, the Salle des Moines, was on the first floor of what is now the restaurant L'Amandier.

The village was fortified in the Middle Ages at the top of its hill, about 260 metres up, in a spiral within ramparts and three gates, of which only the Porte Sarrazine survives. Its little museums – the Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins and the photography museum founded by André Villers, Picasso's photographer – sit in the old lanes. Picasso died in Mougins, at Notre-Dame-de-Vie.