Picasso's War and Peace in a château chapel, a potters' town with ceramic street signs, and the bay where Napoleon came ashore – the tables, the walks and the quartiers, in one guide.
In Vallauris now
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Weather
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MICHELIN
2 ✱ tables
Photo: Arthur R./Adobe Stock
In this guide
Every table and hotel the MICHELIN inspectors have chosen in Vallauris – 2 starred, 3 Bib Gourmand, 7 more restaurants and 7 hotels – on one map, with our own stories as we write them.
Every chapter has its own link and card – send a friend just the part they need.
01
The perfect weekend
Vallauris in 48 hours
Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, timed – written for late October (Friday 30 October – Sunday 1 November 2026, Halloween weekend), with the opening days checked.
Start where Picasso left his biggest painting: War and Peace wraps the vault of the 12th-century chapel. Open 10:00–12:15 (closed Tuesdays); one €6 adult ticket also covers the Musée Magnelli, and children up to 18 go free.
Le Temps Jadis serves burgers, pizzas, bruschette and poke bowls on its 40-seat terrace, and makes its own ice cream – order 'la Vallaurienne', orange flower with candied zest and pine nuts.
'Un automne en forêt': children aged 6–12 find hawthorn, blackberries and mushrooms on the Massier family's iridescent vases, then make their own woodland on a slab of fresh clay (1h30, €3, booking +33 (0)4 93 64 71 82). The 4–6 session runs at 10:15.
Drive down to Golfe-Juan for the free écomusée in the 1904 distillery – stills, the essential-oil machine and pickers' costumes – and the cooperative's shop (open until 17:00, Tuesday–Saturday).
Vallauris's Provençal market sets up on Saturday and Sunday mornings on Place Paul Isnard, the square of Picasso's bronze Man with a Sheep – with produce from the farms that still work the town's hills.
The Halloween trail starts at Le Coin des Zèbres, 48 boulevard Jacques Ugo (10:00–18:30): children in costume, with an adult, hunt for bats in shop windows, solve riddles and collect sweets; the prize draw is at 19:00. Free, but register on Billetweb – places are limited.
A free hillside park above Golfe-Juan – eucalyptus, mimosa, a hidden bamboo grove, the old 1,800 m² reservoir and the view from the Lérins islands to the Cap d'Antibes. Open until 20:00 on 31 October; from 1 November it closes at 18:00.
The Provençal market is back on Place Paul Isnard, and the Sunday marché forain fills avenue de Cannes. Picasso gave the town this bronze in 1949 – his first sculpture set up in a public square. Note that the château museums are closed today for All Saints'.
Down on the Vieux Port of Golfe-Juan, the stele reads 'Ici débarqua Napoléon le 1er mars 1815'; a short way off on Square Nabonnand stands the column with his Carrara marble bust, unveiled in 1932 when the Route Napoléon to Grenoble opened.
If the sea is calm, unlock a kayak or paddleboard from the Kayakomat rack by the Plage du Midi (open every day, all year): €14.50 an hour for a paddleboard, €39 for two hours in a tandem kayak.
Fish and shellfish facing the old port, with a €25 weekend menu, an €18.50 Sunday dish of the day and a children's menu from €11.50 (closed Wednesdays).
Burn off lunch indoors: wall-walk, airbag tower, basketball lanes and dodgeball, open 10:00–20:00 on Sundays. From age 4 (under-7s with an adult); €13 an hour plus €2 grip socks.
✱ MICHELIN star · Bib Gourmand: good cooking at a fair price · ◆ selected in the Guide · € to €€€€: the Guide's own price bands, from «on a budget» to «spare no expense».
03
Sunset and drinks
Where to drink
Wine and oysters on the two ports of Golfe-Juan, and café terraces up in Vallauris.
Facing the old port, a glass of wine on the terrace or inside with boards of charcuterie and cheese, a roast camembert or a hand-cut tartare, and the day's suggestions on the slate.
A chic little café facing the sea and the old port – breakfast by the water, tartines, salads and pan-bagnat at lunch, cocktails and ice cream when the evenings are warm. Thirty seats on the terrace.
Wine cellar and oyster bar · Golfe-Juan – Port Camille RayonL'Annexe
A wine shop with a 70-seat terrace on the marina: champagne and grands crus by the bottle, oysters opened to order, a cheese bar and salads – an apéritif that easily turns into supper.
Café-bistro and apéritif bar · Golfe-Juan – town centreRéservoir Caffè
Breakfast, apéritif and treats in one: charcuterie boards, good cheeses and savoury nibbles at the end of the day, on a terrace looking onto Square Nabonnand or in a calm, retro-chic room.
Café terrace and ice-cream maker · Vallauris – avenue Georges ClemenceauLe Temps Jadis
A 40-seat terrace on avenue Georges Clemenceau, the avenue of ceramic studios and decorated jars: burgers, pizzas and bruschette, and artisan ice cream – try 'la Vallaurienne', orange flower with candied orange zest and pine nuts.
Vallauris is a potters' town you read with your eyes up: a Renaissance grid laid out by a prior of Lérins, and ceramics on almost every street sign, façade and roundabout.
Past The 16th-century château, a former priory of the monks of Lérins, with its Renaissance staircase, The 1501 'checkerboard' village, whose outer houses formed the ramparts – rue Haute and rue Clément Bel still run dead straight between the old gates, Ceramic street-name plaques almost everywhere in the centre
All year.
Town streets with stepped lanes in the old quarter; a game of 'spot the ceramic street plaque' keeps children looking up.
Start: Place de la Libération, in front of the château (Musée Magnelli / Musée national Picasso)
Picasso lived in Vallauris from 1948 to 1955, made some 4,000 ceramics with the Ramiés at the Madoura pottery and married Jacqueline Roque in secret at the town hall – this walk ties the places to the story.
Past The Nérolium cooperative, Picasso's bronze L'Homme au Mouton on Place Paul Isnard – his first sculpture placed in a public square, given to the town in 1949, The Musée national Picasso, with a guided look at War and Peace
All year, Thursdays at 10:00, by reservation only.
Reduced rate for 8–18.
Start: Vallauris tourist office, 4 avenue Georges Clemenceau (meet at 09:45)
One of the smallest parks in the Alpes-Maritimes, on a former flower and orange farm owned by the Conservatoire du littoral – a quiet green hour above the beaches with one of the widest views of the bay.
Past Giant eucalyptus, mimosa, cork oak and holm oak, A bamboo grove tucked inside the park, A stone reservoir of more than 1,800 m² from the old flower farm
Every day: 1 April–31 October 7:30–20:00; 1 November–31 March 8:00–18:00.
Free; dogs allowed; accessible to wheelchairs with help, per the listing.
Start: North entrance, 921 boulevard des Horizons (or the south car park off the D6007 towards Cannes)
On 1 March 1815 at three in the afternoon Napoleon landed here from Elba to begin the Hundred Days; the road he took north to Grenoble became the Route Napoléon, which starts in Golfe-Juan.
Past The stele 'Ici débarqua Napoléon le 1er mars 1815', perhaps on the very spot he came ashore, The Vieux Port and its fishermen's pontoon (local catch every morning except Monday), The Napoleon column on Square Nabonnand, its Carrara marble bust unveiled in 1932 when the Route Napoléon opened
All year.
Sandy public beaches on both sides of the Vieux Port for a break.
Start: The Napoleon stele on the Vieux Port, avenue des Frères Roustan
Sources: the Vallauris Golfe-Juan tourist office and its Côte d'Azur France listings, read 27 October 2026. Coastal paths close in rough seas – check before you set off.
07
With kids
Vallauris for children
Clay workshops in the city of potters, a Halloween spell to break, trampolines and a sandy bay with kayaks.
Picasso painted War and Peace on panels that wrap the whole vault of a 12th-century chapel, so children walk inside the picture – the warrior of peace with a dove on his shield on one side, a mother nursing her child on the other. A QR-code trail on your phone explains the details.
All year, every day except Tuesday, 10:00–12:15 and 14:00–17:00 (summer hours 1 July–15 September 10:00–12:30 and 14:00–18:00); last tickets 30 minutes before closing.
The Renaissance château holds Vallauris's ceramics from the 19th century on, a room of 16 unique Picasso pieces dedicated to Suzanne Ramié, and paintings by Alberto Magnelli. In the holidays the museum runs proper hands-on sessions – owls to hunt in the galleries at Halloween, Massier vases to copy in clay.
Museum: every day except Tuesday, same hours as the Picasso chapel; closed 1 and 11 November.
Golfe-Juan's first distillery, built in 1904, now tells the story of the bitter orange grown on these hills – stills, the machine that extracts the essential oil, scales, pickers' costumes – laid out as a fun, hands-on trail, and you may catch jams and orange-flower products being made the traditional way.
All year, Tuesday–Saturday 10:00–12:00 and 14:00–17:00; closed Sunday and Monday.
In her gallery-workshop in the 'city of potters', sculptor and ceramicist Karine Gervasi runs creative clay sessions for small and big hands – family workshops, holiday courses, wheel-throwing and decoration à la carte.
By booking; sessions from 2 hours, longer ones on request.
A stoneware potter on Vallauris's main street of ceramic shops, who throws on the wheel, builds big pieces in coils and mixes her own glazes – small classes, so children get real time at the clay.
Classes by arrangement – contact Laurène for dates and availability.
The town's own ceramics school, opened in 1994 in an old pottery: junior workshops cover pottery, modelling, decoration, wheel-throwing and drawing, taught by professionals in the place where Vallauris still makes its pots.
Weekly junior workshops through the school year (2026/27 timetable and fees on the Ville site); short courses of a few days to a week in the school holidays.
Golfe-Juan's long public beach of fine sand runs from the Vieux Port towards Cannes – part of 3.5 km of sandy shore – and was renamed for Picasso in 2023; in autumn it is a wide, quiet place to dig and paddle.
The other half of Golfe-Juan's sand, stretching east from Port Camille Rayon towards Juan-les-Pins – handy for a run on the beach after the Nérolium or the kayak station along the same seafront.
A small 12-hectare park on an old flower farm – once 16,000 rose bushes and 400 orange trees – with giant eucalyptus, mimosa, a bamboo grove tucked inside and a stone reservoir of more than 1,800 m²; the path ends in a panorama from the Lérins islands to the Cap d'Antibes.
Every day: 1 April–31 October 7:30–20:00; 1 November–31 March 8:00–18:00.
A locker of bright red kayaks and paddleboards right on the seafront: book by QR code, unlock with the code sent by text, and you are on the bay in minutes – a calm-day treat even in autumn.
Open every day, all year (Côte d'Azur France, 2026).
Fishing guide Fabien Harbers takes beginners and families out from the port – from the shore, by pedal kayak or by boat – with good tackle on board and the chance of amberjack, dentex or barracuda.
All year, by booking; morning or full-day outings.
For Halloween the whole town centre becomes a treasure hunt: children search shop windows for hidden bats and solve riddles to recover the lost words of the spell cast each year by Vallorine, who has watched over Vallauris for a very long time – with sweets from the shops along the way and a prize draw for those who finish.
Saturday 31 October 2026, 10:00–18:30; prize draw at 19:00 (place given on the day).
Sources: the Vallauris Golfe-Juan tourist office, the Ville de Vallauris Golfe-Juan, the Musée national Picasso, Côte d'Azur France and the places' own pages, read 27 October 2026. Drive times from the town centre without traffic. Check seasons and ages with the place before you go.
08
The atlas
Vallauris at a glance
Every restaurant, hotel, sight, beach and shop we know of – 261 places, each with its own page. Choose a quartier, or a kind of place.
Photo: gb27photo/Adobe Stock
09
The directory
Every place in Vallauris
261 places, each with its own page – the six nearest the centre of each kind are here; every one of them is in the directory, A to Z.
