7 Most Instagrammable Spots in Menton, the French Riviera's Lemon-Coloured Town

Menton sits at the eastern edge of the French Riviera, close enough to Italy that its architecture and cooking lean as much Ligurian as French, and its microclimate is mild enough to grow lemons commercially, a fact the town celebrates every February with its citrus festival. Outside festival season, Menton's appeal is quieter: a compact old town of ochre and pink façades stacked up a hillside above a working harbour, with far fewer crowds than Nice or Monaco a short drive away.

1. The Vieux Port

Menton's old harbour, ringed by pastel buildings and small fishing and pleasure boats, is the classic postcard shot of the town, best caught in the low light of early morning or late afternoon.

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2. Basilique Saint-Michel Archange

The old town's principal church looks out over a parvis paved in a black-and-white pebble mosaic, a design distinctive to Menton and one of the most photographed pieces of pavement on the Riviera, framed by the baroque bell towers behind it.

3. Rue Longue and the old town alleys

The narrow, stepped lanes climbing through Menton's old town are lined with shuttered pastel houses draped in laundry lines and potted lemon trees, offering the kind of unstaged Riviera colour that the town's bigger neighbours have mostly renovated away.

4. Musée Jean Cocteau

Housed in a contemporary building facing the seafront, this museum holds the Séverin Wunderman Collection, the world's largest gathering of Jean Cocteau's work, and its clean modern lines make a deliberate contrast with the old town's pastel palette just behind it.

5. Cimetière du Vieux Château

Laid out on the site of Menton's former hilltop castle, this old cemetery looks directly down over the old town's rooftops to the sea, and its combination of cypress trees, weathered tombs and coastal views has made it one of the town's more unexpected photo stops.

6. Jardin botanique Val Rahmeh-Menton

One of several exotic gardens around Menton that take advantage of its mild microclimate, this botanical garden mixes citrus, palms and tropical species across terraced grounds, a green counterpoint to the old town's stone and colour.

7. Marché couvert des Halles

Menton's covered market, an early 20th-century iron-and-glass hall, is where locals shop for produce, cheese and, in season, an unusually large selection of lemon-based products, and its stalls make for some of the town's most colour-saturated close-up shots.

Traveller tips

• Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, roughly 40 minutes away by road or rail, is the nearest major airport.
• Menton's Fête du Citron, its lemon festival, runs for around two weeks each February and is the busiest and most colourful time to visit, though also the most crowded.
• The train station connects easily to Nice, Monaco and across the border into Ventimiglia, Italy, making Menton an easy day trip or a quieter base for the wider Riviera.
• Many of the old town's best viewpoints involve stairs rather than level streets, worth factoring in for anyone with mobility concerns.