French Riviera

Look at Ramateulle, St-Tropez, Antibes, Villefranche, and St-Jean Cap Ferrat.

Time of year? Length of trip? Do you plan to rent a car for part of the trip? All of the trip? Are there children involved?

My general comments are that:

• I think any place on the water will be rather touristy, so you need to decide whether that fits with your definition of "quaint".

• Most people who travel to that part of France want to see a bunch of small towns. That makes the location of their base important, else the day-trips involve too much time sitting in a car or on a train. So I'd recommend getting a copy of Rick's guide to southern France and working up a target list. If you find yourself drawn more to the Provencal destinations, it will not be practical to base yourself on the Riviera near Nice--at least not for your entire stay.

Understand that if you want "on water" that most of the beaches are pebble or very sharp sand - if you want yellow or white soft sand it will be on a small pay beach where the private operator has shipped in sand to replace the natural surface.

Villefranche sur mer is lovely and they have a big sand beach. Great cafes and restaurants. Easy to get around on public transport too.

Not to disagree with any of the above, but just to note/add

• St Tropez and Ramatuelle will be best visited with a car to get around, and beware of peak season costs/traffic.
• The beaches will get increasingly sandy as you move west from Antibes. While some like Cannes are famous for imported sand, there are naturally sandy locations the further west you go from Antibes.
  
• Further to the east you have a charming town of Menton, and the less popular Beausoleil sur Mer
• There are other low key place to the west of St. Tropez that might appeal... but this may not be what you are envisioning.

answered on the General Europe side.

I liked Menton a lot. In addition to its picturesque historic district, it has two nice hill-hugging gardens. However, the historic area was tourist-jammed in mid-May on both the days I day-tripped in from Nice. I have no idea where all those people came from.