The best way to pass a day in St. Tropez is at the private beach clubs, which line pretty Pampelonne beach, a short drive from town. While there are plenty to choose from, these are the ones to know on a first trip.

Classic: Club 55 When Roger Vadim shot And God Created Woman, he used Club 55 as a snack shack between takes. Though a genuine landmark presiding over a stretch of Pampelonne, it has remained a family business. The ever-gracious Patrice de Colmont keeps track of every reservation and knows his glittery clients’ favorite tables.

Party Scene: Nikki Beach It’s not for everyone, but those in search of endless Champagne and bass-thumping DJs should spend an afternoon lounging at Nikki.

Sophisticated: Club Les Palmiers Ramatuelle This beach club has a great, somewhat serene vibe, fostered by all-white parasols and lounge chairs, from which patrons can enjoy Niçoise salads, fish carpaccio and pasta.

There’s no better way to see the South of France than from the water. Indagare works with a variety of boats, ranging from Fun Yaks (small boats that don’t require a permit) to skippered Riva Operas, majestic sailing vessels and luxury yachts for day use as well as longer charters. In addition to cruising to outlying islands and buzzing beach clubs, there is also excellent whale and dolphin watching. Boats are also a great way to avoid the legendary summer traffic; water taxis run between ports, both on a private as well as a “bateau bus” basis. Members can contact the Bookings Team for assistance with arrangements.

This diving school in Cap Ferrat offers group and private dives from a wooden fishing boat.

Irish designer Eileen Gray’s restored Villa E.1027, a white concrete house on stilts, opened to the public for the first time in 2015. The structure, built in 1929, is furnished with one-off replicas of the designer’s most iconic furniture and some original features that evoke Gray’s visionary lifestyle.

Also on display are four newly restored murals plus a copy of an outdoor black-and-white fresco, all by Le Corbusier in 1938. The Swiss architect painted the works six years after Gray had split up with her lover, Badovici, and moved out to build a new house in Menton.

The two-hour guided tours (by advance reservation only) take visitors through the villa as well as two adjacent landmark buildings: Le Corbusier’s tiny vacation beach hut, Le Cabanon, as well as L’Etoile de Mer, a terrace café lined with Corbusier-painted walls. Future plans for the site include a visitor center, a library and a bookshop in an empty villa next door.

Getting There: Drive down the coast past Monaco, or take the local train to Roquebrune Cap-Martin (Cabbé), where you will find a ticket booth at the SCNF station. A guide can lead you down the narrow seaside custom’s footpath to this remarkable modernist architectural site overlooking the sea.

This early 17th-century citadel overlooks the town of St. Tropez. Although the short climb to visit can be brutal on a hot summer day, it’s worth it for the views of the Riviera as well as for the evening concerts held in the amphitheater. Kids will love the peacocks that roam the grounds.

There is a great range of food related activities on offer in the region. You can shop a local market for season produce and return to a family kitchen for a tutorial or you can work in a professional kitchen with one of the region’s top chefs and prepare lunch and then sit down to a feast. Classes range from private informal ones for families to serious affairs for an afternoon or even a week or more. Indagare members can contact our bookings team to arrange.

Take a guided tour of the most charming towns on the Riviera, including Eze and Vence. Your experience can be tailored to your interests so if you are an art lover, you can visit the Fondation Maeght and Matisse Chapel. Families may want to stop at a perfume workshop or visit a local market. Indagare members can contact our bookings team to arrange.

One of France’s most memorable small museums, the Fondation Maeght was founded by art lovers Marguerite and Aimé Maeght in the hills of Saint Paul near Vence. The contemporary art collectors collaborated with painters and sculptors and Catalan architect Lluis Sert to create a site where art and sculpture was integrated into a holistic aesthetic experience. Among the highlights: a Giacometti sculpture courtyard, a Jean Miró labyrinth, or sculpture garden, as well as mural mosaics by Chagall and stained glass windows and pool mosaics by Braque. The intimate art oasis contains one of the most important collection of contemporary art in Europe with paintings, drawings and sculptures by such greats at Kandinsky, Calder and Léger as well as contemporary artists such as Adami, Del Re, Kuroda and Takis. Don’t miss the Braques chapel, Chagall’s largest painting or the Bury fountain. With its powerful Giacommeti sculptures in the courtyard and Miró’s labyrinth of giant wild creatures, the Fondation Maeght makes for a great family-friendly art expedition.

A mythic club from the 1970s (formerly known as Le Papagayo), GAÏO attracts big-name European sophisticates on special DJ nights. Otherwise it’s packed with young model wannabes and twenty-something singles.

In a grove of oaks and pines with a view of the Gulf of St.-Tropez, this private eighteen-hole club is the swankiest in the area. Reservations are a must.

It is hard not to think of the Monaco Grand Prix when you are riding along the curving roads of the Riviera, and for those who want to indulge in their race car fantasies, it is possible to get behind the wheel of a Ferrari F430 Spider. Options range from fifteen minute to an hour along the backroads of Monaco, Eze and Nice. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team to arrange.

Explore the marshland of the Camargue, which is full of flora and fauna, including flamingoes, ibis and egrets, as well as horses and bulls. Horseback riding is also an option. Indagare members can contact our bookings team for options.

Provence is home to many famous chefs as well as bountiful markets. Depending on your interest, group size and level of culinary experience, we can tailor a cooking class to suit you. Begin exploring the markets and shops in a small village or in a state-of-the-art professional kitchen. Indagare members can contact our bookings team for options.

Whether you want to hire a boat for the day, go biking or visit villages and learn to play boules or to make perfume or pastries with locals, we can arrange for custom family activities. Indagare members can contact our bookings team for options.

The area where the chic and wealthy hide out in private hillside villas is also renowned for its Côtes de Provence vineyards. Locals adore Château des Marres, where award-winning whites are created. Other Côtes de Provence vineyards are scattered along Route D61, in nearby Gassin. Among the best: the classic Château Minuity, which makes delicious fruity rosés and highly rated reds; buy directly from the cellar, and have a peek at the 18th-century chapel on the grounds. And don’t miss the equally top-notch Château de Barbeyrolles. Indagare members can contact our bookings team to arrange for a guided tour.

Château des Marres Route des Plages, Ramatuelle 33-4-9497-2261 www.chateaudesmarres.com

Château Minuty 2491 Route de la Berle, Gassin 33-4-9456-1209 www.chateauminuty.com

Château de Barbeyrolles Route de la Berle 33-4-9456-3358 www.barbeyrolles.com

The multi-faceted artist Jean Cocteau, who was a painter, poet, novelist, playwright and filmmaker created his own memorial in the seaside town of Menton in the 1950s when he discovered a 17th century fort (bastion in French) and was given permission to renovate it, adding floors and walls with his fanciful mosaics and niches to display his famous ceramics. It remains as a wonderful testament to the artist, however, in 2012, the town inaugurated a larger museum to honor Cocteau. The seafront building was designed by Rudy Ricciotti, a well-known “hedonist” architect, to be as Cocteau-like a structure as possible. The whimsical black and white façade has been described as a reflection of Cocteau’s obsession with dreams and reality and light and darkness. Within the building are exhibits revealing Cocteau’s many talents, from his early portraits to his Mediterranean ceramics and film clips from his famous Orpheus film trilogy as well as many photos, recordings and notebooks. Severin Wunderman’s collection constitutes the bulk of the collection and includes more than 1,800 pieces. In addition to 990 of Cocteau’s works, there are works of his contemporaries such as Picasso, Modigliani and Miró as well as a collection or works related to Sarah Bernhardt, one of Cocteau’s stars. For Cocteau fans, there is also a Cocteau chapel in Villefranche that was an old fisherman’s chapel that Cocteau decorated with religious themes in 1956.

Immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, La Garoupe Beach was once the unofficial headquarters for a charmed circle of artists and writers—Scott and Zelda, Sara and Gerald Murphy, Picasso and Léger—who picnicked and swam together, swapping ideas under parasols and over sherry. Sure, that was the 1920s, but there’s still something magical about this small curve of sand surrounded by turquoise shallows and the unspoiled view of the coast and pine-shaded Cap d’Antibes. A great restaurant across the street is Le Pavillon.

A 40-minute drive from Cannes in the town of Grasse—the birthplace of luxury perfumes—is La Musee International de Perfumerie. Dedicated to one of the most traditional French creations, the museum allows visitors to discover the profession of perfumery. The collections trace the history of perfumes as well as soap, makeup and cosmetics back 4,000 years.

The beach club and restaurant on the shore of Pampelonne Beach has a relaxing, free-spirited vibe that aims to reflect authenticity and friendliness. Bright colors and natural elements combine with the sights and smells of the Mediterranean to make this an ideal spot to chill by the beach before moving on to the bustle of Saint-Tropez nightlife.

A tangle of secret paths bordered by bamboo, these stunning gardens are worth a day’s excursion. Occupying a stretch of wild coastline between Le Lavandou and St.-Tropez, this government-protected park is my favorite place for a family outing. Rare plants from six continents abound, including Australian mimosas, Chinese persimmons, Mexican cacti, Aleppo pines and cork oaks. There are also special gardens (South African, New Zealand and India/East Asia) created by renowned French landscape designer Gilles Clément. And don’t forget your swimsuit; you can go snorkeling and explore an underwater garden. If you’ve worked up an appetite, bring a change of clothes and dine at the nearby restaurant of the Hotel Les Roches (1 Avenue des Trois Dauphins, Le Lavandou; +33-4-9471-0507).

Patrice Colmont, owner of Club 55, recommends this preserve of virgin forest in Ramatuelle. As he raves, “It’s hard to imagine something like this could still exist in a place where real estate properties are so incredibly sought after. The area is beautiful, with over 2,000 hectares of cork oaks, umbrella pines, and vines…Even in the height of the summer, it’s peaceful because the government classified the area as a “zone of silence”—which means no construction, no motorcycles, and no helicopters flying overhead.”

Run by Jean Roch, the owner of Paris’s celeb-crammed club by the same name, VIP is a hip-hop techno haven where everyone goes when they’re not at the Caves du Roy.

The Lérins Islands sit just a 10-minute boat ride from the coast, with regular ferries departing from Cannes. The islands are a world apart from the ritzy Riviera, with dusty eucalyptus-shaded trails and jade and amethyst creeks. Stay for lunch at La Tonnelle on Ile St. Honorat, where you can dine with your toes in the sand.

Getting a table at this glam nightspot is tricky, since it’s the Riviera’s top nightclub (guests staying at the Hôtel Byblos should get to know the concierge, who sometimes can help score a reservation). Les Caves has the ultimate scene: flowing Dom Perignon, a dance floor packed with beauties and open-shirted playboys, and a crowded VIP section. The uproarious atmosphere rages until dawn.

Sailing enthusiasts are drawn to the yacht races held every October. Les Voiles de St. Tropez, which began in 1987, hosts a slew of classic boats that arrive to swoop across the bay in pursuit of the Rolex trophy. Dates vary by year but usually the regatta runs from late September through early October.

Take a shopping break to visit this tiny museum, hidden in an alley off boutique-heavy Rue Allard. The exhibit of butterflies stretching over two floors was collected by painter/entomologist Dany Lartigue, the son of photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue. April-November, closed Sundays.