A Morning or Afternoon Ritual to Consider
We highly recommend waking up and doing a morning swim, season permitting of course; in the winter we do a walk to St. Jean Cap Ferrat along the coastal path and love watching the sun rise out of the sea. You will not believe how good the sea makes you feel and just a 15-30 minute swim is the perfect tonic for the day (especially if you have enjoyed a bit too much rosé the night before).
You can walk down to the beach with your bathing suit on and a beach wrap or towel wrapped around you. We wake up, have a quick something to drink, and walk straight out the door to the beach and swim. Sometimes we shower at the beach or come back home to shower. With that start to our day, we feel energized, virtuous, happy and are ready for anything! We like to go early, around 7:30 or 8:00 or a bit later in the shoulder season. The beach is really quiet then with glassy-calm, crystal clear water.
A number of our guests also like to combine walking / exploring a new place and swimming as an outing. Europeans have mastered the art of wrapping a towel around themselves and changing out of street clothes and into a bathing suit on the beach, and you’ll be expert at it soon too, so you can explore swimming places all along the coast if you like.
Again, we highly recommend trying this even if you think you don’t like to swim. We bet you will change your mind. By the way, the Mediterranean is known for its healing waters (sea minerals) and it is really easy to swim as you float so easily plus it is so calm (no surf), kind of like swimming in a lake but a lot easier.