My Riviera Wedding

After receiving several requests for wedding planning services and venue finding from couples who were inspired after watching the film ’A Good Year’ to hold their wedding in Provence, I thought I would share a selection of the most well-known films that have helped put the French Riviera and Provence on the world radar as one of the most beautiful and romantic places to visit and get married. Watch, enjoy and be inspired!

Filmed on the French Riviera, Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘To Catch a Thief’ (1955) is a classic golden oldie starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. The film showcases a timelessly romantic and utterly glamorous French Riviera with spectacular landscapes, cliff top views, coastal roads, palatial hotels, sun, sea and sand. The film was made only months before Grace Kelly became the Princess of Monaco.

‘Jean de Florette’ (1986), ‘Manon des Sources’ (1986) and ‘La Gloire de Mon Père’ (1990) are all screen adaptations of novels written by celebrated French writer Marcel Pagnol. The films show Provence at the turn of the century; some of the rural areas are today still as charming and rustic as they were in the early 1900s.

‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ is an American 80s comedy starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin. The screenplay focuses on two con artists whose playground is the French Riviera. Many of the Riviera’s finest establishments such as the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat and the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild feature in the film.

For a romantic comedy / chic flick, the 1995 box office hit ‘French Kiss’ with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline was filmed both in Paris and in various parts of the South of France, predominantly in the village of Valbonne and in Cannes.

‘Priceless’ (French: Hors de Prix) is a 2006 French film starring French comedian Gad Elmaleh (Jean), a barman who works at a luxury hotel, pretends to be a millionaire and sparks the interest of Irène (Audrey Tautou), a gold-digger who has a serious penchant for rich men, jewellery and designer clothes. Much of the film’s hotel action was filmed in Monaco’s famous Hotel de Paris.

Starting Russell Crowe alongside Oscar wining French actress Marion Cotillard, Ridley Scott’s ’A Good Year’ (2006) tells the story of a British investment broker who inherits his uncle’s château and vineyard in Provence. The film sublimes the superb landscapes of Provence’s Luberon valley featuring the Vaucluse villages Bonnieux, Gordes and Ménerbes. I have been able to scout out several venus in Provence which resemble the Chateau featured in the film.

2010 French flick ‘Heartbreaker’ (French: l’Arnacoeur) stars the stunningly beautiful Vanessa Paradis along French beau Roman Duris. The film features a local wedding venue with the finest cliff top view on the French Riviera; the Domaine du Mont Leuze, during the wedding sequence towards the end of the film.