The cabin is smaller than you expect. Le Corbusier built his Cabanon in 1951 on a rocky shore at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, a single room of about three and a half metres square, panelled in pine and furnished with fitted beds, a table and a few shelves. It was a retreat, a place where one of the most famous architects of the century could work and swim, and he spent a part of every summer here for years. He died in 1965 swimming in the bay just below, at the age of seventy-seven.
Next to it stands E-1027, the white modernist house that the Irish designer Eileen Gray built for herself and her partner, and a small restaurant where Le Corbusier took his meals. The three buildings together form a quiet, peculiar corner of the Riviera, wedged between the railway line and the sea, and the entire group is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Visits to the Cabanon are usually by guided tour, arranged in advance, so book before you turn up, as drop-ins are rarely possible.
The riding here is some of the best on the coast. The Moyenne Corniche, which runs between Nice and Menton at mid-height, offers views over Monaco and the sea from a road cut into the cliff, and the Grande Corniche above it, built by Napoleon, gives the same panorama from higher up. Roquebrune itself is a village of steep stone streets, a medieval castle, and olive trees clinging to the rock. The weather is mild most of the year, though July and August are busy, with traffic crawling and parking scarce. The best times are spring and autumn, when the air is clear and the crowds thin.
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin has around 12,000 people, and fuel is available in the town and across the border in Menton. The cape itself is a pleasant place to walk, with a coastal path under pines that leads along the water to Monaco, and a coffee in the village afterwards is a fine way to end the day.