The case for the September Riviera

There is a two-week window after the last August weekend when the Riviera exhales. The water is at its warmest of the year. The bays that were rafted three-deep are suddenly yours at lunchtime.

Charter rates soften by fifteen to twenty percent in September, but that is not really the argument. The argument is the coast itself, returned to the proportions it was famous for before the calendar squeezed everyone into six weeks.

Ask the crews. They will all tell you the same thing: September is when they would charter, if it were their week to spend.