Fifteen minutes from the Croisette, the Lerins keep a silence the mainland has forgotten. When the last public ferry leaves Saint-Honorat and Sainte-Marguerite at dusk, the islands empty — and for those who arrive by private tender, the evening belongs to no one else.
The crossing
The evening begins on the water. A crewed tender collects the party from the Vieux Port or Port Canto in Cannes and crosses the Golfe de la Napoule as the light softens — a passage of some fifteen minutes, timed so that you arrive as the last day-visitors depart. There is a particular pleasure in watching the coast recede: the Croisette, the Suquet, the anchored yachts, all of it distilled to a line of gold behind you.
- Private crewed crossing — round trip from Cannes by tender, timed to the light.
- A dedicated chef and service staff who cross with the party.
- A private table set among the pines or at the water’s edge.
- The abbey’s own wines, drawn from the Cistercian vineyard of Saint-Honorat.
A table on Saint-Honorat
Saint-Honorat has been in the keeping of monks for sixteen centuries. The Cistercian community that lives there today tends a small vineyard among the ruins and the umbrella pines, producing a handful of wines found on very few tables. To dine here after hours — no ferries, no crowds, only the sound of the sea against the abbey walls — is to borrow, for one evening, a stillness that money alone cannot usually buy.
The table is set to your preference: a long table beneath the pines, or something more intimate on the rocks above the water. Candles, linen, and a menu that answers to the island rather than competing with it.
The chef, and the menu
The meal is composed by a private chef on the French Riviera chosen for the evening and briefed on your tastes. The morning’s market at Forville sets the direction — sea bass and denti from the Cannes boats, the first figs of the season, olive oil from the hills behind Grasse. Nothing is imported for effect; the point of the Lerins is precisely that they need no embellishment. Our concierge team coordinates the chef, the staffing, and the wine in a single arrangement.
Compose your evening on the Lerins
When to go
The season runs from late May to the end of September. The most rewarding evenings fall in June and again in September, when the light lingers and the islands recover the quiet they lose to the summer ferries. We advise arranging the crossing to sit within the hour before sunset — dinner then unfolds as the coast lights up across the bay, Cannes glittering at a safe and welcome distance.