Flowers delivered by hand, from Saint-Tropez to the Italian border.

Thirty years on the same quay

Thirty years on the same quay shows up in the small hours rather than in a brochure. We know which gate is manned at what time, which pontoons a van can reach, and who to call at the marina office when the barrier is down at half past five in the morning.

The difference between a florist who delivers to Antibes and a florist who works in Antibes shows up at 10pm on a Tuesday when a boat needs forty stems by six.

What we do through the season

• Weekly flowers on a standing order, the same day each week, adjusted around guests on and guests off.
• Loose stems and conditioned foliage if your interior team arranges on board.
• Orchids and plants that last a passage, three to six weeks with sensible care.
• Arranging on board when the interior is short-handed, which in August is most weeks.
• Short notice, whatever the occasion. Owner landing tomorrow, charter turning around tonight, a birthday nobody mentioned.

Access to the superyacht quays

The Quai des Milliardaires at Port Vauban, the IYCA berths, Port Hercule in Monaco: all fenced, all controlled. A delivery that arrives without the boat expecting it waits at the barrier while the flowers get warm. We clear it before the van leaves. It sounds small until it happens to you.

The weeks that need planning

The Cannes Film Festival in May, the Yachting Festival in September, the Monaco Yacht Show in September and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez in late September. In each of those weeks every florist between Nice and Saint-Raphaël is at capacity and half the roads are closed. All four are perfectly doable and all four are booked in spring.

Further than the Riviera

The delivery list most florists on this coast publish stops at Saint-Tropez. Ours does not, and it never has. Across the border into Italy is part of our normal week: Imperia, San Remo, Portofino and Santa Margherita, no customs and no paperwork, because it is all the same market.

Beyond that, Capri, Positano, Amalfi and the Bay of Naples are arranged rather than routine, and they simply want more notice. We have also driven to Barcelona for a single delivery. It was not efficient and we would do it again, because a supplier who only goes where it is efficient is a supplier you replace the first time it is not.

So if your itinerary takes you somewhere we do not go every week, ask before you assume.

And then November

Most of this coast's fleet leaves in November, and this is where we are different from most florists here. We go with it. The winter service flies fresh flowers from the Dutch auction to the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia with 48 hours’ notice, permits and customs handled. You do not have to find a florist in a port you have never been to.