Over 1,000 museums across 27 countries open their doors for free visits on a spring day each year. This year, the Printemps des musées day is Sunday, May 2, 2010.

Note, there's also Internation Museum Day. That's different. It's on May 18 this year, and organized by ICOM

And which museums participate on the French Riviera? Many of them. We've picked a few tasty morcels:

• The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Bormes-Les-Mimosas.
• In Grasse, lots of nicely fragranced museums: the Musée Fragonard, the Musée International de la Parfumerie, the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Provence.
• In Tourtour, the small Musée des Fossiles with its fossilised dinosaur eggs
• Musée Picasso, Musée de la ceramique in Vallauris.
• Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Villefranche-sur-Mer, with some fencing animation.
• Dany Lartigues' colorful butterfly museum, the Musée des Papillons in St Tropez.
• Many museums in Nice, including MAMAC, with a guided visit there (in French) that begins at 10h30.

You'll find the complete list of participating museums on the web site: http://printempsdesmusees.culture.fr/