Snorkmaiden and Moominpappa want to travel south and ‘feast all night’. The family therefore travels to the Riviera, where they meet Audrey Glamour, who strongly resembles Audrey Hepburn, as well as many other very strange characters. 

In addition to satirising high society, the story also contains the visual humour familiar from Disney cartoons, with clumsy deckchairs and sword fights, as well as some very absurd twists in the plot.

The Moomin on the Riviera comic was one of Tove Jansson’s personal favourites because, in her own words, ‘it is so unashamedly happy’.

Moomin on the Riviera is the only Moomin series based on real events, as the story was born when Tove Jansson and her mother Signe ‘Ham’ Hammarsten Jansson travelled to the Riviera in April 1954. The small details in the story, such as private beaches and Moominmamma collecting seashells, are based on their own experiences: comic strip no. 25 is based on an incident where Ham embarrassed herself when using a siphon and she did get stuck in a deckchair, just like Moominmamma, as described in comic strip no. 39. And Tove Jansson encountered snakes after climbing a palm tree, just like Moomintroll in comic strip no. 42. 

This story deepens the characters’ personalities: Snorkmaiden and Moominpappa are adventurers, Moomintroll is a mama’s boy, and Moominmamma acts as a benevolent mediator and saviour.

Moomin on the Riviera was published in 1955. The Finnish name is Muumiperhe Rivieralla, and the Swedish name is Familjen lever högt.