SEA TO SEA; WHAT TO DO, SEE AND EAT, FROM THE HAMPTONS TO PROVENCE.(City overview)

Byline: Jacob Bernstein, Joanna Ramey, SAMANTHA CONTI, NINA JONES, CHANTAL GOUPIL, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM EMILIE MARSH AND ROBERT MURPHY

HAMPTONS

Memorial Day is almost here, which means another summer of Tate's chocolate chip cookies, white corn on the cob, $73-a-pound lobster salad and traffic so bad you can barely see straight. So what's actually new in the Hamptons this summer?

HOUSING MARKET

For the first time in years, it's getting easier to find a place in the Hamptons. "There seems to be a lethargy in the middle of the market," says Corcoran's Diane Saatchi, echoing a growing chorus of people who say there's a lot of available inventory in the $3 million to $5 million price range.

Still, there have been a whole lot of my-house-is-bigger-than-your-house sales this year, leading Gary DePersia of Allan Schneider to coo, "This is going to be a banner year." Edgar Bronfman Jr. spent more than $30 million on a new house just off Ocean Road. Yahoo's Terry Semel ponied up $43 million to buy Steve Schwarzman's 8.5-acre lot on Further Lane. Schwarzman, who heads up the Blackstone Group, then downgraded to a $34 million pad in Mecox Bay, the former place of Carter Burden, the late councilman and one-time owner of The Village Voice and New York magazine.

Meanwhile, Howard Stern sold his house in Amagansett for $8 million and upgraded to a $20 million pad in Southampton. Moving out will be Bob Villency, from Maurice Villency, who sold his Southampton home to "some Wall Street guy," according to another real estate source. He hasn't made a new deal yet, but he's believed to be eyeing a place in Bridgehampton.

In Sagaponack-which recently was ranked as the richest Hampton of all by Forbes-record company executive L.A. Reid is the newest homeowner. He recently bought a six-bedroom home on a 3.27-acre plot of land for $10 million.

And on Two Mile Hollow Road in Amagansett, Al Taubman apparently has bought a new home. "I think he did it in his daughter's name, though," says a source.

FOOD & DRINK

Anyone who's spent the past decade lamenting the overdevelopment of the Hamptons should stop reading now and book that rental in Bridgeport.

This year will see more restaurants, more young girls who worship at the fashion altar of Lizzie Grubman and more nightclubs, even as the towns begin to go Bloomberg on their collective a--es and try to shut them down.

In Sag Harbor, Jean-Luc Kleefield is opening Mumbo Gumbo at 62 Main Street. "It will be a chic, barbecue, Cajun restaurant," says Kleefield, whose real name is Ed and who sounds as though he was born on the eastern-est end of "Laaawwwngisland." "Imagine a local restaurant that's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and looks like it's straight out of the French Quarter," he explains. (Judging by a recent visit, this is apparently the Disney-fied vision of the French Quarter, complete with flat-screen TVs.) Dishes will top out at just …