See/Visit: Sentier de Ochre (Roussillon), Brémond Fils (Roussillon fine goods store)
Trip Summary
Other notes:
Cote d'Azur (French Riviera) is like Hawaii + France combined. Very much a beach/sun/water centric trip itinerary but with the food & elegance of France.
Provence is wine country. Didn't realize Chateauneuf-du-Pape is literally above Avignon so you're in the Rhone Valley
South of France / Provençal food is Italian-French and feels very mediterranean. Olive oil everywhere / in everything. More tomatoes and eggplants. Lots of fish.
This was a hot trip. Average days were 31/33C since France got a heat wave / this year was overly hot (maybe famous last words given global warming)
By city:
Juan-les-Pins: Meh - beach town but less renovated / less todo posting up there
Antibes: Good - love the cape & water view but the old town itself was aight
Nice: Great - a lot to do / see and also good base to access other towns
St Tropez: Awesome! Fun, vibey, nice. Sceney as expected but not in an annoying way I guess because you're in a beach town / beach setting after all so it's not like an East Coast scene
Eze: Meh - touristy, small castle with not much else going for it
Cap Ferat: OK - kinda stuffy
Aix: OK - university town with beautiful downtown
Cabrieres d'Avignon: OK - university town with beautiful downtown
Gordes: Good - beautiful castle view + food. Designer hotel but not as much to do
Ubered from airport to Juan-les-Pins Airbnb. Stunning uber ride where the entire time you're driving next to the water, blue blue water
Napped and had a sunset dinner at BABA beach club (surprisingly amazing food that was some of the best on the trip)
Sat 7/18 - St Tropez
Ubered from Antibes to Cannes. Ferried from Cannes to St Tropez. Totally full ferry / everyone clamored to find seats on the inside. But we found great seats at the front of boat on the shaded side (given sun direction) AND outdoor with wind blowing / views of the sea
St Tropez farmer's market was interesting lol it was a mix of clothing / food all mixed together. Bought some in season fruits that were delicious (melon aka cantaloupe - so fragrant and ripe and delicious, "tropical fruit" scent; white peaches were also insane; apricots were large and OK). We got nuts and dried fruit!
Attire for St Tropez lots of white, linen, beachy dressy attire
Beautiful downtown with a mix of shops from mega bougie designer to normal stuff
Maison St Wellness great stop for AC & smoothies! Woman was from Corsia, super friendly, great bowls
Les Granier late lunch before heading to the beach. 10/10. Table wasn't ready when we arrived so they lent us towels to hit the beach while we waited (goat lol). $210 euro fish for 3 (MP said $14 euro per 100g but we didn't check how big the fish was lol... John Dory got us good but it was excellent excellent.
Plage d'Escalet - ubered to this beach. 10/10. Rented 3 towels from Les Granier to bring to this beach since they don't have any beach club. Amazing beach, beautiful water, very private, sand. Salt water, pretty calm. Did a few laps but the salt water was tough on the eyes to really do extended swimming. They have public showers to shower off post beach. Changed beachside into nighttime attire for Noto (tbt university exchange days lol) really pulled it off! Ubered to dins
There was this magical moment when we were walking up to Noto for our res. Beautiful sunset, massive yachts in the dock with this 1 woman blasting epic habibi hans zimmer music while dancing from the upper levels. Everyone on the sidewalk seated / walking past you looked hot, cool, well dressed but make it beach. Walking past Senequier with the bright red seats. Just so so epic
Noto. 10/10! So much fun. We were booked for the 830pm res but didn't realize until after that the 1030pm res is the one that turns up. Our dinner was very much a dinner and got to actually enjoy a meal lol - great octopus carpaccio with dece food. Then we posted up at the bar after the meal and stayed for the party till 1am. DJ sparklers etc. DJ + music was amazing, drinks were amazing (s/o bartender Charly who also threw us a round of shots). Such a vibe. Car picked us up at 1 to go back to Antibes (1h 40 min drive)
Sun 7/19 - Antibes
Slept in / started late ~2pm. Checked out old Antibes
Picasso museum was cool, he was in a positive state during his brief 2 month workshop residency in Antibes (French lover) and it reflected in his work (centaur nymph etc). His famous painting here is titled "joie de vivre"
Group run along the water / cap antibes. Go V go it was super hot / had some incline but we did it (pulled out a 4 miler).
Cool spot Mordus for dinner (felt experimental / top chef-esque). Had a great wine Dom Ami bourgogne 2024.
Mon 7/20 - boat day
10am start with our skipper Sacha thru 6pm
Posted up in 3 main spots for the day - Millionaire's Bay, Île Sainte-Marguerite and Île Saint-Honorat (part of the Lérins Islands)
St Honorat had a church/abbey on it and was cool to check out. They also had a winery but you charge 5 euro for a tasting (we didn't bring phone/card to the island since you have to swim over from the boat)
Pizza boat was so sick lol
Sacha's brother met us at Millionaire's Bay and brought a Seabob - so fun!!
Ches: "The talent has left already" impressed with Sacha's brother LOL
Uni Gate 😂
Chill dinner across the Airbnb. Food was very very mid lol but easy / close. Had my one and only nicoise salad on the trip (dunno why it took so long to hit that nicoise salad is from nice. the tuna was canned)
Tue 7/21 - Nice, Eze, Cap Ferat
V and I jetted out in the morning for an early start to hit Nice. We ended up covering a ton of ground! From Antibes we went to Nice by train.
Checked out the old downtown.
Farmer's market
Food specialities of the area (Socca - delicious dosa/pancake made of chick pea flour. I loved it. Tender on the upper side + crispy on the bottom side, well seasoned. A bit like scallion pancake dough)
Big boy coffee - hip coffee shop that also happens to be from Belgium and serves a peanut butter latte (like Buddy Buddy in NYC lol)
We hiked up to the Nice view point. So fun + stunning views
Visited hotel Negressco where V's parents visited in the past
Saw the iconic Nice blue chairs along the Nice waterfront
Got chocolates at LAC patisserie + an amazing lemon tart
Le Plongeoir lunch and met up with Ches. Beautiful views and solid food
Grabbed our car rental from Nice train station and headed to Eze
Eze: drinks at Ch de la Chevre d'Or
a lot of main characters 😂. a lotta cigs + vapes in the front row
maneesh on the beat shabang shabang
middle eastern family annoyed to not get front row seating + escalating to nationalities "i'm half french"
wine list BTG was great!
our maitre D liked us!! "we like these guys" in french
stunning view reminiscent of Ravello
Eze exotic garden - honestly fine, kinda tourist trap-ey maybe because cacti don't feel unique after living in california. Eze castle itself was small / not much to see / felt touristy
We did Eze in the afternoon which was great because parking was easy and there were hardly any tourists (we heard that Eze gets crazy because all the tour buses hit this spot + given how small it is, can get overcrowded)
Cap Ferat dinner at the four seasons. Gated entry with guard. Beautiful property but so much money. I didn't expect it to be so high end and was horribly underdressed (majority of guests were in collared shirts / white / dresses, hats, jewelry etc). Picked a dom des tours vaucluse IGP 180 euro but accidentally didn't realize I was in the whites section so it was white - Grenache Blanc - (see notes) and I didn't like it womp womp. Cheese plate was awesome! Otherwise meh food. Lots of people watching but stuffy so prob wouldn't do again!
Trying to park the car in the Airbnb was an adventure at 1130pm. Airbnb manager gave us the wrong parking spot (in this building, parking spots look like storage units with individual key + lock). We tried the key on almost every parking unit door, nothing worked. Airbnb manager called the property owner, he couldn't remember the parking unit either. We tried lower level 1, lower level 2. It looked like Backrooms. Parking garage was so narrow the car barely fit around the corners / had to be manually guided. Looking for street parking after was an adventure
Wed 7/22 - Aix
Drove to Aix. Cute university city with cute downtown for shopping
Franc 1884 lavender shop - shopkeeper told us due to heat waves / conditions this year all lavender has been picked already. Even though late July is usually the best time to go and the annual Lavender conference is mid August
Great lunch at Dip Honest Co, bought some stuff from Sandro (great pricing due to inflation / tarrifs)
Thu 7/23 - Gordes, Rousillon
Pistou in Gordes: delicious provencal food. Pistou is pesto and is a provençal cold sauce made from cloves of garlic, fresh basil, and olive oil
Tried driving to a few lavender fields but they were all harvested! Just lines of round bundles left in the field
Le Sentier des Ocres (ocre walking path 3 euro): incredibly unique / stunning visually
When back at the Airbnb, did a run to Gordes and back (tough hot backroads trail)
Dinner at a backyard bistro with patio lights near the Airbnb at the trailhead entrance of the Cedar Path
