Five July Days in Southern France

So you’re done with Paris and have five July days in Southern France? Here’s an itinerary we greatly enjoyed – though the more time you can spend down here, the better – each day adds a little joy. We took the train from Paris to Nice at 6a to get to Nice by 1P. The first 3 hours were quick and speedy, the next 3 were slower but had nice views. No delays, but a flight may have been smoother (we tried but the AirFrance site had been down for days).

Nice

We stayed here for 3 days and stayed in the Old Town. Hard to find a bad place in Old Town. In terms of things to do – just relax – walk around, go to cafes/restaurants – this is the place to chill out. A few notes:

• The beaches are great. The water isn’t absolutely crystal clear but it’s definitely not an unpleasant sight. In all other blogs when I read “pebble” beaches – I assumed small little pebbles. Boy was I wrong – they are quite massive, so heed the warning and the thicker your towel, the better, or prepare for a nice back massage. Another warning is that the ocean gets very deep several feet in and doesn’t have the smallest waves – so I may not recommend it for those with minimal swimming abilities under their belts.
• There is a really nice walk up to the top of Nice with a waterfall (Castle Hill) & a park. I recommend being there by sunset because watching the sky fade and the city light up was quite beautiful.
• Experience the night-life around the harbor; there’s a great brewery called BDA Bar
• Rent a scooter/bike – (FYI: we weren’t asked for an international driver’s license) which brings me to day 3 of Nice after these photos

Scooter Day from Nice – Eze – Monaco – Menton

• Eze – Don’t believe the articles that say Eze will be covered in 30 minutes. If you plan to enjoy it at a normal pace and visit the botanical gardens (which you should & are worth it) – prepare for 1.5-2 hours here (not including food). It’s a super touristy town, but is still adorable to walk through.

• Monaco – park and just stand and admire the cars driving by. Then do a 180 and look at the yachts. They’re all insane. And yet – when you go into the shopping mall, acknowledge that even though this is the richest country per capita, they still don’t have air conditioning in their malls! For F1 fans, walking and seeing the track – particularly the hairpin – was quite incredible. Seeing the casino was fun – though we didn’t pay the 15 Euros in 2023 to get in – but we did see a free show in the theater of the casino. The people are o.k. – we may have been too hot to appreciate it. We were not too hot to stop to watch the solar power boat race happening on the water – we happened to come on the last day and when the announcer said “lights out and away we go” my heart may have actually stopped from excitement/happiness for a moment (again, only F1 fans will understand this reference). A few hours in this country could suffice but depends how fancy you want to get & how much you plan to gamble (neither of which we did or regret not doing). Next time we’d consider doing the La Collection Automobiles de S.A.S. le Prince de Monaco.

• Menton – so I had actually decided before the trip that I was ready to sacrifice this city, and I’m so glad I was persuaded to go. This city is right on the border of Italy and Italian is the second language of this city. The streets are far more colorful, bright and cheery than the rest of the southern French cities we saw/drove through. If you go in the water and circle 360 degrees you’ll be blown away by the architecture on one side, and the luscious mountains on the other –especially knowing that Italy is one of those mountains! 😊 You could definitely spend a day here, but half a day was still worth it for us. The boardwalk (on a summer weekend at least) was lively the entire day & night.

Provence

Lavender Fields – Valensole for the soul.

From all my research, the best time to see the lavender fields in full bloom is the last week of June + first two weeks of July — so we were there at the perfect time. Our Airbnb host later told us that fake lavender flowers are put up in later months, but most tourists don’t even realize this!

We had rented a car and drove the 2 hrs from Nice to the lavender fields of Valensole. Before embarking on the fields, we made a detour and drove through Antibes & Cannes. Wow Cannes beaches is all I’ll say. As we proceeded to the lavendar fields, we used this route to figure out which fields to go to. Many friends asked me how we found fields with no one in them. Guys – there are far more fields than people realize and they are much larger than you think. Only the duo sunflower/lavender field (called Terraroma) was actually crowded. If we go back, I would actually go to the lavender fields in Luberon or Pays de Sault because I think seeing the French homes in the background of the lavender would be spectacular. But Valensole’s open sky was not a bad alternative. Go closer to sunset – the purple of the lavender really comes out at this time – as will your [presumably white] outfits. I say this because the majority of people there wear white – except me 🙂

Verdon Gorge

Going to this gorge was my favorite day of the entire French trip – I’m a sucker for bluegreen water & nature. This gorge was the most spectacular gorge I’ve ever seen. It’s not quite the Fjords of Norway, but the color took my breath away. We rented a paddleboat on the east side of the river for 4 hours by the Pont du Galetas (note that you can get one with a cover if you want). It’s best to rent a boat closer to the bridge. Bring a bottle or two (or 5) of wine, get some cheese or sandwiches (although they may melt quickly in the summer) from a local supermarket, get ready to peddle, swim, jump off the cliffs and remember to lift your jaw if you find it falling down too often in awe of the beauty. I really wish we had done a canyoning adventure through the gorge like the kind this site offers, but this was a great way to see the gorge for a first timer in a more relaxed way.    

Restaurants + Extra Tips:

• Favorite restaurant in Nice per our VRBO host: Chez Acchiardo
• Great escargot on the harbor: Restaurant le Bard’o
• Our favorite breakfast in Nice: Maranna
• As I mentioned in my Paris post, make reservations here. It is not easy to get them at highly rated restaurants in the summer & “hoping for the best” didn’t work out too well for us here.
• Best Airbnb between the lavendar fields & Verdon Gorge – honestly may have the been Airbnb we have ever stayed in with the host – she made us the MOST fantastic meal of the entire trip and told us about her journey and town: Airbnb link
• Next time we have five July days in Southern France: wineries & truffle hunting

Tell me all about your quips in Southern France please!

This entry was posted in Europe, France