The last time we visited southern France, we came to the French Riviera in mid-March. It was more like the Côte de Gris. Though we had some beautiful sunny days, there were more clouds than sun, some rain and some cold. It was still a great trip, from Marseille to Nice with a stop in Antibes and visits to Monaco and Eze village but it wasn’t what one pictures when one conjures up images of the southern coast of France.
Cannes. This time, it was the heat of summer. We stayed in Cannes. You may not have heard of it, but it is this little village where the movie industry flocks each May for a festival. Yachts dock or float in the harbor, nearly every square inch of beach is covered by bodies, umbrellas, and beach chairs and along the croisette where early-morning exercisers outnumber the strollers until the heat comes up. This is a place that treasures fitness, fashion and body image. It does not want for botox and physical enhancements which must surpass those per square inch in Los Angeles or Las Vegas, and people watching is a full-time sport. Along the Avenue d’Antibes high-end shops loom along every block. The film festival’s red carpet attracts Instagrammers and selfie takers like bees to the honeycomb. Strolling among high-end yachts in the port was a fun morning game.
We enjoyed a cocktail at the bar of the Carlton Hotel (prime people watching), whose bartenders and waiters have some stories to tell, no doubt, a lovely lunch at Mademoiselle Gray on the beach (ditto again on the people watching) and a couple of great dinners in the restaurants of Rue Bivouac Napoleon.
We were there on Bastille Day (or as the French call it, La Fête Nationale) and got to celebrate with fireworks in style. It was also a great home base for exploration of the area and a fantastic place to take early morning walks before the temperatures rose.
St. Tropez. We both awoke singing “do you know the way to St. Tropez?” (which is not the song) in our heads and, thus, ventured down to St. Tropez on a Saturday. The traffic was très horrible, insupportable! It turned out it was market day and every Saturday going into St. Tropez in the morning (and alas, coming out in the afternoon) is a slow-moving parade down the peninsula. But who can complain when you’re in southern France on a beautiful day, it gave us time to admire the coastline.
We initially preferred the town of St. Tropez itself to that of Cannes, although Cannes grew fonder to us with each passing minute. St. Tropez is small, by comparison, and much more low-key (despite being very busy with tourists on a summer weekend). The winding sandstone streets amidst pastel-colored buildings were fun to wander down. And if we thought there were yachts in the harbor of Cannes, St. Tropez’ harbor made Cannes’ yacht inventory look like child’s play.
We bee-lined for our planned lunch at Santa Cocina, an authentic Mexican restaurant in the heart of St. Tropez. It was off the beaten path, tiny and Melissa’s research, yet again, paid off. We parked well out of town and spent the rest of our time wandering, checking out boats and then returning to our car to ride along the coastline and back up over the mountains between Fréjus and Cannes on twisting and winding roads with motorcycles whipping by us at speeds that can only be described as trés dangereux.
We later learned that both Reese Witherspoon and Michael Douglas were in town while we were there, too bad we were away from home as our invite to join them on the yacht or for lunch must be sitting in the mailbox.
Vence. Vence had been recommended to us by a couple of friends, so on our second full day, we headed up the coast to Antibes and then inland to drive up the hills and into this cool hilltop town. We’d booked a table at Côté Jardin – Chez Anne whose terrasse overlooks the valley and fresh lemon from their terrace-neighboring trees are used in many dishes, desserts and boissons. Our hostess knew we were coming, probably due to the surprisingly low-key nature of Sunday afternoon reservation inventory and my clearly non-native French. The meal was trés deliceux and the atmosphere genial.
Our hostess recommended that we visit the Marc Chagall exhibition at the museum which was not to be missed. Vence was a Roman town and later a walled medieval fortress. It is not hard to understand how or why artists, like Chagall, landed here given the splendor of natural beauty which abounds.
St. Paul de Vence. Next, we made our way to St. Paul de Vence, the fairy-tale looking hilltop town you see on your left riding up to Vence.
We made our way first to the Maeght Foundation museum of modern art and wandered through the sculpture gallery and interior exhibits and then worked our way down to that hilltop town we’d admired. If Vence was chill and sleepy, St. Paul was its polar opposite, crammed with tourists. Families played bocce ball in the courtyard near the main portal entry into town, the narrow streets within the medieval walls are chocked full of art galleries and were jammed with nearly everyone holding a cone of la glace.
Mougins. Like St. Paul de Vence, Moughins is a hilltop old town full of art galleries. Cool statues and sculptures linger along the winding streets. The streets themselves were so clean you felt you could eat off of them. It was hot; really hot, and humid as we climbed into old town from the large free parking lot.
We had no reservation for lunch, so we looked up the options and found La Piazzetta Italian restaurant to be the best rated, plus they had an indoor and air-conditioned table available. So, Italian it was and the rating was deserved.
Afterwards, headed to a friend’s house for dinner and an overnight, we decided to find a chocolatier to buy a gift. We got drawn into a shop selling nougat and offering samples. We asked for a small piece for a gift, as the only way to purchase it was fresh cut slabs off massive loaves of the sticky stuff and wound up with a ridiculously large amount. We think we got taken. It was tasty, but steer clear, or get to the Duolingo lesson where you learn to say “un petit morceau” (which I ironically did the next day) before visiting.
We wrapped it all up in Antibes at a friend’s house where we’ve visited all three times we’ve come to the Côte d’Azur which was a perfect cap to a great several days in the sun.
Sources:
The Traveling Ridleys 
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