Mesmerizing journey through Provence - from the French Riviera to the lakes and mountains

Provence is the south-eastern region of France. It has a lot to offer and the highlights are the beaches (popularly known as the French Riviera), the French side of the Alps mountains and the Verdon Natural Regional Park.

The French Riviera

The 'French riviera' is the region with glamorous beaches on the south coast of France. We (me and my husband) visited Nice, Cannes, Antibes and Monaco.

In these towns the beaches are the main attraction. There are mostly very few or no other typical sightseeing places like castles or museums like other touristy European cities.

Paradise for sail boats and yachts

Nice

We landed at the Nice airport on 6th September 2019.
We started the sightseeing by visiting the market in the Nice city center. I had read about a local vegetarian delicacy called Socca and directly went to the shop that sells it. It is made with chickpea flour, water, olive oil, salt and black pepper. Simple and delicious! 

Socca and wine

Next stop was the hilltop park 'Parc de la Colline du Château'. The ocean views while climbing the hill are amazing!

View from 'Parc de la Colline du Château' in Nice. It was a cloudy and rainy day.

Cannes

The city is famous for the film festival so the first stop had to be the red-carpet venue 😎

The theater itself is just like any other theater building, very 'normal' looking. Tourists are constantly making a beeline for taking photos on the red carpet. 

Palais des Festivals 

I highly recommend taking this little train for quick sightseeing around the city. It also takes you on top of a hill for some photos.

Antibes

What is a trip without a walking tour?😄 Walking tours are my favorite! We found a walking tour via Airbnb. Antibes is a cute little town which was great to explore with the tour guide. I doubt if we would have liked it had we tried to explore on our own. The tour guide took us to charming alleys and told us little things that made us like the town instantly.

Knock knock!

Antibes is very popular for mooring yachts. There is even a special place called ‘Bay of Antibes Billionaires’ for the super rich folks. It was quite far from the city center so we skipped it. We settled for these yachts instead 😉

The fancy ones are way back

The other cities we visited so far were far more touristy and commercial. We chose Antibes to finally take a swim in the Mediterranean Sea. It was worth the wait!

Monaco

Monaco is the second-smallest country in the world after the Vatican. It is most famous for the Monaco Grand Prix, a Formula One motor race held annually and Monte Carlo, a casino.

We visited Jardin Exotique de Monaco - It is a beautiful garden with many species of cacti and exotic plants. It also offers great views of Monaco from the garden terrace. 

View from the garden

There is a limestone cave in the garden which can be visited only with a guided tour.

Next stop was the famous Monte Carlo casino. What really surprised me was the number of people just waiting near the car park to spot celebrities and fancy cars. I saw paparazzi for the first time 😄 😎.

Understated building of the Monte Carlo casino. People waiting on the right side for the cars and celebrities.

Till this part of the trip we used public transport. The train connections between the towns on the French riviera are good. For the second part of the trip we rented a car and went away from the beaches to the mountains. A complete change of scenery!

Verdon Gorge

As we traveled, we saw endless vineyards and olive plantations. I had never seen olives trees so up close before!

Lake of Sainte-Croix in the background

The most visited spot in the whole area has to the bridge on the Gorges du Verdon. On one side of this bridge you can see the start of the gorge on the river Verdon.

And on the other side is a man-made lake Sainte-Croix.
What's really strange is that the color of the water changes from green to blue depending on the direction of the sun! Pretty cool to watch!

We rented one of those paddle boats for around 90 minutes and went around both sides.

In the next couple of days, we explored the area by car. We visited the small towns of Castellane, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and Aiguines. Frankly, I expected them to be cozy and charming due to what I read before visiting them. But for me they were just some towns with shops and restaurants selling stuff from the region. Perhaps the reviews had raised my expectations a bit too high!

This brings me to the most interesting part about the whole region. Shopping!
The region is very well known for lavender, olives, herbs, perfumes, soaps, creams and wines.

While we didn't shop for wine to bring back home, we did finish a bottle of a different regional wine for three consecutive evenings in the hotel. We really liked the wines we tried there. 

These are some of the items we bought. 😍 The fragrance and quality of the soaps, creams and perfumes is superb! A must-buy for everyone visiting this region. Also, they make for great gift items for close family and friends! 

The odd one out - hand cream tube😊 The donkey on the cover indicates that it contains donkey milk!

Soap also contains donkey milk!😆😁

I probably would have never bought anything after knowing it contains donkey milk. It just sounds so weird! Once you use the cream or the soap its easy to forget about the off-putting ingredient. 
Side note: My friend enlightened me that in ancient Egypt, Cleopatra used to bathe in donkey milk. I had no idea!!!

We always learn something new! 😊

What we missed and would like to visit next time:

1. Lavender fields 😍 in the summer months
2. The French Alps
3. Marseilles, the 2nd biggest city of France and the highest crime rate!

#frenchriviera #Côted'Azur #Mediterranean #lavender #soaps #donkeymilk #wine #Rose