France Road Trip Part 3: The French Riviera

Posted on December 5, 2020

DAY 9

Continued drive along the Route des Grandes Alpes, evening stroll around Villefranche-sur-mer

The rain had passed by morning, so we took a brief stroll around Mont-Dauphin, checking out the many local artisans’ shops before returning to our car for the second half of our drive to the coast.

From Mont-Dauphin we had just a few more hours of driving. This leg of the journey was just a beautiful as the previous day and with just as many bikers, too.

By early afternoon we had arrived in the coastal town of Villefranche-sur-mer and checked into our hotel.

We originally planned to spend three nights here, but thanks to the unexpected storm in Chamonix, we extended our stay to four nights. We opted for a hotel a bit on the outskirts of town, about 15 minutes from the center of town but with the upsides of easy parking (a rarity in the Riviera) and great views.

Where we stayed: Hôtel Le Versailles

After settling into our room and finally unpacking for the first time in several days, we made the 15-minute downhill walk into town. We had a little time to kill before dinner, so we decided to follow another one our guidebook’s self-guided walking tours.

The walk took us along the harbor, through the town, and eventually uphill to the Citadelle where we were rewarded with a nice view of the town below. There aren’t many landmarks in Villefranche-sur-mer, but the compact yellow and peach-colored town has plenty of charm nonetheless.

After the tour, we stopped for a quick bite to eat before continuing our upward climb back to the hotel.

DAY 10

Day trip to Cap Ferrat with a visit to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

We decided to spend our bonus day exploring the nearby peninsula Cap Ferrat, where many of the wealthiest residents of the Riviera call home (at least for part of the year).

After two days of driving, I was happy to ditch the car for the day. So we caught the bus just outside our hotel and made our way to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, the crown jewel of Cap Ferrat.

The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild was built by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild at the start of the 20th century. The house itself is quite the spectacle. The exterior is painted pink and the inside is decked out with an array of antique furniture and sculpture with display cases filled with rare porcelain and other collectibles.

But the main attraction is really the gardens, or rather the nine gardens, that surround the house. Each garden has its own theme — there’s the primary English garden with its long reflecting pool and synchronized fountains, but also an “exotic” garden with cacti and succulents, a Japanese stone garden, and a lovely rose garden at the end. We spent most of our time wandering around the gardens, getting lost.

After wrapping up at the Villa, we meandered downhill toward the coast where the New Port of Saint Jean Cap Ferrat is situated. We stopped by one of the many outdoor cafes along the waterfront for a simple lunch.

After debating what to do with the rest of our “bonus” day in the French Riviera, we ultimately decided to take it easy and spend the afternoon relaxing and recharging. We caught the bus back to our hotel and spent the remainder of the day lounging by the hotel pool.

DAY 11

Day trip to Monaco: Walking tour of Monaco-Ville, Musée Océanographique, Monte-Carlo Casino

For our second day on the French Riviera, we made a day trip east toward the Italian border to visit the Principality of Monaco.

To get there from Villefrance-sur-mer, we took the high Corniche, which connects Nice to Monaco. We read in our guidebook that the views would be worth the pain of traffic and parking in Monaco, but we weren’t overly impressed (although, perhaps we were a tad jaded after such a spectacular drive through the French Alps a couple of days prior).

After finally finding parking and ditching our car, we headed first to the port to check out the hundreds of boats and yachts docked in the harbor. From here we also had a nice view of the city, jam-packed with high rises.

Aesthetically, Monaco isn’t the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, but it’s probably one of the more fascinating. For this reason, we were really happy to have our guidebook on hand; otherwise, we may have missed out on the interesting and unusual history of this minuscule country.

For starters, the country is only 0.78 square miles but home to over 12,000 millionaires, which is approximately 1/3 of residents. This is due primary to its reputation as a tax haven; residents of Monaco have zero income tax. So many wealthy people want to move here that they’re running out of space, even with the already sky-high real estate prices.

We eventually headed inland and uphill, heading toward Monaco-Ville, one of just a few neighborhoods in Monaco.

From here we picked up on another one of our guidebook’s walking tours, which took us by the Prince’s Palace of Monaco and Saint Nicholas Cathedral, where Grace Kelly is buried.

Another landmark in Monaco-Ville is the Musée Océanographique, which dates back to 1910. If you know me, you know I love aquariums, so naturally, this was one of the few places on my must-see list.

The Musée Océanographique is one part museum of oceanographic history and another part aquarium. Unfortunately, the museum portion was almost entirely in French, so we mostly breezed through that portion en route to the aquarium. The aquarium itself was compact but still worthwhile with a nice range of tanks and exhibits.

After finishing up at the Musée Océanographique, we walked back toward the harbor and walked the length of the boardwalk until we reached Monte Carlo, Monaco’s other major neighborhood. Aside from designer shopping and fancy cares, the main tourist attraction is its famous casino.

The Monte Carlo Casino is well-known from countless tv, film, and other pop culture references. But what I didn’t realize is that it’s also an important part of Monaco’s history. The casino was built in 1858 in an effort to save the House of Grimaldi from bankruptcy, and up until recently this was still the primary income for the royal family.

Today the casino serves as a playground for the rich and famous, but interestingly, residents of Monaco are not permitted to enter the gaming rooms of the casino, I suppose to ensure they don’t gamble away their wealth.

We stood under the canopy for some time to wait out the rain and enjoyed watching as expensive car after expensive car pulled into the plaza in front of the casino.

We finally returned to our car and drove back to the hotel, taking again the High Corniche road. After a simple meal back in our room, we dropped by our hotel’s restaurant for fancy cocktails and dessert on the terrace.

DAY 12

Day trip to Nice: Masséna Square, Marché Aux Fleurs Cours Saleya, Castle Hill, and the Promenade

For our last day in the region we took another day trip, this time to the most well-known and largest city along the Riviera: Nice. We again opted to skip the hassle and leave our car behind, taking public transportation from our hotel into the city.

The bus dropped us off at the northeastern end of the Promenade du Paillon, an expansive greenway in the heart of the city. We followed the promenade west until we reached the black-and-white-checkered Masséna Square, where “new” Nice to the north meets the old historic center to the south.

From the square, we headed south toward the appropriately-named neighborhood of Old Nice and picked up with another self-guided walking tour from our guidebook.

We walked along narrow, lively streets reminiscent of New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, doing a bit of window shopping along the way. We eventually arrived at the Marché Aux Fleurs Cours Saleya outdoor market, which sold flowers, olives, soaps, and other stables under striped canopies in bright primary colors.

We timed our morning walk so that we would arrive just in time for our lunch reservation at Oliviera.

Oliviera specializes in all things olive oil. Each dish is paired with its own specific olive oil. The food is absolutely delicious and reasonably priced to boot, but the highlight was the friendly owner, who took the time to talk us through the menu and gave us a brief education on each of the olive oils we sampled. 10/10 would recommend to anyone visiting Nice!

After a very satisfying but heavy lunch, we were ready to burn off a few calories.

So we left the narrow streets of the Old Nice and headed to the eastern edge of town. From there we climbed the 426 steps up to the very top of Castle Hill.

Despite the name, there’s no longer a castle on top of the hill (that was destroyed by Louis XIV in 1706); there are, however, some pretty spectacular views of Nice, the coastline and promenade, and even some mountains beyond the city, which made it well worth the effort!

After taking in the view (and catching our breath), we headed back down the hill toward the water to walk a portion of the Promenade, which runs for almost 4 1/2 miles along the Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels).

Despite some overcast skies, the narrow pebble beach was still packed with sun-bathers.

We walked about halfway down the length of the promenade before doubling back and heading inward again to where we started our tour.

We debated sticking around a bit longer in Nice to see if there would be any festivities for Bastille Day, but with another action-packed day ahead of us, we decided to head back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and relaxing evening.

Later that night, we heard the faint sound of fireworks and were surprised to see from our balcony a full-fledge Bastille Day fireworks show happening just on the other side of the bay — a lovely ending to the French Riviera chapter of our trip!