I visited the South of France with my friend Micha this October. We did a lot of sightseeing and took in our fair share of wine and cheese. Here's a recount of the 6 days and fun times. Part 3. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here.
In parts 1 and 2 we spent time in Avignon, Rhone valley, Marseille and a few spots in and around those areas. The last two days were in the Cote D'azur where we stayed in Antibes and visited quite a few spots around the Antibes.
Day 5 - Rain, Rain & Cannes
We woke up to rain on Day 5 and had another slow morning, but we did end up heading to Cannes. Before we went to Cannes we walked around Antibes a bit on the water front. It was cold and windy and wet but it still gave us a chance to see the side of Antibes we are on. Antibes is like a mini peninsula and had walked down to the east side of the city towards the beach and where a very large sailing yacht happened to be anchored. We found out later on the nicer side was the opposite side (west side!).
Being annoyed with the rain we headed back to the apartment to get the car and then headed to Cannes. Cannes is of course well known for its film festival and also as another lovely Mediterranean city along the coast. We drove over to Cannes in and found a spot to park near the main boulevard. We walked first along La Croisette which took us from our carpark towards Palais des Festivals which also housed a tourist office. Outside the Palais des Festivals was a bunch of hand prints, and inside we got a map and advice to basically just walk towards the old part of Cannes which was quite close to the Palais.
A crepe in Cannes, Antibes shoreline, Cannes port, Paul MacCarney hands, our crepe restaurant alley, more Antibes, more Cannes port, the Cannes Casino & Cannes scenery. It was rainy!
We did walk towards old town but there wasn't much to do there so we ended up eating crepes which were delicious! That was about it for Day 5!
Day 6 - On to Monaco and Les Grottes de St Cézaire
Unfortunately Day 6 was also pretty rainy but we did still force ourselves to get out and see some local sights. First off was to visit Monaco which we walked around in for a couple hours. The trip in was smooth however we drove around in circles for 20 minutes or so trying to find parking. We finally found some in a parking lot that can best be described as a 12 level cylinder with us managing to park at the 9th floor - we could very well have passed out due to dizziness!
I had been to Monaco before so I mostly went so Micha could see it but I enjoyed walking around it again. We started near the port (Port Hercule), which is the main port of Monaco and walked around that area taking in the ritzy stores and people watching. As it was rainy and October the people watching was a bit of a letdown. It seemed like most people were curious tourists like us. We walked along the port (following the Monaco F1 Circuit), east towards Monte Carlo the capital of Monaco.
Monte Carlo like all of Monaco is built into a steep hill (cliff?, rocky outcropping?, steeps?) so any to and from can be met with not insignificant leg workouts - valuable at the pace we had been drinking wine. I will say while it was nice and clearly the home of money, after living in London it didn't seem anything special (sorry Monte Carlo). Maybe the most significant point in Monte Carlo (at least that the public can access) is the casino. We didn't go in but we snooped around quite a bit and there are some great views from the area.
Walking around Monaco photos:
After satisfying ourselves in Monaco we headed back to the car - which we found very easily, I really did a great navigating the winding streets - we were off to see some caves!
Les Grottes de St Cézaire
The Grottes de St Cézaire are caves in the Parc Natural Regional de Preaples D'Azur. A mouthful which means the step hills to the Alps that are in Azur. Who cares actually - but that's where the caves are. The caves date back many millions of years but they were only discovered in the late 19th century. A quick blurb from the website (excuse the bad French to English translation, it's not mine - in fact I thought up a business a while back to re-translate bad translations! Maybe I'll take that up again).
"The Saint-Cézaire' cave was discovered in 1890 by a farmer who saw a hole in clearing his field. While digging more, a chasm appeared ... Stairs will be arranged to open the cave to the visitors. In 1920, the film Phroso by Charles Vanel shot in particular in the cave contributes to its fame. Its lighting by powerful projectors reveals the transparency of the crystallizations. After 6 years of closure, the cave will reopen in 1946 to the delight of visitors who appreciate this unique site in the Alpes Maritimes."
I know!!, it hurts me a bit to read because the caves are so much better than that description! First off you enter into the visitor centre which has ample parking around it. You buy a ticket and from within the visitor centre you go down into the caves with a guide who explains things mostly in French. There are around 15-20 to a tour, we had only around 15, but there is plenty of time to explore and ask questions. I helped translate from French to English for Micha until the guide realized we spoke English and started speaking in English too.
The tour lasted around and hour and to be honest at the end I was ready to leave because while it is neat to see them after 30 minutes or so of information and walking around you beyond get the gist. Nonetheless it was worth the trip there!
Les Grottes!!!
Home again
We headed back to Antibes and stopped quickly at the Cap D'Antibes where a gentleman gave Micha an overview of the super yacht moored in the bay. Cap d'Antibes is kind of like its only little neighbourhood and village at the same time with some prominent homes with likely some very prominent views at not greatly affordable prices! We drove around one side of the cap on some narrow roads, but managed to find some great views and a nice seaside drive part way through.
The Cap and our view (yes note the clouds!)
It was the opposite side of Antibes that we'd seen the previous day. From there it was back to the flat for some tasty... you guessed it vino on our last night in France.
Day 7 - Back to Barcelona with a couple stops!
Guess what!?!?! It's finally sunny on the last day in Antibes! Proof below - so what did we do? We drove west into the cloudy, rainy weather to get back to Barcelona!
There wasn't much we were able to accomplish today. A quick summary is:
1) Leave on slightly late
2) Left nothing behind of value by mistake (that we know of!)
3) Drive towards Barcelona
4) Get lost only twice - not really lost but miss turnoffs
5) See Sete - a nice fishing, port town (not that nice actually), with beaches we didn't go to, although we did make it to McDonalds and take a couple photos
6) Pay lots of tolls (but drive on great roads)
7) Get back to Barcelona in plenty of time (not really I was cutting it close), in one piece, and almost but not actually run out of gas!
Sete - a quick visit - it's probably a lot nicer in the summer and near the beaches.
I dropped Micha off at a gas station which was better for her than going to the airport and then back to hers. I dropped of the rental car with no scratches (and one potential photo radar ticket which I haven't been charged to date), and that's that.
Trip rating: Great success! Grand bien de super bon cool formidable excellente! Merci France!
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