I just accepted a new job/promotion with another company and realized that I had exactly a week of time off between the jobs. We had considered hiking in Canada but there were fires near the spot we wanted to visit, so we decided on Southern France as a last minute trip. I have been to Paris twice and have loved every moment there, but wanted to venture outside of Paris and explore the Southern region of France. This was Bryce’s first time in France but he was still excited to see new country.
Keep on reading for our day-by-day adventures!
Day 0/1: Saturday and Sunday August 10 and August 11, 2024 Travel Day
Our flight from St. Louis didn’t leave until 1pm, so we didn’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn. We still arrived at the airport 3 hours early after dropping Nico off. Two hours later, we found ourselves with a 5 hour layover to explore the Philadelphia airport. We ate some Philly cheesesteaks and walked around until the plane was ready to leave. It was delayed about an hour but we still made it by lunchtime the next day.
Upon arriving into Nice, we found the rental car counter, got our car, and drove to the Plage Publique Magnan. We found a parking garage, changed into our swimsuits, and walked to the beach. We spent a little over an hour in the water, and then bought some groceries at a small Carrefour Market before heading to our Airbnb. Our Airbnb was only 10 miles away, but it took 30 minutes because the roads were small and very curvy up the mountains. It was a cute Airbnb where the bed was up in a loft. We cooked our own spaghetti for dinner, did some laundry, called the parents, and finally got some sleep.
Day 2: Monday August 12 Parfumarie Fragonard, Monoco, Le Jardin Exotique
We woke up and drove about an hour to the Historical Parfumarie Fragonard Factory in Grasse. The factory had free tours starting at 9am. This factory has been making perfumes since 1926 and we were able to see how raw materials were placed in the different machines to make perfumes. The tour explained some of the materials and where those items came from, the distillation process, and how the perfume is then bottled. At the end of the tour, I ended up purchasing a small bottle of the Belle de Nuit.
After the perfume tour, we drove an hour to Monoco, the second smallest country after the Vatican. We walked around, but it was hot and there was no shade. We walked through a very small Japanese Garden to get to the Casino de Monte-Carlo. We stood in line to walk inside, but we did not gamble away any money! Afterwards, we walked to the Prince’s Palace of Monaco and saw the Private Cars Collection of HSH Prince of Monaco. The collection has over 100 cars and includes some of the racing cars seen at the Formula 1s from the Monaco Grand Prix.
One of my favorite things we did was go to the Jardin botanique d’Èze which is a garden 400 meters over the sea. It has many different cacti and succulents and had amazing views of the sea. I had come prepared and had printed off our tickets ahead of time, which saved us at least an hour or more waiting in line. We just walked to the turnstile, scanned our papers, and walked in. When we finished with the Jardin, we walked down to the town. We decided to try L’Antre Potes for dinner. I got the onion soup and Bryce ordered duck. We also had cocktails and ordered the chocolate mousse for dessert.
Day 3: Tuesday August 13 Gorge du Verde and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie
We were out of the house by 5:45am in order to get to Galatas Beach by 7:45am. The beach was about 70 miles from our Airbnb but the small windy roads added time to all of our drive time. We rented a tandem kayak for 2 hours and was on the water by 8am. We kayaked the Gorge du Verde. It was peaceful and quiet for the first hour but when we turned around to head back, the gorge was filling up with people. It was no longer peaceful as people were talking loudly and playing their music down the gorge. I was really happy that we got to experience a quiet morning on the water though.
Twenty miles north of the Gorge du Verdon is the small commune town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. It is known for it’s faïence, a type of fine glazed pottery. I actually bought a really pretty flower vase from ETS Serrailler and created by Atelier Serrailler. I wanted to see a display of how the pottery is made at the Museum of Earthenware but it was closed on Tuesdays. It’s a small town with less than 700 people who reside there. We walked the town and then decided to tour the Chapel of Our Lady of Beauvoir. It was built between two cliffs. From the Chapel, we could see the entire town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. We had to climb 800 meters to the Chapel, which is over 2,600 feet. We sat and enjoyed the view of the town from the Chapel but also because I was worn out after the walk up. We ended up grabbing a sandwich at a local restaurant but it wasn’t anything too exciting.
We spent the late afternoon driving around Provence. I always wanted to see the lavender fields, but sadly, we were a few weeks past their full bloom. I still found a little purple out in the fields though. We stopped at a large Carrefour and bought a frozen pizza for dinner, some breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the next day. I was even able to find another French (child’s) book to add to my library at home called “Les P’tites Poules.”
Day 4: Wednesday August 14 Parc national des Calanques and Carcassonne
Another early morning as we left the Airbnb at 6am. We drove to a parking lot and hit the trail at 7am. The Parc national des Calanques is made up of calanques which are inlets of water formed into rocky steep walled limestone. The water at the end of the hike was beautiful and probably one of the highlights of our trip. However, it was so hot and Bryce and I both agreed that hiking the Calanque was definitely NOT the highlight of the trip. We had to hike straight up and then straight down and then straight up again and then straight back down. We ended at the calanque d’en-vau. Since we were already wet from sweat, we jumped in the water and cooled off. The water felt amazing, and it was so peaceful when we got there. We stayed until the water and beach area started to get busy for the day, although we knew we had to hike all the way back to the car!
After our hike, we drove to the town of Carcassone, which i a fortified city that houses the Cité de Carcassonne, a medieval citadel. We thought it was going to be around 4 hours, but it was raining and the traffic was awful. We barely made it into the town, and then finding a place to park near the Airbnb was also a challenge. We found a parking lot a few blocks away and had to carry our bags to our rental. We quickly changed and headed into the town. We barely made it into the citadel before it closed. Bryce likes board games and owns the board game Carcassonne. As you can see, part of the Carcassonne game got to visit Carcassone. We spent about an hour in the citadel, which was a little more rushed for our speed but we were still happy we got in before it closed.
After we saw the Cité de Carcassonne, we went into the town. The town itself is very touristy, but we decided to grab dinner and drinks before settling down for the evening. I got pasta and Bryce got the Cassoulet à Carcassonne which was made with duck.
Day 5: Thursday August 15 Cognac
We left at 5:00am to drive the 4.5 hours or so to Cognac. Our first tour was at the Remy Martin vineyard. We had trouble finding the vineyard but once we did, we got a tour of the winery and was told about how Cognac was made at Remy Martin. Afterwards, we sat outside and had some Cognac tastings complete with an apple juice cocktail that was delicious.
After our Remy Martin tour, we drove into the town of Cognac. We ate lunch at a local restaurant, stopped by a park with ducks, and then went to Hennessy for their tour. We got to see the barrels that the Cognac was stored in with some dating back to the 1800’s. There was even a random VR experience that occurred on this tour. That was fun but I was not expecting to any VR on this tour. Afterwards, we got to taste some Hennessy Cognac too in the tasting room. My vote was Remy Martin (in a cocktail). For dinner, we thought we would switch things up and went out for Thai food for dinner.
Day 6: Friday August 16 Grand Cru Saint Émilion and Bordeaux
We slept in and then left the Airbnb at 7:30am. We grabbed some pastries at a local patisserie and then drove to Château Bernateau which is a winery in the Saint Émilion Grand Cru. Essentially, Saint Émilion is a fortified village that how two wine Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) that labels the geographical area of an agricultural product. Saint Émilion is known for it’s Grands Cru classés and it’s Premier grands crus classés due to the soil and sub-soil of the region. We had trouble finding Château Bernateau, the place where I booked a reservation for a tasting and tour. Since we were lost, we thought we would stop into another winery. Well apparently most wineries were “closed” and one person informed us that the wineries in the area do not accept walk-ins and that prior reservations are needed for all of the wineries. We attempted the address again and finally found the group that was meeting at Château Bernateau. We found the winery, toured the vineyard, learned about the wine making process as well as the Grands Cru classés, and then tasted some wines. Three of the wines we tried were the baies de Bernateau, a fruity wine made up a 95% merlot and 5% cabernet franc blend, the Château tour Peyronneau 100% merlot, and we tried the Château Bernateau, a 80% merlot, 19% cabernet franc, and 1% small verdot blend.
After our wine tasting, we drove to Bordeaux. We parked near the Miroir d’eau, a 37,000+ square foot reflecting pool. I had to wade in the water. We walked across the street to the Place de la Bourse, wandered down the touristy streets, and tried the famous Bordeaux canelé. A canelé is a small caramelized cake made with rum and vanilla. I liked them, but Bryce liked them a lot. Our last stop in Bordeaux was the Place des Quinconces where we saw the Monument aux Girondins that depicts the Girondists (a political group who wanted to end the monarchy) who died during the French Revolution between 1791-1793.
After spending the afternoon in Bordeaux, we headed to the airport, dropped off the car, and caught a flight over to Nice. We had one last meal in France. I had spaghetti and Bryce had fish and a ratatouille with a salad. In the morning, we had the hotel breakfast and then we left for the airport.
Day 7: Saturday August 17 Back Home
We were on track to make it home on time. We left on Saturday and we were scheduled to be back in St. Louis Saturday night. We had a 3 hour layover in Philly but our flight was late taking off and then we had to get through customs and security before we could get on the domestic flight back home. We ran through the airport. Bryce said he has never seen my run that fast in my life. We got to the gate with 10 minutes to spare. I had been going through all the different options to get us home from multiple different cities if we missed our layover, but we made it.
All good trips have an end, and our time in Southern France had come to an end. I was ready to come back home and start my new job. It was nice to be able to explore a new region before diving into work again.