South of France Advice Needed

colly10

I'm heading away with my gf at the end of July, the following is the current plan that i'm hoping for a bit of Advice on

Paris for 3 nights, leave morning of the checkout and go to Aix En Provence for 2 nights, leave in the morning and go to Cassis for 1 night then 3 nights in Nice and fly home the evening after checkout from Marsaille

When I look around Nice, there seems to be lots in the area worth seeing or spending a few hours in like -
Menton
Roquebrune Cap Martin
Villefranche sur mere
Eze
Saint Paul de Vence
San Tropez

I've heard both Aix and Cassis are nice & worth seeing, i'm wondering if I should cut a day out of Aix or skip Cassis completely to get another day in Nice to see the places around it (or if I should be maybe skipping some of the places I picked around Nice)? I'd cut from Paris but wouldn't be let

Thanks, any advice from anyone who's been to any of the above would be great

Walter Sobchak III

3 nights in Nice is a good amount of time. Its a good base. You can either go full on tourist or chill. Try a day trip to Monte Carlo easily accessible from Nice by train or a visit Saint Paul de Vence. Number 400 bus from Nice will you take there. Love that part of the world.

fdevine

+1 for trip up to Monaco/Monte Carlo

keane2097

Antibes is very nice as well.

hardybuck

colly10 wrote: »

I'm heading away with my gf at the end of July, the following is the current plan that i'm hoping for a bit of Advice on

Paris for 3 nights, leave morning of the checkout and go to Aix En Provence for 2 nights, leave in the morning and go to Cassis for 1 night then 3 nights in Nice and fly home the evening after checkout from Marsaille

When I look around Nice, there seems to be lots in the area worth seeing or spending a few hours in like -
Menton
Roquebrune Cap Martin
Villefranche sur mere
Eze
Saint Paul de Vence
San Tropez

I've heard both Aix and Cassis are nice & worth seeing, i'm wondering if I should cut a day out of Aix or skip Cassis completely to get another day in Nice to see the places around it (or if I should be maybe skipping some of the places I picked around Nice)? I'd cut from Paris but wouldn't be let

Thanks, any advice from anyone who's been to any of the above would be great

Looking at a potential trip myself - wouldn't mind getting feedback on the above if you went through with it in the end.

Alternative might be to go on the south west, and into the north of Spain.

CelticRambler

Not the OP but have spent some time in that region. Would agree that Aix and Cassis are worth seeing, but probably for no more than a day each. Nice is nice :rolleyes: - a balanced mix of touristy and "authentic".

Saint Tropez is (imo) a dump. Monaco/Montecarlo is about as exciting as Dún Laoghaire on a wet Wednesday, but maybe worth half an hour of your time if you want to see an impressive number of rich eejits driving badly in Ferraris.

Marseille is "gritty" but more authentically south-of-France for that reason.

If you have transport, the coast road D559 from Borme-Les-Mimosas/Le Lavandou to the Saint Tropez roundabout is lovely - lots of little bays and a gorgeous red sandstone (if you're into rocks!). The road from Saint-Tropez to Nice is very built up.

hardybuck

I've got a couple of options I'm mulling over, still very early days, but you could nearly get tied up in knots with all the potential options in France!

- Fly into Nice and head down the Riviera

- Fly into somewhere like Bordeaux and head towards Biarritz, San Sebastian, Bilbao, or even head south eastwards towards the Med.

It's a tough life but we must persevere!

CelticRambler

hardybuck wrote: »

I've got a couple of options I'm mulling over, still very early days, but you could nearly get tied up in knots with all the potential options in France!

You could, yeah! I have it easy - I work short-term contracts in different parts of the country and get to sample it all! (Well, not all - haven't yet got myself a gig in the SW; maybe this year ... )

On that basis, I would say that all the best places in France are off the beaten track. Same way as all the best nightlife happens after midnight in some tiny village that doesn't feature in any tourist brochure.

Strumms

CelticRambler wrote: »

Not the OP but have spent some time in that region. Would agree that Aix and Cassis are worth seeing, but probably for no more than a day each. Nice is nice :rolleyes: - a balanced mix of touristy and "authentic".

Saint Tropez is (imo) a dump. Monaco/Montecarlo is about as exciting as Dún Laoghaire on a wet Wednesday, but maybe worth half an hour of your time if you want to see an impressive number of rich eejits driving badly in Ferraris.

Marseille is "gritty" but more authentically south-of-France for that reason.

If you have transport, the coast road D559 from Borme-Les-Mimosas/Le Lavandou to the Saint Tropez roundabout is lovely - lots of little bays and a gorgeous red sandstone (if you're into rocks!). The road from Saint-Tropez to Nice is very built up.

St Tropez is indeed a fûcking Kip.... don’t bother despite what you might have heard...

I’d disagree a little about Monaco it worth a few hours, the museum of Oceanography is a MUST , Villefranche, St Paul De Vance are must visits too.

CelticRambler

Strumms wrote: »

St Tropez is indeed a fûcking Kip.... don’t bother despite what you might have heard...

I’d disagree a little about Monaco it worth a few hours, the museum of Oceanography is a MUST , Villefranche, St Paul De Vance are must visits too.

Dûn Laoghaire has a good maritime museum too, and a cool library! :cool:

Seaside holidays don't really interest me unless it's proper sea (like the Atlantic - not the Mediterranean Puddle ) so I recognise that I'm somewhat biased, and I find that most sea-front tourist destinations end up being pretty much the same as one another, especially as they get better known and more instagrammed.

Cassis would be an example - hyped by the tourist industry, but there's nothing there but carefully manicured chocoloate-boxy bars and restaurants and a rich-people's marina; La Ciotat is bigger and less twee, but has more substance to it (little details, e.g. connections to the Lumière Brothers, founders of modern cinematography). In the other direction, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer is a dull enough little seaside town, but makes a good base for walks or bike-rides into the Camargue (and is also the supposed port of arrival of Mary Magdalene in France)

As mentioned above, there's a huge length of the Côte d'Azur that's become an uninterruped (sub)urban sprawl and a waste of hired-car-miles. Some of the coast road detours (like the D559) are worth the extra time, but you get a much better view of "real France" by turning inland, keeping off the autoroutes (tell your GPS/google to avoid tolls ) and visiting towns like
Brignoles (crazy vertical gnome garden in someone's town house),
Entrevaux (visit the castle for some good cardio),
Gordes (a real-life Gondor, if you're into Lord of the Rings),
Roussillon (home of the pigment ochre, if you're into painting),
Gorges du Verdon (start at Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and take the southern route via Aiguines, direction Trigance, for a real middle-of-nowhere experience

The downside with any/all of these places is that they don't cater for tourists - so lunch is 12-2 and don't bother asking for anything at 2.30! Oh, and the shops (and most restaurants) will be closed during the in-term school holidays :rolleyes:.