dsevig

We enjoyed our 7th trip to France 10/20 to 11/6. The weather stayed nice with only 3 days of rain. I am just doing highlights for your review. We flew into Paris from Tampa and used the TGV to get to Draguignan and back quite cheaply and in comfort. AutoEurope for a nice small car rental. Around Nice, we used the great bus system to leave the car at home to get into Nice and Monaco. I could easily see how a "car less" vacation could be done out of Nice with the bus and trains into all of SE France.

Lodging - 2 great gites www.les-trois-baous.com near St. Jeannet just north of Nice and www.la.bastide-des-muriers.com near Draguignan. Very nice accomodations within easy travel of the many sites in East Provence.

We allowed 3 days at the end for Paris and used www.paris-rent.fr for a studio. Small is the word but a great location and host.

There are many sources of info for touring the area to the great small hill towns, Nice etc so I won't touch on any towns but I would HIGHLY SUGGEST a side trip to the 4 hill towns north of Ventigmia Italy. What medieval villages these are. Spectacular.
I'd suggest you visit Kevin Hin's nice blog on the Nice area french-riviera-blog for some great advise for Nice and surrounding area.

RESTUARANTS we enjoyed:

La Table d'Yves - Fayence - 29E plat du jour to start - great value
l'Escapade - Antibes- very reasonable sea food etc
Safari - Nice by Cours Saleya - fun spot - reasonable
Le Logis du Guetteur- Les Arc - upscale but reasonable - 31E Plat - terrific
Chez Hugo - Seillans - 2 mo's old but terrific
La Pesguiere - St. Tropez Near square with several other resturants. Huge menu, reasonable and great views
La Salle Marger - Flayosc - Dutch couple - fabulous 59E lunch for two.
La Farigoulette - Tourtour. good value provencal menu
REED - Paris - recently opened by Canadian lady who was a private chef for 20 years in Paris - limited menu - seemed like slow cooking with Osso Buco and Cow Cheeks etc but was very good . $100 with bottle of wine for 2
FISH - La Boisonnerie - wine bar- restuarant - terrific value I think and very well done. $100 with nice bottle of Macon wine.

That's about it. A very enjoyable trip but the SE of France didn't seem to have the excitement of the other regions. Maybe a bit too build up around the villages maybe. But still We would return for maybe a carless vacation in Nice. Again only very friendly and helpful people we found to help us.

LOVE THE FRENCH!!!!!!!

annw

Thanks for the report -- will check out that Nice blog too!

dsevig

thank you - I have written a more detailed description of the gites in SlowTrav

I believe I did not type up the Muriers gite web site correctly - try WWW.la-bastide-de-muriers.com

I booked them through Gites de France which really workw well for easy payments and paperwork

dsevig

still not working right for Muriers

The Gites de France reference is g1915 for Muriers and 7245 for Baous!

Curiousaboutit

Thank you dsevig for your succinct report. I would like to read the Kevin Hin blog yet no matter how I attempt to retrieve it, no luck. I entered his name, I entered the blog name, I did searches, and nope. I now request your assistance, please.

My husband and I have rented an apartment on the water in Antibes for 7 nights the last week of June. We are looking forward to visiting some of your selections.

dsevig

using google entering either "kevin Hin" or "french riviera blog" will come up with the site in my search - hope this helps

we thought Antibes was very nice with its market and musees.

dsevig

http://french-riviera-blog.com/categ...out-this-blog/ - I copied and pasted the address

Curiousaboutit

Thank you oh so very much for the web site. I will delve into it this afternoon.

annw

Yes I got through this url

http://french-riviera-blog.com/categ...-riviera/nice/