We were in that area just a month ago and stayed outside of lovely St. Paul de Vence. You may find my pictures of the villages a good preview of what you will see http://www.janeandken.com/FRANCE/Riviera.html We found that we enjoyed the hill towns much more than the coast. You are right in that you can visit several in one day but I think you need a full day for Nice as it will take you a while just to find your way around if you are driving. The flower market area is really nice as is the rest of Old Nice and walking the Promenade. You have not mentioned St. Jeannet which is a neat little village above Vence. Gourdon is charming. I have some driving itineraries that are freely shared by a man on the AOL board. We found them to be wonderful and used them extensively. If you are interested in them, I will send them to you. My e-mail address is on my website (above.)

One semi-final thought: you could take a day's drive over to and back from Grasse to Moustiers-Ste-Marie, once of the most delightful villages in all Provence. The route takes you along the Route Napoléon, where his army marched en route to Paris, and has incredible scenery. The village itself is known for its beautifully painted faince; you can choose from any number of designs and even visit the local faience museum. Either going or coming you could make a stop in the mountain town of Castelanne.

I THINK we finally have a tenative itinerary which makes sense. Again, St. Tropez is still under discussion, but - in no particular order of days - this is what we have decided.

1) St. Tropez/Ramautelle/Gassin
2) Frejus (we are unsure on this one - thoughts??)/Old Town of Cannes (Le Suquet)/Antibes
3) Grasse/Mougins
4) Vence/St. Paul de Vence/Tourrettes
5) Biot/Vallauris
6) Cagnes sur Mer (Haut Cagnes only - the old section)/Nice
7) Eze Village/Roqueburn/Menton
8) Villefrance/St. Jean Cap Ferrat

We were thinking also IF we decide to keep day one, it might be better to drive from Nice airport, and spend the night there, then get up early for the market, and sightsee after, then drive to our hotel in St. Paul for the rest of the stay.

Would like opinions of our base. We are pretty set that we want to base in St. Paul de Vence, as Le Saint Paul.

I have read reports from other people, though, that this is not the easiest place to get in and out of.

Other bases we would consider are Mougins (the old town) and Grasse. We have found 2 hotels that we really like in each of those towns as well.

Can anyone comment on location (given what we want to see and assuming we do not overnight in St. Tropez), as well as perhaps more importantly ambience.

We like to get up, have breakfast, go out all day to sightsee, and then come back to our hotel at night and have a leisurely dinner, walk around, etc. We do not like driving at night. Would rather be able to walk to restaurants, although each of the hotels we are looking at has a very nice restaurant as well.

I have stayed at the St. Paul in St-Paul-de-Vence. Once you get in, it is fine.....a small narrow road winds around to a large parking lot and you go up to the hotel and they will go down to the parking lot and get your luggage. From then on it is pretty easy, and you do have parking!

We had the upper suite with outside patio. Nice people.

It is a convenient location for wherever you want to go.

decisions, decisions.........

Friend Joan likes Le St.-Paul, another friend does not.... We usually stay at Le Hameau, a small and charming 3* hotel St.-Paul. But Mougins would also be a lovely place to stay, as would Valbonne. There is a very pretty new hotel there, La Bastide de Valbonne, where we're booked next September. You might even want to think about a night or two at Le St.-Paul for the time your itinerary takes you to Nice and eastwards and then a different hotel on the Mougins side for another few nights.

Underhill -
What is it that your other friend does not like about Le St. Paul?

Thanks for your suggestions. I was thinking also of maybe splitting time 4 nights/4nights.

Wanderer:

I stayed for two nights in St. Paul. While it is an interesting challenge to negotiate the narrow streets to get the hotel, if I can do it, anyone can`:) There are a few parking spaces outside your hotel (usually full) and then a large carpark a two minute walk away. The hotel will provide you with a pass that opens the security gate in the old town.

Would I stay there for the entire visit - probably not. The village is small and if you plan to eat locally each night, you might run out of options. The hotel restaurant is wonderful, but I would find the food too rich to eat there every night and it would be a tad expensive. Personally, I would limit my stay in St. Paul to 3-4 nights and then move to another location in a larger town for the remainder of the trip and I would organize my trips accordingly.

I am considering Menton (Aiglon or Prince de Galles) or Villefranch sur Mer (Welcome hotel) for my retun visit.

regards ....Ger

My response was only to the request for information re getting to it, that had been worrisome. I answered that, and then my thoughts re the hotel itself. How long one wishes to stay in one place is their choice. I believe we were there 4 or 5 nights to be able to travel the area for all the places that we wanted to go. We dined all over the area, Roger Verge's Moulin de Mougins, Le St. Paul and many other reknowned places in the area. We found the location to be pretty centrally located, as other a number of other places, such as Hameau. A matter of choice.

Wanderer,

My friend was traveling with her elderly mother, and they were treated badly in the restaurant. If you have a man in your group, things might be different! They also thought their room was less good and more expensive than at other Relais et Châteaux hotels at which they stayed on the same trip. These are people who have made many trips to France, and I rely on their judgement for my own selections.

I agree with the person above that staying more than a few days in St.-Paul might leave you with few dining options. Also, the restaurants tend to be packed in the early evening; so be sure to reserve whenever possible.

Underhill, could you post some restaurant recommendations for the area. We will be at Le Hameau (2nd time) for four nights in July then on to a villa in Vence for one week, thanks.

Wanderer, thanks to you too for posting this thread which has been helpful in refining our itinerary. For beautiful linens, check out La Poterie du Peyra - Place du Peyra - in Vence (around the corner from the fountain).

Have a terrific trip, Maureen

Thanks to all for excellent suggestions and bringing to my attention places I was not aware of - Valbonne, etc.

I am wondering if this makes sense -
staying 4 nights in St. Paul de Vence at Le St. Paul, and then 4 nights at either Les Muscadins in Mougins, or at Bastide Saint Antoine in Grasse.

I know that St. Paul and Mougins/Grasse are not that far apart, and it would make more sense to stay in Eze/Cannes, but we cannot afford Eze or environs, and really like St. Paul. We looked into Cannes and could not find anything - it is not our taste, and a nice place - Le Yacca - St. Tropez - is just too far.

We thought we'd use St. Paul for St. Paul, Vence, Cagnes sur Mer, Nice, Eze, St. Jean Cap Ferrat, Villefrance, Roqueburn and Menton, and then use Les Muscadins (or Bastide Saint Antoine) for Grasse, Mougins, Biot, Valluris, Antibes, Cannes, Frejus, Ramautelle, and St. Tropez.

If this makes sense (logistics-wise) it may be a tough sell, as my husband wants to stay put in one place. I also cannot find anything (reviews in Michelin or elsewhere) on these 2 hotels, but have seen both different places and web sites look amazing. I'm not sure how much there is to do in Grasse or Mougins though. Les Muscadins is right in the old section of Mougins, and Bastide Saint Antoine is outside (just below) old center of Grasse (which I get the impression no one likes - what is the matter with Grasse??)

I think we FINALLY have a workable itinerary. We based alot on market days, as we love antiques and markets.

We also decided on June rather than May due to all the Holidays in May as well as Cannes, and Grand Prix.

Here's our plan - open to comments...

Sunday, 6/5 - Fly into Nice from Boston. Check into La Perouse, and wander around. Nice has a market that day.

Monday, 6/6 - Go to Cannes (drive or train?) for their market, wander around old quarter, then back to Nice for their all-day market. Dinner in Nice. Either spend another night in Nice or drive to St. Paul and check in at Le St. Paul.

Tuesday - 6/7 - Drive to St. Paul if did not check in 6/6, then see Vallauris and Mougins with dinner in Mougins.

Wednesday, 6/8 - Grasse (market), Vence (market), and St. Paul - dinner in St. Paul.

Thursday, 6/9 - Antibes (market), Biot, and Cap d'Antibes

Friday, 6/10 - Villefranche, St. Jean Cap Ferrat, Beaulieu Sur Mer

Saturday, 6/11 - Eze, Monaco (market in PM)

Sunday, 6/12 - Menton (market), Roquebrune

Monday, 6/13 - Cagnes sur Mer and Haute de Cagnes. If there is time, drive up to Gourdon and Tourettes.

Tuesday, 6/14 - Travel Day - Fly home from Nice.

We have included just the main towns we want to see. We will try to fit in other smaller towns people have mentioned - Valbonne, etc. as we are able. We want to remain flexible. We sadly agreed to cut St. Tropez for this trip - too rushed trying to fit it all in.

Are there are places we should take the train rather than drive? Is one night in Nice enough, or should we spend both Sunday and Monday night? Restaurant recommendations welcome also.

Thanks to everyone!

Your itinerary looks good--two nights in Nice after your arrival would give you more time to get the lay of the land, however.

Two other comments: there's a market every day (except Sunday, I think) in Nice. Try to get to Antibes early in the morning--what we did is drive down and have breakfast there near the port, where you have the best chance to find parking. You can easily walk up to the market from the port area, and the Picasso museum is also near at hand. Downtown Antibes has some interesting shops and pleasant cafés, although our favorite fabric store was gone last May.

i've heard great things about St Antoine.
One of our postes, ron, whose taste I trust stayed there and loved it.
Last year, the New York Times had an article with pictures raving about the
the place. We liked staying in St-Paul-de-Vence(Colombe DÓr)There's a petanque field across from the hotel and a cafe there so you can sit and watch the locals play.

Nice itinerary. Cagnes sur Mer will take you all of two minutes to see (if you want to spend that much time there); just go to Haute Cagnes. This is really quite small, so plenty of time to fit in another village on that day.

Point to note, often on Monday, lots of places are closed or open late in the day. Because most places stay open Sat and Sun, Monday seems to be their day of rest.

Also check scheduled for Museums, as many close on Tues. But since you are traveling in June, some places might already be on their summer schedules, while others might not be.

A good current guidebook should have these schedules. Otherwise the itinerary looks good.

Underhill - were you thinking Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights, or Sunday and Monday for Nice?

Where can I get train schedules?

Sunday and Monday at least; adding Tuesday would give you time to explore toward the east.

Train schedules can be found at the SNCF (French railroads) site:

http://www.sncf.com/indexe.htm

About Cagnes-sur-Mer: it's basically a mini-resort town and not of any special interest. We didn't find all that much in Haut de Cagnes either, except for the Renoir Museum in the hills above. There are much more interesting villages elsewhere, such as Vence and Mougins, with considerably easier parking as well

Don't rule out a drive to Monaco and back over the Moyen Corniche. You can just turn around in Monaco and come straight back, having seen some beautiful scenery on the way to and fro.

How do you feel about museums?

Underhill, the Renoir was a disappointment better to visit the Maeght in ST-Paul-De-Vence, and Nice the Matisse , Chagall and Peynet.
Picasso In Antibes.