Off-the-Beaten-Path St Tropez to Cassis
 

We (two couples) will be visiting for one week (end of June) between St Tropez and Cassis and are looking for a B&B that is somewhat centrally located (more toward the east, like Le Lavandou area is also fine).

It does not have to be on the beach, as we will be touring most of the day anyway. Our emphasis will be on wine tasting with visits to towns/villages along the way. Shopping is the lowest on the priority list.

I've done a lot of searches but I think the Fodor community is my best bet for recommendations :-) Thanks in advance for any assistance. Happy New Year!

If you will be there for a week, why don't you rent a Gite instead of staying in a B&B. We've made 2 trips for 2 weeks each and stayed in a Gite near Cotignac - which is a bit inland from the area you are interested in. Lots of vineyards & "cute little villages", farmer's markets, etc. The gite we stayed in had 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, LR/DR, kitchen, washing machine/dishwasher, and a private pool. Surrounded by vineyards and a fabulous view. We went to farmer's markets and "cooked in" about 40% of the time. We've rented 65 gites in France for a total of 103 weeks. I won't disclose specifics about the gite near Cotignac - we're planning on returning there soon & I don't want to encourage any more competition for it - plus it is already booked for the end of June (as are most gites in this region). Here is some info about renting gites through Gites-de-France.

Keep the language on French. If you change it to English, you'll only retrieve Gites that have English translations - with is about 60% of the total number of Gites available.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-web-site.cfm

BTW, I've tried to find a place to "base" between St Tropez & Cassis - but I have not found any place that seemed interesting. We've visited Bandol, and the winegrowing area was nice, but the town & port turned us off.

Stu Dudley

I'll second the suggestion of Cotignac. Charming little village with lots to see and do, including lots of wine. My friends stayed there for 7 weeks this summer and I visited them for a week. We can't stop talking about how much we enjoyed it.

Here's a link to my blog post about my visit there: http://www.parisonadime.com/blog/201...otignac-france

Thanks, Stu, for sending me your Provence itinerary and for the tips above. And I will definitely check out Cotignac.

We were not looking at Gites because nobody wanted to do any cooking, but that certainly could be an alternative.

You don't have to cook in a gite just like you don't have to cook at home. We often just have a rotisserie chicken for dinner that we picked up at a local grocery or a farmer's market. Or just a salad. A gite gives you much more room to "spread out".

Stu Dudley

You could base yourself in Grimaud.
It is close to le Lavandou but a little bit in the hills.
Some activities, restaurants (maybe shops, not so sure) - 5 min from the sea. Nice atmosphere.

If not lots of houses for rent in the region - some friends hired in le Rayol for example, also up in the hills.

End of june means no congestion (yet - it starts on 14 of july) on the roads - you are close to the route du littoral (is it N98 ?) easy access and very nice views when you leave and come back.