Provence, near Nice
 

Staying in St. Remy for 3 nights in October, will be driving from Portofino. Any recommendations for a town more or less midway between the two? I'd prefer not to stay in Nice. Vence or St. Paul?
Thanks

Sorry, forgot to mention, have 3 nights to stay before leaving for St. Remy. Small village with good choice of restaurants/hotels would be great.

Small villages do not have good choices of restaurants and hotels, in fact, really small ones don't have any hotels. St Remy, for example, is not a small village.

There is Antibes, which is def. smaller than Nice, but it's not a village. It is probably about half way (as is Cannes). Antibes would have a good choice of restaurants and hotels. Of course, the entire route could easily be done in a day, probably only about 6 hours.

I'd suggest Mougins, just a bit north of Cannes. It is known for gastronomy (Ducasse had a restaurant there). It's not exactly a small village, though, but I just don't think you'll get anything that great in a small village. I don't even know if they have any hotels in Mougins to speak of, but you can check. HEre is some info
http://www.beyond.fr/villages/mougins.html

Vence or St Paul would be good choices - both with several restaurant choices and a few hotels. So would Tourrettes sur Loup - which is just as interesting as St Paul, but less touristy.


Stu Dudley

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm going along with Stu's recommendation for St. Paul.

St Paul is VERY touristy. Between 9 and 5 (at least in summer) it is wall to wall people, so not very enjoyable to walk around. Lovely before 9 am though, and it is a beautiful village. But very upscale, so it would be like staying at a resort, not a real Italian village. Vence, which is larger is wonderful an a lot less touristy. And Tourrettes sur Loup probably the best of all, it's just as gorgeous as St Paul but WAY less touristy.

Here are my pic of all three of those towns - http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/cote...s_haute_cagnes

St Paul should see fewer tourists in October. We've stayed near there for 4 weeks in June in the early 2000s, and were also there on a day-trip from Nice in the second week of June this year. We got to St Psul around 9:30 and it was not that crowded. By 10:30, however, it was a different story. Just like any popular "small" destination in France or Europe - start the visit by 9:00am or after 5:00pm.

Stu Dudley

Since I'll be there 3rd week of October, hopefully the crowds will have eased up. Hotel Le St. Paul looks like a great place to stay, a Relais Chateaux property.