Has anyone been to Villafranche sur mer? We are disembarking one day at Cannes and need to figure the best place to spend the day. We have already been to St. Paul de Vence, but not to Monaco, and I don't remember seeing anything great to do in Cannes itself. But feel free to enlighten me!

Have you spent any time in Nice? That would be a great place to spend the day--much to do and see.

I got cut off.

Right next to Villefranche is St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, a beautiful, wooded peninsula filled with elegant houses of the rich and famous. Also there is the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a mansion with a fine collection of objets d'art, furniture, carpets, and so on. There are seven gardens done in different styles.

You can get to St-Jean by train from Villefranche, I believe.

St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat has no train station. From Villefranche-S.M. it's about 20-minute walk to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. Or the following is what we did last October when we were staying in Nice.

Nice-Ville > Bealieu-Sur-Mer by train.
Walked for 5 minutes to visit Greek villa Kérylos (bought a combination ticket to visit both villas here) > then made a plesant walk along the sea shore and a bit of uphill, altogether 20 minutes to get to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. There we had a simple but nice salad lunch with a breathtaking view of Villefranche bay underneath.

http://www.villa-ephrussi.com/ephrussi/home_en.htm

http://www.villa-ephrussi.com/kerylos/uk_index.htm

I just toured those gardens a little over a week ago. One of the things I enjoyed most was the view out over the water from their hilltop location. Our hotel had a water view also but toward a different direction. Caveat: if you are driving, it was a confusing area for a first timer to get out of.