my husband and i are leaving saturday for a quick week in the cannes area (staying at the noga hilton on free points). if you had to choose 3 favorite sights, towns, museums, whatever, within driving distance, what would they be? don't feel limited to just 3, but we won't have time for a whole lot more than that! thanks!!

to the top...any replies???

Hello Jan,
I love this part of France last summer, I took weekend trips from Lyon to St. Raphael, St. Tropez, Antibes, Nice and Monaco.

My most favorite weekend by far was in St. Raphael. This town is so alive at night and I loved the people watching. From here St. Tropez is only a 30-45 boat ride away. The glitz and glamour of St. Tropez are like no other, with fabulous scenery, seaside cafes, numourous boutiques, markets. However, if you go there for the beaches, you must walk or drive a while out of the town center.

I am not sure how far St. Rapheal is driving from Cannes, but I can't imagine it is more than an hour away.

Take note however that these places will be pretty crowded from what I remember, but that is all just part of the experience. If you have time to go up to the other side of Cannes towards Nice and Monaco, I would recommend that as well. The beaches are really rocky and you need a mat to lay out!

I wish you luck!

JanT,

consider Antibes ( lovely Picasso's pottery museum over there, in an interesting medieval building with sea views), Biot, its glass factories and museum, Grasse, the
old town and perfume factories, St. Paul de Vence and Tourettes sur Loup. two lovely perched villages are all doable from Cannes.

Enjoy your trip.

Regards,

S

Thank you, Cate22 and Surlok, for the great suggestions. Of course we have been looking at the guidebooks and maps and all those places have come to mind. It always helps, though, to hear from people who have actually been there and experienced it! All will be considered as we map out an itinerary. Any other thoughts from others who have been??

Hi Jan,

My vote is for the Estoril drive; Biot but not the glass factory - the old town - much more interesting, have lunch at Hotel des Arcades; Tourettes-sur-Loup with the artisans shops along the old walls of the town.

adrienne

Take a look in your guidebooks at the coastal area from Eze down to Nice...Beraulieu sur Mer, St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Villefrance sur Mer.

Thank you, Adrienne! Great suggestions!

jan

Jan there are so many wonderful places it really is hard to choose. Since I often stay in St Paul de Vence, it's one of my favorites. It sits perched in the hills above Cagnes sur Mer, about 20-30 mins east of Cannes (and just above Tourettes sur Loup). It's a medieval walled village with lots of charm, but unfortunately that charm also brings lots of tourists. (Just trying to give you the pros & cons).

The famous restaurant/Inn La Colombe D'Or sits just outside the walled village. So my recommendation would be (assuming you'll have a car), drive east from Cannes to Biot. Have a look at the glass factory and then go up to the old town as Surlok & Adrienne suggest. I would then continue on to St Paul. If you can get a reservation at the Colombe D'Or for lunch, do go. It's an unbelievable place. If not, at least go for a drink at their bar & have a look around at the pool area & the paintings in their dining room (Matisse etc.) Have a walk around the village and walk down to the Maeght Fondation-a lovely museum just below town. Then continue back down to Tourettes sur Loup as Adrienne mentions.

My other favorite place is the Ephrussie Villa in Cap Ferrat built by the Rothschilds. Great gardens & a wonderful view. Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu is very near there too.

My 3rd choice would be a visit to the Picasso museum in Antibes with a stop at the Hotel Belle Reve (which was F Scott Fitzgerald's villa)in Juan les Pins for drinks or a meal on their terrace.

While St Tropez is wonderful, it is quite a drive, even from Cannes, & the roads will be packed. While the mileage might suggest an hour from St Raphael as Cate surmised, the traffic can make it quite a bit more. A boat would probably be better but then without a car, as Cate says, you can't get to the beach from the port area where all the shops & restaurants are (& where I believe the boat would drop you off.)

While in Cannes, don't miss exploring the secret alleys of Le Suquet with all the restaurants (the Duke of Windsor is reputed to have escaped his body guards to have a quiet meal here). And do try to go up to Super Cannes for the view. Have a great time.

Thank you, mclaurie! Those are enormously helpful suggestions and just what I was hoping for when I posted. Thank you to all who have replied! As I said earlier, there's nothing like actually having someone who's been there and found all those little gems to share. Thanks again!

Also, RonZ, I'm intrigued by the area you mentioned. We do plan a day into Monaco (it would seem wrong not to at least go see it!), so we may plan to at least drive around the area you suggested. Thanks!

Just got back from this area. We stayed in Tourettes sur loop - and loved it. If you want to shop, stop in the old part of Vence (not St. Paul de Vence) - where we found the best prices on table clothes, pottery. St. Paul de Vence is nice, but I find it very touristy and very crowded. Personally, I'd skip it and do TSL and Vence in place. The Maeght foundation is OK if you are into modern art. But with my family (3 generations) - we would have prefered to skip it. It reminded us of the Emperor's new clothes - lots of people with smart looks on their face looking at very ugly art.

We were in that area this past Easter and fell in love with Villefranche Sur Mer. We stayed in Cap D'Antibes and enjoyed it as well. Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu (thought it was Cap Ferrat?) is a fantastic example of the wealth that has lived there through the years, and the home doesn't take that long to tour. We didn't take the time to head up to the perched villages, but I hear they are fantastic - next time for us perhaps.

Have a great trip!

JanT, you have some wonderful suggestions here and I only want to add that you should by no means skip St Paul de Vence because it is so touristy [and it is!], but you should go in the very late afternoon or evening after the tour buses have departed and experience what drew all the tourists there in the first place!

Villa Kerylos is in Bealieu sur Mer, by the way. For a very nice alfresco lunch the Hotel Metropole is a few steps away.

We like to stay in St Paul de Vence the night before taking a flight out of Nice.

A nice destination for lunch is St Agnes above Menton. It is the highest coastal village in Europe.

You have all been wonderful with your suggestions. Thank you immensely! I am getting psyched!

I enjoyed the boat trip from the port to Ile Ste Margarite where the man in the iron mask was imprisoned. Ile St. Honorat might also be interesting. We enjoyed it just for a peaceful day without a lot of driving.

My must-see in the area:

Chagall Musuem (if you love Chagall) and Negresco Hotel (eat in La Rotonde - food is good and the merry-go-round decor is a sight to behold...actually the interior of Negresco is a sight to behold) in Nice.

La Colombe d'Or in St. Paul de Vence but book early. Very hard to get a table. St. Paul is charming even if tourist-y. I suggest going later in the day when the tour buses have left.

Eze...the town on the cliff has character and charm. If you can afford, have lunch in Chevre d'Or. View from the restaurant is perfect with a pink champagne on hand.

Jan, since you say you're planning to go to Monaco, I'll suggest you consider going by train instead of driving (assuming you're not going to stop along the way).

The local train runs quite frequently along the coast. The views are fabulous & you avoid the heavy traffic along the coast road. Just a thought.

Have a superb time!

Just thought you all might like to know we are back, and had a GREAT time! Here's a quick rundown of our doings while there, as well as impressions.

Of course, it was beautiful, as expected, but I must say, way too overcrowded for our taste. Had it not been for the fact that we had free points to stay at the Noga Hilton in Cannes (which was very nice, BTW), we never would have opted for Cannes as a base for our stay. We're much more inclined to stay at a quaint little spot in a village. This is just to let you know our mindset. But Cannes was certainly interesting! The people watching aspect of it almost made the daily fight with the traffic worthwhile! And we had some great meals, just all VERY expensive. Didn't help that the dollar value is so low right now.

Basically, we got the heck out of Dodge every day. First day we went into the Vence area, all the way around it (our favorite perched village visits that day were to St. Jeannet, le Broc and Bouyon), and ended up in St. Paul at the end of the day for dinner. We did not make a reservation for La Colombe d'Or, but lucked into a very nice waiter who seated us without one(we were about 20 minutes early for dinner, which I'm sure helped the luck factor), and celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in style...fabulous meal!

Next day we drove the Esterel all the way to Frejus where we saw some interesting Roman ruins and had a drink. Nice town. Although the drive had some beautiful spots, it was waaay too crowded with people and auto traffic for our taste. So the next day we hit the road towards Provence. We were going to go to Aix but decided against it. We went on to Orange instead. There are two fabulous Roman ruins there, if that interests you (which it does us), and we enjoyed that immensely. Not a pretty town, but it was worth the trip for the ruins. I must say, we were not particularly impressed with the countryside after all we'd heard about the beauty of Provence. We agreed that Tuscany has it all over Provence, no matter the time of year. Tuscany just seems to have more charm.

Then we hit the road for a day in the mountains above Monaco (which we opted to skip) at the Italian border. This was probably our favorite part of the trip. The villages of Breil-sur-Roya (fabulous), Fontan, and La Brigue were intriging as well as beautiful. They're remote enough to be untouched for the most part. And what territory! It made for a great (if hair-raising) auto ride! The church of Notre-Dame-des-Fontaines was one of the highlights of our trip.

Last day we spent driving through Juan-les-Pins and Antibes (where we had a great lunch), a stop at the Picasso museum in Vallauris, then on to the Molinard factory in Grasse (which could certainly be better marked with direction signs), picked up some souvenirs and a little something for moi, and had wonderful service in their shop (we skipped the tour).

All in all, a great trip. And thank you to all the postings here. We incorporated bits and pieces of your offerings, and it was very helpful. Thank you all again!

Jan...can you tell us more about the church of Notre-Dame-des-Fontaines and the drive up there? The route you took and how much driving time? Also how hair raising?