7 days flew past as explored around France again. We landed in Paris and set off to explore the southern (more Italian influenced) part of the country. We saw many interesting sights while trying to relax and enjoy the culture. Here is a breakdown of the day-by-day events. Also, there is the video of all the “live photos” captured and smushed together..
- Wednesday
- Arrived at 10am in France, which is 4am Eastern.
- We took the train from the airport to our hotel near Gare du Lyon. Luckily, we were able to checkin early and didn’t have to lug our bags around Paris. Grabbed a quick lunch from Monoprix and ate outside the Gare du Lyon, then took the metro over to the Catacombs for a 2pm tour.
- Once we popped out of the metro, we saw a line for the Catacombs and stood in it. Once we were in with our audio guide, it was down 100+ steps to the start of the tour. We learned about the history, why there were limestone tunnels under the city and why eventually, they ended up filled with bones.
- After the catacombs, we trained to Place de la Republique which was all under construction and didn’t have many cafes. We found Cafe Popular, in hopes of eating some food, but when they took our drink order then stole our menu, we realized that we needed to find somewhere else to eat.
- Back near the Gare du Lyon, we found some non-stop cafe’s – where they serve food outside of noon-2pm and 7-10pm. It was just sandwiches and omelettes but that was all we needed.
- Thursday
- We woke up early to take the inOUI train to Avignon. We had a bit of confusion finding the right train once we got onto the platform, but we found it! The train left at 6:16am, so it was dark for much of the journey.
- Once in Avignon, we picked up the rental car (a Fiat Panda) and were on our way, circle after circle. The parking lot introduced us quickly to dead animals… perhaps the plague was back. The rest of the town was a pretty Roman-walled city where a pope once lived. We followed a quick walking tour from the book and went on our way.
- We opted for the toll-free route through Manosque and many other small towns and farms. After passing so many apple trees, we figured we should eat some, so we stopped at a roadside fruit stand and got apples, a pear and a plum. In Manosque, we were low on energy and napped at a shady (because of trees) McDonalds parking lot where we also ate some fries.
- After Manosque, the land turned into olive trees and lavender fields. All the lavender was already harvested unfortunately.
- Old Country roads of France
- The first official stop was Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a small town that was built into the side of a cliff, with a church way up on the hillside. Our plans to hike to the church quickly changed when the parking lot machine only accepted coins – and we just had a few cents in euros. We decided to risk it and walk quickly up the sloping, rocky, slippery path. On our way back down, we saw a police car at the parking lot and high tailed our way out of there.
- Since we hadn’t made it to the town yet, we grabbed some free parking on the hill and decided that it was too hot. So Alexis changed clothes under an olive tree on the side of the road.
- Once in the town, we walked around, found a lot of lavender, olive oil, crepes and a cat – who really wanted inside.
- Moustiers-Sainte-Marie is at the entrance to the loop on the north side of the Verdon Gorge, so we continued on our way. We took a few picture stops – including one overlooking Lac St Croix where we could see all the canoers and kayakers.
- The next town was la Palud-sur-Verdon, where our reservations were. We checked in, explored the gorge a bit more, then came back to the hotel for dinner. Coq au vin and butternut squash soup were the special – so we tried both, along with some pasta and le Biere du Gorge beers.
- Friday
- River kayak with Autur
- Jumped off rocks and paddled class 3 rapids
- Hike and carried the kayak out of gorge
- Rode back to car with French Black Lab, he didn’t speak english “le woof”‘
- Drove to Nice, French balcony roads , tunnels and helicopter rescues through the Loop Gorge
- St. Paul de Vence – old walled city, crepes coffee and Diabalo drink
- Nice’s Promenade d’Anglais Stayed at the “Le Meurice hotel”
- Walked around old town Tons of restaurant tucked away in the streets
- Dinner with mussels and pasta at“le clocher”
- Night time Gelato in the streets
- Saturday
- Morning electric bike tour with Frenchman Kent
- From Nice, to Villafranche, to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and back
- Stops for drinks, saw castles and billion dollar views. 5 of 6 bikes broke
- Total mileage end up being 22 miles
- Lunch at the Fat Mermaid,
- Some Beach swimming
- Pebble beaches, stumbled down the rocks, Topless beach, Alexis butt scooted out of the sea
- Train in to Monaco
- Stepped out into another world
- Rich car parades around the Casino
- We ate gelato and people watched
- Dinner of pasta and drinks with street tumblers over fire
- Sunday
- Took the Turnpike to Saint-Tropez
- Stop at Port Grimaud for Boat tour, town was like small Venice
- Saw super yatch like “Clifford 2”
- Opera signers in bar
- Big boats
- “Black sails”‘ sailboat
- Spent time down on the Pampelonne Beach, more toplessness
- We were able to map ourselves to “AiX” without internet
- Self-guided tour of old Aix.
- Roman city mixed with gothic and baroque (Book tour)
- Loud night in the streets
- Monday
- Stopped briefly in Arles
- Saw Roman theater and Roman Arena in a broken state
- Then walked around Nîmes, tour of maison caree (with impressive video), Self Guide Arena tour
- Hot out, lunch near arena
- Drove to Pont du Gard, 3 tier Roman aqueduct
- Hike around the park, saw a very impressive instructional museum about the aqueduct and construction.
- Got to Avignon train station.
- Realized I flew out in 2 days not 1.
- Scrambled to book hotel on the train, since couldn’t stay with Alexis in her Airbnb.
- A fashion event was occurring and all the hotels were booked up
- Dinner at the European Restaurant, Busy place saw escorts and ignorant tourists
- Tuesday
- Spilt-up with Alexis
- She did food tour, I went to army museum
- Walked to Notre Dame
- Met Alexis, Had some happy hour drinks near St Michel fountain
- Walked back to hotel, Uber Eats and got pizza
- Walked Alexis to airnbnb Bed and pizza
- Stayed at Hotel Magenta
- Wednesday
- Started journey back to airport
- Metro to Gard du Nord, almost got on the wrong train.
- Flight back to Detroit
- Left Alexis to explore more of Paris
- Jeff Dunbar picked me up from the Airport and I crashed in my bed immediately.
