[raveesh_k]

50 Shades of Blue: The French Riviera (Cote d'Azur) Travelogue

Dear friends, at the time of writing this, I had just come back from a 9 day holiday to the south of France which is popularly known as the French Riviera or even more so as Cote d'Azur.

In addition to this travelogue, I also attempted capturing my travel experience of French Riviera in the form of a series on YouTube on my new channel - BeermanTalkies. Please do consider subscribing to the channel, if you like the content. Will only motivate me to improve from here and to follow the same format of travelogue + video series to share experience and knowledge. The video also has english subtitles, because language that I have used is a mix of hindi and english.

Background:

This side of the country is quite popular and was on our list for a long time, just that the circus that we all are a part of for the past twelve months, our plan materialised only now. Not that there were travel restrictions in Europe in the last 12 months but just that, we could not, as often as we would like to. Exactly during the same time last year, we did our summer holiday in the western side of France, in the 'Brittany' region. So keeping all the not so positive things about the pandemic aside, we will remember this period of us exploring the most beautiful destinations of France.

Now whether we drive to the south of France or take a flight and rent a car there was the first big question that we had to answer between me and my wife. Even having got both the jabs before we travelled, we still ruled out the flight option primarily due to health safety concerns and also (...largely ) because I really like to push the pedal (at least for the part of our journey in Germany, though there are serious discussions going on, to impose a 130 limit on the German autobahns - link)!

Why (/what is) French Riviera ?

The French Riviera also known as Cote d'Azur is a stunning coastline along the south of France with some beautiful cities, towns and villages on it. Since Azur (Azure in English) translates to blue, I will let the following few pictures do the talking.








What else if not for the French Riviera?

1. Perhaps, the Brittany region on the western side of France? or,
2. Amalfi region on the western side of Italy?

Having been to both the Brittany region, and also the Amalfi cost, French Riviera was a unanimous decision between me and my wife, before considering other destinations like Croatia, Portugal etc. in Europe.

Itinerary

Our itinerary was built upon a week's off from work i.e. 5 days plus 2 weekends before and after, making it a total of 9 days. While I will be sharing the details of each day later in this travelogue, a quick snapshot of our holiday was as following,

Holiday period - 13th to 22nd August 2021.

Itinerary

Day 0.5 - Dusseldorf, Germany to Dijon, France (Also covered as part of Episode 1 of my travel series)
Day 1 - Dijon, France to Volx, France (Episode 2)
Day 2 - Volx, France to Canadel-sur-Mer, France (Episode 2)
Day 3 - Monaco and Eze, France (Episode 3)
Day 4 - Nice, Antibes and Cannes (Episode 4)
Day 5, 6 - Beach day
Day 7 - Bormes and Saint Tropez, France (Episode 5)
Day 8 - Canadel-sur-Mer to Charmes, France
Day 9 - Charmes, France to Dusseldorf, Germany

Travelling cost breakup:

• Total distance travelled (back and forth): 3500 kms
• Total fuel burnt: ~300 litres
• Average cost of fuel: 1.5 euros per litre (Super E10)
• Total fuel cost: 450 euros
• Total French highway toll Cost: ~70 euros
• Total travelling cost (in your own car): ~ 520 euros
• In case you rent a car, rental cost + insurance sit on top. (Tip: While renting the car, don't buy the zero liability insurance from the rental agency because the zero liability insurance sold by the car rental companies are quite steep. Instead just take the basic insurance from the rental company, and buy a separate rental car insurance from Allianz. It will be fraction of a cost of what the rentals charge, yet giving you full peace of mind!

[raveesh_k]

Day 0.5 - Dusseldorf, Germany to Dijon, France

Since our holiday destination was approx. 1200 kms away from home, we decided to break the onward leg (and return) into two, but for that we had to choose a stopover place which was almost half way through to our final destination. After scanning the map of France in the central region, there were two places that we came to shortlist, one was Geneva and other was Dijon. After some deliberation we did rule Geneva out, primarily because we just din't want to do a stop over for one evening in a place like Geneva, which we haven't seen still. Hence we chose Dijon, which we only later realised when we were there, as to how beautiful Dijon was, and anyone can spend a couple of days easily here.

Typically a distance of 600 kms in Germany can very easily be covered in less than 6 hours given that we do not have speed limits still at many places in Germany, but because we had to go through countries like Belgium and Luxembourg where we have speed limit of 120-130 kmph, the travel time stretched a little more than 6 hours.

We arrived at Dijon, approximately at 6.30 pm local time, and since we still had 3-4 hours of daylight, we immediately set out to explore the city. As I mentioned before, Dijon turned out to be a pleasant surprise for us and it completely knocked us out of the park with its centuries old charm which is still intact, and getting even more beautiful with each passing day.

I have put my experience of travelling to Dijon and exploration of the city in the first episode of my French Riviera travel video series on YouTube.

Highlights of this leg of our journey (which you will also see in the video),

• Crossing borders of 3 countries from Germany - Belgium, Luxembourg and France: Even though we are not over with the pandemic times till today, and even more so during our travel period when in general it was Europe summer holiday time and cases were on the rise, crossing through these countries borders was ultra smooth and gives one the pleasure of driving without borders...quite literally!
• Getting to understand and deal with the French highway toll system: This could be a little stressful in the beginning primarily due to two reasons 1) the toll systems are first of a kind in Europe and, 2) the French language does not definitely make it any easier. However after getting a hang of it, it's a smooth ride. Also the good new is that, if you get stuck in any toll lane, with the press of an assistance button, you will have someone to help you with on the other side, and yes they do understand and speak english! A good guide to make you familiar with the toll system of France is https://www.goboony.com/blog/a-guide...motorway-tolls
• Dijon itself - a beautiful city which is often ignored behind the other more popular cities of France.

https://youtu.be/5_L38KELkks

Some of the pictures from our exploration,

[raveesh_k]

Day 1 and 2 - Dijon, France to Volx, France to Canadel-sur-Mer, France

This day and the first half of next day, was mostly spent on the road as we cut through the Massif Central mountain range of France to get to the southern side where the base Airbnb of our holiday was. Now, because that Airbnb was only available the next day noon onwards, we had a stop over for the night in a commune called Volx in France. This lies in the Provence region of France which is popular for its spectacular lavender fields. Even though we were sure that we are late in the season, we still wanted to give it a shot, and hence we had chosen Volx as our stop over for that day' night.

In case you are interested in visiting the lavender fields, the best season is mid June to mid August, depending on other climate factors. You can refer to the map given in this link to follow the fields in the Provence region - https://www.chamellephotography.com/...nce-road-trip/

Distance from Dijon to Volx was approximately 500 kms, but with mountain passes in between it took us close to 7 hours to reach Volx.

The next day, which was Day 2 of our holiday, we departed from Volx early morning, and headed to Canadel-sur-Mer which lay 150 kms away.

For me personally it was quite exciting to have experienced this drive, which I have also tried and capture as part of the Episode 2 of my French Riviera series on YouTube.

Highlights of this leg of our journey,

• The journey itself - if you are fond of driving (silly question), I would strongly recommend choosing a car to take you around. The sheer pleasure of driving in the hills, with multiple hair pin bends, passing through quaint, serene French villages on the way, for me was a highlight not just for this leg of our journey, but of my entire holiday itself! If you see Episode 2 of the series, you will know what I mean.
• The location of our Airbnb in Volx, France - as you will see in the video, our Airbnb was located in a narrow alley (which allowed 2 way traffic), with houses on either side. Getting there and getting out, was sure fun!
• The French Riviera coastline (D559 route) - gorgeous blue water follows you alongside, for the whole of D559 route, covering a major part of French Riviera, makes for an amazing spectacle while you drive.

The thing that we could not anticipate while planning this holiday was the traffic (!) because of it being the peak of the EU holiday season, and because of this we always had some many minutes added to our almost each hop of ours along the French Riviera.

https://youtu.be/OmY5CpsKAe8

Some pictures from our exploration,

[raveesh_k]

Day 3 - Monaco and Eze, France

For Day 3, we had Monaco and a beautiful medieval village, which is also called as a museum village called Eze, in our itinerary, in that order. Both these destinations are on the eastern side of French Riviera, very close to each other, 9 km apart. However these two destinations are 150 kms away from the popular towns on the western side of French Riviera where we were staying.

Monaco is known for its opulence and its evident from the display of wealth in this country. Yes it's a country, not even part of the EU union, so it's imperative that one must have his passports along when entering. Not that we were asked for our passports or anything, but we could have. To be really honest, barring the Monaco Grand Prix circuit road, which is open for the public to drive on, as it cuts through the city, other roads within the city were not in a good shape, which is quite contrary to the wealth and popularity we associate with this country. Nevertheless, there are a huge number of parking garages in Monaco providing a safe shelter for your car and yes, the parking fees also is quite reasonable. And the country is so small, that you can pretty much cover all of it on foot. After having parked our car in one of the parking situated alongside the promenade, we spent 5-6 hours exploring Monaco, visiting first the upper section of the country where they have the aquatic museum and the Monaco Prince's Palace followed by the lower section of the country around the Monaco port towards the city square and the famous Monte Carlo Casino. A special mention for car enthusiasts is that the area around the casino has a stellar display of luxury cars and cars with loads of grunt, and the best part is that most owners really like the adulation from the general public present on the square clicking pictures of their cars when they drive by with the pops and the bangs from their car's exhausts.

After Monaco, it was time to head to Eze, a medieval village situated midway between Monaco and Nice, almost 10 kms from either. We reached Eze around 2 pm, parked the car in a parking that is a little off the village and took a free shuttle into the village. Eze is very beautiful and offers some spectacular views of the Mediterranean sea, because its situation on a hill. And now because its situated on a hill, there is plenty of climb that one has to do and this has to be borne in mind especially if travelling with elders. Exploration of the village is only possible on foot. The village itself dates back to the Roman times, and it's said that there still are families living here from their origin time, giving it a title of a museum village. Its a gorgeous place to be in, and had we planned a few more days in this holiday, I would have loved to stay here for a night. We found a lot of resemblance between how Eze and St. Mont Michel are, from the inside. Narrow alleys, perpetual stairs going up and down, cobbled streets, boutiques, shops and cafes alongside, wow, what a place to be in. Places like Eze act as a refresher in one's mind which otherwise gets saturated with the countless beaches and the blue setting along the French Riviera. Anyhow, the last shuttle from the village to the parking where our car was at 7 pm, so that gave us a good 4 hours to explore the museum village, before he headed back.


Highlight of this day of our holiday,

• The mountain roads: To travel between west and the east side of French Riviera there are two route options 1) Follow the route D559 along the scenic coastline which is longer but peaceful or, 2) follow the mountain road to join the autobahn on the other side of the mountain - this route is shorter but stressful, as the mountain roads are barely 3 meters wide with no guard rails wriggling like a snake along the mountain. On this day, without having any prior experience, we had to choose the 2nd route because GPS selected it for us, it being the shorter and faster option. All the while I was driving on it, I was thinking that its a one way road, cause speed limit was 100 (!!) and no way could have cars crossed each other without the other to having get off the tarmac to let the other pass, and favouring my belief I did not have a single car pass me from opposite side. It's only when returning back to our Airbnb via the same route, that a car whisked by from the opposite side, was doing about 80, that I realised that it was not a one way road!! And I tell you how that realisation was (!!) after all this while. Anyhow, it was only then when me and my wife decided that we will be taking the route D559 for our further commutes between west and east coastline. I believe many people think likewise and that being the reason we encountered only one car in our journey on this stretch on that day. Also, I found if particularly hard to drive on this stretch during the bright sunny day when the coastal sun, was reflecting lights off the shiny black tarmac, making it not so easy to figure out an oncoming vehicle. In the night however, during our return, it was much simpler because of headlights making visibility much better. Despite the odds, it was a very good and enriching driving experience for me.

I have captured my experience of exploring the city of Monaco and the quaint medieval village of Eze, in the third episode of French Riviera travel series on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/DlglQgCqjv4

Some pictures from our exploration,

[raveesh_k]

Day 4 - Nice, Antibes and Cannes

Day 4 of our holiday had Nice, Antibes (as a mini stop) and Cannes in our itinerary. Again, since all these cities/towns were on the easter side of French Riviera, it meant another 300 km back and forth for day 4, which is close to 5 hours on the road.

This bring me to one important aspect that you need to consider while planning your French Riviera holiday - and that is to decide which side, the east or the west aligning to your interest. Else you will be spending most of your day travelling on the road, not leaving you with time enough to explore the cities in detail, in case you want to.

Nice is a big city on the French Riviera, quite popular and rightly so. One reason being that the French Riviera (Cote d'Azur) airport is located in Nice. So it automatically becomes the landing/base for many tourists from all around the world. We explored the old town of Nice which is huge, buzzing and beautiful and so is the pebbled beach of Nice with kilometres long water front promenade. If you have a liking for sandy beaches more than the pebbled one, you may have to step outside of Nice.

For this day, our main agenda was to only explore Nice as much as we can, that being the reason we spent like a good 6-7 hours in this city before heading out to Cannes where we only planned to spend like a couple of hours. And yes, along the way we also did a mini stop in another popular town - Antibes, which has a beautiful port and beaches for the rich and the famous.

To be honest, each of these towns can be one of your picks during your holiday, depending on your interest. The cities to choose from are in abundance, its only about what you can fit in your holiday schedule. Hence Antibes was just a drive through city for us...at least this time!

The final stop of our day was the small, but now world famous city of Cannes. Again, drop dead gorgeous, just like any other city along the coastline, a little overhyped maybe, for reasons we all know. Only difference between this and other cities being that, it is more up scale, given the celebrities that this city attracts and hosts. After spending a couple of hours in Cannes, we headed back to our Airbnb on the west side of the French Riviera.

Highlights of this day of our holiday,

• City of Nice - really surprised us. The sheer size and the expanse of the city is unique to French Riviera cities. However, its not the size, but rather how beautiful the city and its structures are is something that knocked us off!
• Promenade of Nice - A majestic, broad promenade with emerald blue water on one side and multiple public events, stage shows on the other.

https://youtu.be/oSirECr4IW4

Some pictures from our exploration,

[raveesh_k]

Day 7 - Bormes and Saint Tropez, France

After some serious city, town and village hopping on the French Riviera coastline, we decided to take a break and spend day 5 and 6 just doing what one is supposed to be doing on a holiday - relax! And so yes, relax we did, on some of the beautiful beaches on the western side of French Riviera.

This was our last day on the French Riviera side before we started our journey back home, so we planned to explore 2 destinations on this day, one being the flowering capital of France, a small, quaint medieval village of Bormes and other, the complete opposite, the buzzing, partying capital of the French Riviera - St. Tropez.

Since we were staying in Canadel-sur-Mer which is just off the shores of the Mediterranean sea, just like any coastal city, there is a lot of sand blowing around, and likewise the day-in and day-out exploration took a toll on the mirror finish of my otherwise shiny black car. Mix that with a little dew from the night from the moisture in the humid air around the cost, it created an awful polka dot pattern on my car. It was embarrassing at first, but very soon I realised that it was not just with my car alone, rather all the dark coloured cars had the same custom paint job done! So we start this day by going to the car wash and giving my car a quick, nice wash.

After that we headed to Bormes, which was a 30 min drive from our Airbnb, if you exclude the car wash pit stop in-between. Bormes is quite nice and is a holiday retreat for quite a few celebrities, well if the French president is also considered one of them. The village is again, situation on a hill, and takes a lot of going up and down, if you wish to explore it in detail. It's a car free village, so has to be explored on foot. As our luck would have it, the sun was in its full glory when we were there and the exploration had my shirt drenched in sweat. Its only then we also got to know that this village is best explored during the night especially because its considered one of the best flowered village of the whole of France which is also evident by the display of flowers, shrubs etc. outside every house, shop and square. Anyhow, we spent like a good 5 hours wandering around before heading back to our Airbnb for a quick break and change into fresh pair of clothes.

Next stop for us for St. Tropez which was a 45 minutes drive from our Airbnb in the other direction as that of Bormes. As I mentioned before its one of the most happening destination of St Tropez with an amazing night life, and in in fact the whole of the coastline (D559) from our AirBnb to St. Tropez is like a never ending water front promenade with lot of public events like music shoes, flea markets etc. going on at all times in different stretches of the coastline. We explored the town of St. Tropez and spent the rest of the evening near by enjoying the sunset, and what was left of the evening, before heading back to our Airbnb to pack our days for our return.

Highlights of this day of our holiday (In fact the highlight of this entire trip),

• Route D559: I being an auto enthusiast, like most of you, was just the happiest when driving on this route, along the coast, stopping over numerous lay byes overlooking the gorgeous blue lagoons, taking pictures, flying drone, stopping at numerous music shows and exploring flea markets. Driving on this route is not strenuous at all, unlike the mention of another route that I mentioned during one of our earlier day explorations, and also in-fact, driving on this route is like a child's play as compared to driving along the Amalfi coast where you have buses plying at flying speed on those twisty roads. In my view, this route is a must stick to, and must do route as part of your French Riviera holiday.

https://youtu.be/IJkgDddL_ew

Some of the pics from our exploration (The pics you see in the "Why French Riviera" part towards the beginning of this travelogue are from this day),

[raveesh_k]

Concluding Remarks

Following are some of my observations from my holiday and experience of travelling in France, which you may consider if/when planning your holiday to the French Riviera.

• France is a big country, one of the biggest in Europe, so do consider the most efficient mode of transportation to get the best out of your holiday.
• Even when visiting the most touristy destinations like French Riviera, be prepared to use the translate application. Not many understand or speak English. However, its a little different on the Brittany side, which being on the western side of France is very close to UK and thereby is flocked by a lot of UK tourists making English much more prevalent there.
• Choice between west or/and east side of French Riviera - this is a tough question to answer and is completely dependent on what your personal preference are. If you want to explore both the sides at ease, then you need 2 weeks as I explained in the 5th episode of my video series. However, in case you don't have that luxury, and have to take a call between east or west where you would be spending most of your time, then east is more of big cities like Monaco, Nice, Cannes etc. with good city life/night life and beautiful beaches whereas the western side of French Riviera is more of small towns and villages situated on/along the hills with beautiful cut-in beach lagoons with a backdrop of mountains. As you can guess, there is not much of city/night life here and its more peaceful and quieter through the day.
• Must try is the French Bakery or a 'Boulangerie' for its delicious and over generous spread/varieties of baked delicacies. Even for vegetarians the variety is quite generous.
• On the French Riviera you will find both, private beaches spots owned by restaurants/shacks on the beach, where you can relax on paid sun beds, and also you can find public beach spots that can be used free of charge. To have a merry time at your own public beach spot, do consider carrying a beach umbrella and mat always. Reference of a beach umbrella - link.
• While driving through French highway tolls, you can always use the cash lane to dispose all the change in coins that you may have collected during your travel. In the cash lane, when you approach the payment terminal, you will find a catch-all basket in which you can thrown the coins from your car window to do the payment. Its fun (!) and can really help you clear out your unmanageable, tinkering change.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[deovrat]

Hi, thanks for the amazing pictures!

This is very timely since me and partner are scheduled to spend 3N/4D in Nice in December. I was a bit hesitant if the town was worth so much time, but since partner wanted it, I booked it.

Now I can see it was a good decision.

[veyron_head]

Welcome back international travelogues! Hope the world stays this way!
Great write up and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[LivingCars]

Originally Posted by raveesh_k

Concluding Remarks

Following are some of my observations from my holiday and experience of travelling in France, which you may consider if/when planning your holiday to the [/list]

Nice Travelogue. Thanks for sharing. The pictures look great especially the views you got by virtue of travelling by road.

My memories from the exchange program in the year 2009 got refreshed.We had the Unlimited Eurail pass and hence took the TGV from Lille. We covered the Nice, Cannes and Monaco. The high point for me was the Blue water, walking on the Monaco street racing track and seeing 3 ferrari 599 GTB standing near the casino in Monaco.

Would really want your views on how easy will it be for us to drive the Left Hand Driver (LHD) cars there?

[raveesh_k]

Originally Posted by LivingCars

Would really want your views on how easy will it be for us to drive the Left Hand Driver (LHD) cars there?

Glad that you liked my post. It's a difficult question to answer as it really depends on one's driving experience in a RHD. To each, his own, kind of a thing. For me the transition to a LHD and the recalibration of driving ergonomics in my mind took not more than 30 minutes. If I remember correctly now, first time I rented a car here, I used an open air car park, quite a big one (with stationary cars ) to get a hang of moving around, turning etc. in narrow spaces after which I headed straight to the autobahn and, that was it, in just 30 minutes. I remember distinctively, struggling a little bit initially in crowded cities with tight lanes, but managed all fine, by driving slowly. To me personally, it was the rules that one should follow here while driving, which was more stressful, than worrying too much about RHD vs LHD, which I adapted to rather instinctively. So my advice would be not to overthink and just follow the car in front of you.

[BlackPearl]

Beautiful pictures and lovely narration Raveesh_K. I have not travelled much but for me the Cote d'Azur is one of the most scenic roads that I have ever driven.