I'd been wanting to spend a little more time in the south of France since Brian and I road tripped around the area, briefly, in 2018. With Brian away in Alaska, I figured that this would be a good time to revisit an old favorite.
I flew into Nice, picked up my rental car, and drove along the sea just about 20 minutes to Antibes. There's a large walkway that follows the coastline so I walked a long portion and just soaked up the fresh air and the warm sun and took it all in. The marina there is beautiful with a large fort as it's centerpiece (unfortunately it was closed when I got there) and there were a ton of people out and about in the old town. I stopped and ate dinner on the main promenade and people-watched while I enjoyed my pizza and then found my way to my hotel for the night...only about 10 minutes away.
The next day, I had the option of continuing along the coastline to Cassis, where I was based for the next couple of days, or driving up into the Prealps to explore a huge mountainous river gorge and the mountains. As the forecast called for some cloud cover, I chose the mountains...and it did not disappoint. I drove just a few minutes north and was instantly in the most beautiful landscape. The river was bright turquoise and the road followed it straight into a pretty epic gorge.
It wasn't long before I climbed up out of the canyon and into a beautiful alpine meadow area with tiny medieval villages and ruins switchbacks and fields of green for as far as the eye could see.
I wasn't really paying attention to my GPS...just enjoying the scenery when, before I knew it, the peaks were rising up around me and I was officially on the rim of the largest gorge in Europe.
I guess that there's another road that follows along the gorge as well, and I ended up on one that was much less used but it was great because I could stop as often as I wanted and could walk around without worrying about getting run over. As you can see, the road was barely wide enough for even one car, let alone tour busses and cyclists and motorhomes. I can't imagine that the other, more popular route had any better views...it was pretty incredible.
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| Yes...that tunnel is a 2-lane road through the tunnel and is posted at 80 kph. |
At the end of the gorge was a beautiful, bright blue lake and overlooking it, the tiny town of Aiguines. I was starving, so I stopped for lunch and sat outside in the town center and it was lovely.
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| This vibrant climbing rose caught my attention as I was driving into town. It was spectacular. |
It was on my way back that I happened upon my first real field of poppies for the trip and had to pull over to frolic in them.
I gradually made my way to Cassis where I checked into my Bed & Breakfast for the next 2 nights.
The host was a lovely gentleman that offered me a few suggestions for things to do in the area. His first suggestion was to go up to a beautiful scenic overlook nearby, so I did just that.
His 2nd suggestion was to rent a boat in Cassis to tour the Calanques. I was already planning to taking a tour from Marseille which was going to cost about $130 but getting a boat from Cassis was only $33 and was way more convenient. I saved the clear, warm, sunny day for this and it was wonderful. I just walked down to the marina, bought a ticket, and within about10 minutes, was on my way. The coastline was absolutely stunning and so picturesque, so pay no mind to the 4000 photos that I took.
