Incase you missed it, I wrote the first part of our travel diary here. I also added a “France” highlight on Instagram Stories so you can see exactly where we went and our thoughts. Today I’m picking back up with where I left leaving St. Tropez! We woke up Friday morning ready to keep our road trip moving. After a quick stop in centre ville St. Tropez for croissants and coffee, we began the 1.5 hour trip to Cassis to hike in Calanques National Park. The Calanques, translated to the cove or inlet, have beautiful views of turquoise water and a great beach to relax and swim. This was a spot, particularly Calanque d’En’Vau, that we wanted to make sure we got to visit on our trip. Cassis is about 30 minutes south of Marseille and this was not really “on the way” to our next stop but somewhere that I really wanted to go so we decided to do a detour road trip. 

Once we got to Cassis, we stopped in centre ville to get lunch. We ended up dropping in to a bakery for ham and cheese sandwiches and bottles of water for our hike. The entrance to the park is off a very narrow and winding road, a little bit outside of Cassis. As we got to the entrance of the park we were greeted by Park Rangers telling us that, unfortunately, the park and hike was closed due to a fire hazard. In hindsight, we should have checked the park website before heading there as they update the status each morning. 

We asked the Park Ranger if there was any other spot we could go to see the water and he pointed us in the direction of “flat rock”. We parked the car and made the short walk to this little village that had 1 small restaurant and a small bar, accented by this flat rock that had people swimming, sunbathing, and cliff jumping. We set up camp on the rock and chowed down our sandwiches. We ended up staying at the flat rock for a couple hours before heading to our Airbnb in Provence. Even with the Calanques closed, the view at flat rock ended up being spectacular and we definitely enjoyed our time there. 

Our first Airbnb was right outside of a town called Cavaillon. Every Airbnb we stayed at had dogs and it honestly made the trip way better. It felt like a home away from home! The 2 pups at this first Airbnb were so lovable, one named Swift and one named Lola. The house was in the middle of the Provence region and located near some of the top villages on our list to see. It had an apple orchard on site, and TJ and I have our own private room with another family staying right above us. 

We ended up arriving around 5pm from Cassis and settled into our room. We were pretty hungry, so we asked out host for recommendations on dinner and she suggested we head to Menerbes, which was about 20 minutes away. We took her up on her suggestion and made the drive and, luckily, it didn’t get dark until about 10:00pm. The little village was set upon a hill overlooking vineyards for as far as the eye could see. The restaurant we ate at was called Bistro le 5, and it was right at the entrance to the village. There were a few other activities going on in the village (free wine and cheese tasting), but we were already starving, so we went right to the restaurant. The bread, the cheese, the wine, the entrees…. Everything was amazing! If you’re ever in Provence, I highly recommend eating dinner here, even just for a glass of wine and the view! Once we finished at the bistro, we headed back to our Airbnb for much needed relaxation and a good night’s sleep for the following day.  

Each morning, our host made us breakfast that included traditional French foods (croissants, breads, oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit), along with the tastiest scrambled eggs. It was so nice waking up, sitting on our private patio, and sipping coffee before starting our day. I could have extended this trip for another week just in this one area and will likely do that at some point in the future because it was just so peaceful. Our first stop was the town of Apt, where there is a well known, large market on Saturdays. Apt was about 40 minutes away from Cavaillon and when we got there it was crazy! Imagine a farmer’s market times 20. We ended up having to park a good distance away and walk into the center of town. We walked up and down the side streets, looking at the produce, goods, and talking with the merchants. I ended up getting some dried lavender to give out as gifts to friends and family, as well as a couple cute baby dresses, while TJ got a new French hat (his second of the trip, lol). 

Our next stop was probably one of our favorites. We headed back toward Cavaillon, but went a little bit farther north to the village of Gourdes. The village was set on a hill (like every village in Provence it seems!) with amazing panoramic views. TJ and I were able to park relatively easily in a lot and walk around the village for a couple hours. There were so many secret side streets, restaurants, and bakeries. To change things up we decided to make dinner at our Airbnb, so we stopped in a bakery and picked up a baguette, ham, cheese, grapes, tomatoes, and wine to have ourselves a feast! Gourdes Pro Tip: the real view is from outside of Gourdes near the resort. You can see all of the tiered ledges, buildings, and landscaping that make this village unique. This village is a must-see!

It was close to the middle of the afternoon when we got back to our Airbnb. We put our dinner ingredients in the fridge and decided to make a quick trip up to St. Remy, which was only about 15 minutes away. We wanted to spend about an hour there before heading back for dinner. St. Remy was very quaint. It is shaped in a circle and the main roads make a ring around the village. We were able to find street parking and headed into the middle of the village. St. Remy had a lot of good shops for gifts, clothes, or travel knick knacks. We were starting to feel the effects of the lack of sleep, so we stopped by a cafe for a much needed latte. We got the lattes (and a cookie!) to go and made our way to a little square to sit down. We were treated to a very French musical artist playing a traditional wind up music box. It was serene!

With caffeine in our systems, we headed back to the Airbnb to make dinner before the evening’s adventures. We made our dinner using what we picked up from the market in Gourdes and played with the dogs before it was time to go Lavender fields. I’ve always loved everything lavender! Soap, ice cream, candles, lattes. I cannot get enough, so I knew I wanted to see the fields in person. There is a town called Sault, which was about an hour or so away from Airbnb. To get to Sault, you have to drive up into the mountains and this drive was very eventful. This was the only part of the trip where I had any sort of anxiety. I thought we were going to drive off a cliff. You couldn’t go more than 35 or 40 miles an hour because the roads were so winding. As we got closer to Sault, we began to see wild lavender fields. There were so many that we pulled over to walk through them and get a few pictures before heading up into Sault. Note: Valensole is one of the other popular Lavender areas but we didn’t want to spend that much time driving there! Next time!

It was a good thing we did! While Sault is the lavender capital of the world, it did not provide very good opportunities for us to really experience the fields. Also, Sault was a ghost town! We got there around 8pm and maybe saw 3 people out in the streets. Most restaurants were closed already, and every store had shut it down as well. It was kind of eerie. Actually, very eerie. We didn’t spend too much time in Sault, but I am sure if you came closer to the middle of the day, there would be a lot more things to do. On the way back to our Airbnb, we stopped a couple more times at the untamed lavender fields to get our last little fill. 

We got back to the Airbnb and packed up most of our things since it was our last night there before heading back towards Nice. We had one final lovely breakfast the next day, said goodbye to the dogs (and our host), and made our way southeast. 

France Travel Pro Tip: At this point we had driven about 500 miles around France and were in need of gas. One thing we quickly learned is that American debit and credit cards do not always work at French gas stations. Also, not all gas stations take cash. We had a crazy hard time trying to find a station that took cash, so be prepared if you rent a car. 

Every time I sit down to write this post I find myself getting distracted looking back at all of the photos of the stunning villages and coastal views so it has taken me much longer than expected to write this! About a year and a half ago, TJ and I decided to plan a trip to the South of France. We knew from the beginning we would go in July but it wasn’t until April/Mayish when we started to book everything and we somehow lucked out even for waiting semi-last minute with all of our places to stay, especially the budget-friendly Airbnbs! I knew I always wanted to visit Italy and France but, for some reason, I decided that our first trip to Europe would be the South of France and I am so glad we decided on that, although I am pretty confident that I’d be in love with Italy as well. If we were to go to Italy, I would want at least 10 days though and we didn’t have that for this trip. I also remember being really inspired by the movie, “A Good Year”, and immediately ordered this book on Amazon to learn more about the area. 

Our flight over there wasn’t too bad… about 6-7 hours to London and then 2.5ish from London to Nice. We flew out of JFK though so it ended up being quite a long travel day. We didn’t sleep on the overnight flight getting there (we were too excited) so when we finally arrived in Nice, we picked up our rental car, and headed to our first of three stops. I thought it would be easier for me to break these posts up into 3 parts: our first, second, and third stop. We decided to splurge the first two nights and stay in a hotel, La Bastide d’Antoine, right outside of St. Tropez in a town called Gassin.

When planning a trip to the South of France, it’s incredibly hard to narrow it down to the different towns you want to see. I knew that I wanted to spend half of our time by the coast and half of our time in the countryside. If we could do it again, we would have stayed at least 3 days longer than we did so that could have just one day to relax at each destination. There was very little relaxation on this trip… there was just way too much to see and do and not enough time! However, it was still such a fun and adventurous trip that I’ll never forget. I’m honestly already trying to figure out how I can go again. If I could go again, I would visit completely different spots and it would feel like a whole new experience. Everywhere was just so beautiful and unique.

Once we arrived to our hotel for the first 2 nights, La Bastide d’Antoine in Gassin/St. Tropez, we checked-in, ordered some rosé, bread, and cheese by the pool and the largest caprese salad I’d ever seen. It was in that moment when I knew this trip was about to be a dream. After our snack/dinner at our hotel, we drove into St. Tropez to explore. TIP: If you plan on renting a car, prepare to spend some time finding parking in the busier towns, unless your car is really small. If you’re able to ask for a compact car, do it! Or else you’ll find yourself in a tiny little parking garage trying doing 20 point turns to get out like we did. The car rental company gave us a hatchback that for some reason was the longest car ever. 

St. Tropez was the first city we visited and it was pretty much what I expected it to be, but more crowded. It was absolutely beautiful, though, and we loved getting lost in Old Town, finding endless colorful secret alleyways. We found a glace (ice-cream) stand and ordered some lemon glace and headed back to our hotel to finally get some sleep. 

When we woke up the next day we drove to a smaller town that was close-by called Grimaud, about 20 minutes outside of St. Tropez, which might have been one of my personal favorite days of the whole trip. Every inch of this town was so dreamy; I couldn’t believe it was real. We found a small cafe called La Bou Bou and ordered omelets before exploring more of the town. We actually dined outside the entire week, because that’s apparently the norm over there, and I was more than okay with that! This trip was just my dreams coming true. The food was absolutely delicious and the cafe filled up quickly after we sat down under the umbrellas. Once finished with brunch, we began walking the town, exploring the small, fashionable shops, centuries old architecture, and observing the residents and tourists. The town had rolling hills, a very cute “centre ville”, and great quiet spots to record Beauty and the Beast sing-along videos. One thing we began to notice was how the cafes and restaurants were closed in the middle of the afternoon. It was tough trying to find a place to just buy a couple bottles of water. Definitely be prepared for that as you plan out your trip. One thing we just missed was their market in the middle of the village. They were packing up as we got there, but we were determined to find another one among the villages we were planning to go visit (more on that in part 2). We ended up spending about 3-4 hours in Grimaud and then headed over to centre ville Gassin. 

We could have spent all day in Grimaud, but had other places to go see. Gassin, which is a tiny town on top of a huge hill with 360 degree views. It was beautiful. The town was very quiet during the day but it was poppin’ by dinner time. And when I say quiet… I mean dead. We barely saw anyone out of the street. We decided to go back to the hotel before dinner and relax by the pool for a bit before heading back out to Gassin for dinner at Le Micocoulier.

This was one of mine and TJ’s favorite dinners of the week. Delicious food, incredible atmosphere, great service, and great views. Another tip for folks who have not been to Europe before: dinner is an all night affair. In America, we are used to having tables turnover 2 or 3, even 4 times a night. In France (and other parts of Europe) you get your table for the entire evening. This is one reason they especially like that you make a reservation. You could go to 2 or 3 restaurants and not find an open spot. At Le Micocoulier, we split the cutest bottle of rose, which came in 50cl, which is the perfect amount for 2 people to share, and appetizer of steamed artichoke hearts. For our entrees, I got the vegetarian risotto and TJ got the grilled sea bream. All of it was beyond delicious. 

Once our dinner was over, we headed back to the hotel for a late evening by the pool. We had a dessert of fruit and whipped cream as we sat and talked about the day. We prepared for the next leg of trip, which we knew included about 3 hours of driving and headed to bed. The next morning we spent some time by the hotel before checking out and picked up some croissants in St. Tropez for the road!