Nice, France

Our last full day in France started off with a drive back to Nice. Dale and I were both sad to leave the French countryside and decided to take advantage wine country with a quick stop at a winery. We ended up buying some rosé to drink that night at Chateau Saint-Pierre. After that we finally got our rental car dropped off and we took a bus to our Airbnb. This was the first real look we had at the Côte d'Azur and the blue water really is just as spectacular as its said to be! After dropping off our bags we headed straight to the beach and rented an umbrella at the Neptune Plage. 

After a couple hours at the beach reading and enjoying the bright blue water we ate lunch and then changed before walking around old Nice and the town square Place Rossetti. I treated myself to a chocolate crepe with cinnamon ice cream at Fenocchio and then we continued exploring. That night we called my grandma to wish her a happy 80th birthday and then watched a movie before bed. It was the perfect relaxing day in Nice! 

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Southern France Part Two

Our second full day in Southern France began with kayaking through part of the Gorges du Verdon! When Dale and I started planning our Europe trip visiting the gorge was at the top of our list and I have to say it exceeded our expectations! That morning was a little rainy and the part of the gorge we were kayaking on was pretty quiet (near Montpezat) and really beautiful. The trip to the dam and back took around two hours and then we went back to our Airbnb to change before heading on to the town of La Palud-sur-Verdon! 

Seeing the bright blue part of the gorge was possibly my favorite moment of our entire trip. It's stunning! We took lots of photos before heading to the Route des Crêtes. I don't know why we hadn't realized it before our trip, but the part of the gorge seen most often in pictures is really the end point of a river flowing through a huge canyon, not too different from the Grand Canyon! Our drive through the mountains gave us the best views, even if the road was a little terrifying. The river in the gorge empties into Lake Sainte-Croix, which I was surprised to learn is a man-made lake. I'm really grateful to our Airbnb host for sharing the directions for our drive, it's a must-see part of the area. After exploring the gorge we headed back to Moustiers-Sainte-Marie because we didn't have too much time to explore when we ate dinner there the first night. 

I went a bit crazy on our walk through Moustiers-Sainte-Marie taking pictures of all the roses! I couldn't help it. Dale and I also hiked up to the church in the mountain above the town, the view was amazing. Our last stop of the day was Ste. Croix du Verdon, a small village right on the lake. The town was oddly quiet, and there were lots of cats, but it was also one of the prettiest villages we had visited. We had one last dinner in Riez, Italian this time, and then headed back to the Airbnb to pack for our drive back to Nice the next day! 

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Southern France Part One

We arrived in France on Monday, May 28th and immediately  picked up our rental car in Nice and headed to our Provence Airbnb. We decided to drive through Monaco on the way, which was very crowded but I'm glad we at least got a glimpse! For lunch we stopped for pizza and made our way through the mountains to Puimoisson. This was by far one of my favorite places we stayed, each morning we were served a delicious breakfast and the mountain view from our room was amazing. Our first night we ventured out to the neighboring town of Moustiers-Sainte- Marie for dinner at La Cascade and had amazing pasta with view of the cliffs. 

On our first full day in Provence we headed to Aix-en-Provence after our delicious breakfast. We didn't love Aix-en-Provence because it was so much larger and crowded than we were expecting. After looking around a bit we decided to move on to L'Isle-Sur-la-Sorgue. This was more our speed and we loved wandering around through the shops and walking along the stream in the middle of town. We got to-go quiche for lunch and then headed on to the next town, Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. First up Dale and I stopped for gelato, I tried the lavender which was amazing! We followed the river up the mountain to see where it starts at the base of the mountain and did some more exploring in the town before heading to Gordes! 

If you are in the area Gordes is a must see! There are so many towns in the area its difficult to decide which ones to visit, but don't miss Gordes. We took a ton of photos before walking into the town in search of a place to get a glass of wine. Dale humored me on our way home and let me take a bunch of photos in a poppy field before we stopped in Riez for dinner. I'm so happy we decided to rent a car and drive through this part of France, it was the perfect country escape having spent so much time in cities at the beginning of our trip! Be on the lookout for a recap of our last full day in Provence next before heading back to Nice. 

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