Monday 27 July 2009

Côte d'Azur: day 9

Day 9: our last active day in France was pretty relaxed. We went to the small but fine Grimaud and some other tiny villages. The day after, we went back home. :(




Thank you for all the nice comments on my pictures!

Sunday 26 July 2009

Côte d'Azur day 7-8

Day 7: Our visit to Cannes mainly existed of walking the impressive boulevard La Croisette and following in the foosteps of the most famous French and international actors and actresses.




Me and my sister at the Grand Auditorium, pretending to be Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. :)

Me and the handprint of Tim Robbins.
On the boulevard La Croisette: the Carlton hotel.

Back at the villa after some shopping. I'm doing it French style with lots of pain français.
In the evening we went to Port Fréjus, which was very photogenic at that time of day.


Day 8: On day 8 we headed to Grasse. It wasn't a very impressive city (quite a big part of it seemed to be somewhat degraded), but we did enjoy our visit to the 'Parfumerie Fragonard', a factory that produces the perfumes Grasse is so well-known for.

In the Fragonard factory.
Here we had to find out the differences between male and female perfumes.
The shop at the end of the guided tour.
On our way back to the villa, we stopped in a couple of small towns.
The rather impressive cactus in our garden.
To be continued.

Thursday 23 July 2009

Côte d'Azur day 5-6

Day 5: the big trip to St-Tropez. We took the boat in Ste.-Maxim that brought us to the favourite holiday spot of many celebs (you could even take a special boat trip to spot all the celeb mansions on the coastline, but even I'm not that much of a fangirl). St-Tropez was not as great as, let's say, Nice, but it definitely had its charms and was worth a visit.

My sister and the enormous yachts.



The boat trip back to Ste-Maxim was a lot more fun than getting there because there was a lot more wind.





Day 6: a day for a road trip through the mountains. The 'Gorges du Verdon' was better than breathtaking. There is a reason why people tend to call it the European Grand Canyon. On our way we stopped a few times to visit a couple of picturesque towns.




Never seen such clear water.



An evening market back in Roquebrune.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Côte d'Azur day 3-4

Day 3: before getting back on the road to drive to our main holiday residence in Roquebrune sur Argens, we spent the morning in Nice.

The famous Negresco hotel.



The tropical view through my hotel window. Almost like I was in a Bounty commercial!
Then we took off, drove to Roquebrune sur Argens and settled us in our little villa that would be our home for the next week. In the evening, we made a walk and a ride through town to explore our new surroundings.

This is the Roquebrune mountain, where the town is named after (Roquebrune sur Argens = Roquebrune on Argens). It was a stunning sight, as well by night as by day (as we would find out the day after).
Day 4:
The Roquebrune by day. When I was taking this picture, an old local came over to me and told me a story about this mountain. His French was a very special dialect so I didn't understand the entire story, but what he was mainly trying to tell me was that legend has it that this mountain is actually the silhouette of a sleeping woman.
Saint-Raphael was a coastal commune not so far from where we were staying. It wasn't too impressive, but I did like the colourful harbor.


And we had the best pancakes ever.
In the evening, we payed a short visit to Fréjus, another town in the neighbourhood.
To be continued.