Recovering from vacation - S of France

I would be surprised if I were the only one feeling I need to recover from vacation. No, not too much partying, not too much staying late kind'a vacation...the lots of traveling kind for 12 days. When I say lots it's not even technically correct, but it was lots for me.

We started with St Remy de Provence, Eygalieres, St Tropez, La Cole sur Loup, Grasse, Gourdan, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Italy, back to France- Gruissan and Aix en Provence before coming in. One thing is sure, S of France is beautiful! If you ever get a chance to pick and choose what to visit, this might well be your best selection.

St Remy de Provence is your best description of a beautiful Provence (except I would have loved to see also the lavender fields so widely spoken about, but that is spring).

St Tropez is pretty, a mix between the old France and the new city life. I am a bit biased about this one because of the geeks evereywhere... I mean, what would you think of some guys having lunch served by employed servers on their boat deck, 'parked' in front of the cafes where people are strolling and staring at them and taking pictures! How can you even eat being stared at like that?? (pic below). It's a big show...but then it is also vacation time and why not.

Cannes is AMAZING. Amazing, I so loved this city. At one moment I wasn't sure if I was in America, in France, in another world, so so pretty. Too bad my pics don't really do it justice- on one side the beach with cafes, one the other the hotels with the shops and restaurants, in the middle the road divided by a band of greenery and plam trees.

Grasse is cute and old and a nice stop before going down towards the sea, a smaller town.

Gourdan is high up on a mountain, categorized as one of the most beautiful villages of France and it may well be. Small, ancient, cozy, eclectic, very cute.

Nice is a great city very much like Barcelona, in my opinion, in terms of feeling; people everywhere, the sea, the market, you get this feel of vacation and fiesta waiting to start with the sunset. I could live there...

And then Monaco...all I can say about this place is WOW. It is like Disneyland for the grown-ups. Everything is perfect, but perfect. Clean, new, well maintained, cops everywhere to make you feel like there is nothing that can ever go bad (crime rate at 0), beautiful people everywhere, beautiful buildings, flowers etc, everything is like in the movies. I have never seen jewelry in the size I saw there - nowhere, not even in magazines.

For the rest, lots of sun and icecream :) And of course we loaded on croissants, not that we don't have them at home but every bed and breakfast practically stuffs you with them...

Starting St Remy de Provence

 We got there on a Sunday so we did the flea market and the 'artists market'

 Eygalieres, a small village down theh road toward St Tropez where everyone was partying at noon!!

Must have been the village celebration because there was music and beer everywhere...kind'a cool.

A small chapel up the hill

 And we are in St Tropez, here the Chanel house

Tons of candy!!

 Men at work

Women at work

 Cannes

Grasse

 The perfume museum, Fragonard

 The pretty village of Gourdan

 Nice

 Entering Monaco

 Aix en Provence

Hope you had a great vacation as well :)