Intinerary Review, Cote D'Azur and Provence

To summarize
Paris 2 nights
Nice 1 night
La Turbie 3 nights
Las Baux 2 nights
Valensole 3 nights

Looks good but you could tighten up two things. I'd just add a leg straight into Nice and get over the jet lag there. You are already at the airport. That's a lot of schlepping for a tiny bit of Paris atmosphere. The train is 6 hours, too, so a lot of wasted time.

Second, I love La Turbie. It's on the highest cornish drive and not far from the freeway entrance to Italy or Nice. No need to drive down the mountain to get to those destinations. You can't just buzz into Monaco from there without a car easily, but you could get to Monaco if you spent more time in Nice.

So what I'd do is stay in Nice. Hit the places along the train line. Pick up the car night 3 or 4 and go to La Turbie. Go to St. Paul de Vence and Italy and other places best served by the autoroute once up in La Turbie.

Thanks Bets,
Glad to hear you really liked La Turbie, it is not often talked about it compared to other towns!

I did think of skipping Paris ; if I did I would assign those 2 nights to Nice
While making the trip cleaner overall, it does mean skipping Paris.!

My wife may strangle me if we fly into Paris only to leave immediately (it is a surprise destination for her and she has stated a desire to come back to Paris for a short stay in the future)
I think I could only do that (take a flight to Nice same day as landing) if I know we will be returning to Paris another time in the next year or two.

For that reason, I am not sure it is an option; we could do just an overnight in Paris and then give 2 nights to Nice.
But a 6 hour train ride the day after an 8 hour flight sounds like a bad start to the trip.
I realize Nice is better transportation wise for visiting the towns along the coast but have a desire often to see viewpoints at night, or maybe before sunrise, etc... things that you often need a car for and times when no matter how busy there is rarely traffic so liked having the car for 3 nights in the area (while in La Turbie). In addition to nearby Eze which looks to have great views, there seems to be some viewpoint areas off the road looking down on Monaco and also above Villa Franche looking down on the coast ; all of which I would need a car to reach at un-crowded hours.
I am hoping to do a little hiking as well ; the Nietzsche Trail in Eze one early morning is definitely on my list.
My general point is I have things to hopefully do that don't work well with a base of Nice not to mention the La Turbie lodging has a 3 night minimum as do most of the Airbnb properties I was looking at for nearby areas.
So committing 3 nights to La Turbie or similar town leaves me only 1 for Nice unless I change the Paris portion.

Makes sense. Happy wife, happy life.

Yeah for the train, what I should have done is take the high speed TGV train to Avignon, rented a car there and visited nearby Las Baux after Paris.
Logistically at least ; then do the trip basically in order of Las Baux, Valensole, La Turbie hand in the car stay in Nice and fly out of Nice. That would be a better overall plan.
We having to be in Valensole on the specific days made that not an option.

I know you like taking photos...I really enjoyed St Paul de Vence - lots of little alleys and beautiful old doors (my fav). A few hours could suffice (we stayed in Villeneuve-Loubet, and the airbnb was only a 10-15 min drive from St Paul, so it wasn't out of our way). Antibes didn't do much for us, but we only had a few hours there and didn't really know what to do other than wander. Didn't do Cannes. Vence itself looked interesting, but when we were leaving St Paul, we managed to put a big scrape on the car in the parking garage, so there was a pall over the rest of the day. (Hint - if you have a larger vehicle - ours was sized like a Dodge Avenger - park in outdoor lots as the indoor ones have some tight corners and small spaces)

We toured the l'Occitane factory as well in 2015. I had booked a tour that was over their lunch hour or overlapped their lunch hour - so there wasn't much going on in the factory itself on the floor (you can look thru windows). I think our tour started at 11:30 or noon-ish maybe. (We had to drive from Salon en Provence and I didn't want to book one too early). So if you want to see some activity going on, book one earlier or later. We got a free lip balm!

If you can get to Roussillon - go. It's gorgeous.

We also did Les Baux. This was early Oct. We spent much more time there then we thought we would. 3 hrs - and in the summer, there is a lot more going on with demonstrations and whatnot. You could also stop at Glanum (about 45-60 min) if you have an interest in Roman ruins (on the way to Baux).

Oh - found my blog post on our l'Occitane trip...

I think the tour started about 11am. It was almost an hour drive (I think) from Salon to Manosque, but the factory was very easy to find. There was a great video and it's nice to learn about the research and organic products sourced. We were there when the workers were mostly on lunch, so the 'assembly' line wasn't really in action. They told us about some of their most popular products and gave us all a free lip balm (one of which I had just purchased upon arrival in Paris as I lost my lip balm before boarding the plane in Montreal.). I would have loved to make a few big purchases in the outlet, but with carry on liquid restrictions, it pretty much prevented me. I did get a nice little kit with some lavender products - soap, shower gel, pillow spray. The tour went a little longer than I thought - it was about 1pm when we finally left.

I liked Vence a lot. There were very, very few other tourists in the historic district; St-Paul-de-Vence was slammed on the same day, and you may need to be patient getting your photos there. I don't have a photographer's eye, but I believe you'd be shooting buildings rather than views in Vence.

The coastal towns you mentioned (Menton, Monte Carlo, Cannes, Antibes) are very well connected by rail (beware pickpockets). Traffic on the coastal road can be heavy, and I am afraid the car will be less efficient. You may not have a viable option staying up in the hills, though.

I enjoyed Menton a great deal. It has two very good gardens, one on each side of town. You'd want to drive to them if you arrive by car. Only one is within walking distance of the old town, and it's quite a hike.

Do be aware of the probable high temperatures in southern France in July. Be sure your car and lodgings are air conditioned.

If Les Baux is still on the itinerary, two thoughts: (i) We skirted Les Baux itself when we saw the packed parking lots (April 2016; mid-morning). Spending the night there will solve that problem; (ii) Carrieres de Lumieres: a great experience; we plug it whenever a Forum post invites comment. Takes only 1-2 hours depending on how mesmerized you become once inside. The current exhibit looks terrific.

An unexpected bonus for us was stumbling onto the restaurant Le Patio, a quick drive south of Carrieres/Lumieres, in Fontvieille en Provence, for lunch. (Not sure it would have been within our budget for dinner.) The waiter apologized for the limited menu options available, then blew us away with a "starter" that included 4 separate items, each amazing. Among our most memorable meals in Provence. http://www.lepatio-alpilles.com/fr/fontvieille-provence.php#index.php We would rate it "worth a detour" if we return to the region.

Bon Voyage!

Many thanks Nicole,

Some great advice! Saint Paul De Vence I know we would like, I also know I would prefer it (similar to Eze and Las Baux) at night or early morning, and don't have that option with Saint Paul De Vence so that aspect makes they think we could skip it and not be upset either.

From a photographer point of view, I would want to photograph the cobblestone narrow streets at dusk or night time there most and not planning on going there then so that takes away most of the photo interest for me.

I am not sure not having been if one medieval hill town becomes like the other, if you know what I mean.

Cannes I feel like I would rather skip, but I don't know if we are in the area my wife will say something like Oh we have to go to Cannes so leaving an option/way to go there open.

Rousillon I was hoping we could see on a day driving from Valensole and also visit Gourdes this same day, maybe Lacoste as well. Those are on my short list I would say!

The L'Occatine factory tour sounds good, I may not care for it, but my wife will love it. She buys their stuff and works in the fragrance industry so will have value along the whole trip in little things like that and the perfumery in Eze. The information about how they source it and things like that will be of interest to her.

It seems a small car is needed in many areas in this part of France. Don't want anything too small but also don't want to get upgraded!!!

Thanks Acraven,

I know the car is not going to be efficient at all for visiting any of the coastal towns or driving the coastal roads.
Staying up in the hills, we won't have many public transit alternatives, with the exception of a regular bus that seems to go to Monaco and back.
I thought hard about just basing in Nice for longer or the whole stay in Nice without a car but came up with too many things I wanted to do see either really early morning or in the evenings outside of Nice I couldn't do without a car and when there won't be any traffic so that made my decision.
I am prepared to deal with traffic backups for the conveniences of a car.

I hope my wife chooses the Menton direction with the Italy side trip for that one open day, I know traffic will be less going that direction and Menton to me does look appealing.

Appreciate it RCA!
Yeah, Las Baux really caught my eye but only if I could see it minus the huge crowds they seem to get.
I wanted to stay in a hill town like this but not outside of one and found a really nice B&B with amazing reviews in Las Baux called Le Prince Noir built into the walls of the old castle, they only have 3 rooms and there are no hotels in the town itself. Many people may not like the secluded feel of a town that basically shuts down at night but for me I really am looking forward to that time.
https://www.leprincenoir.com/

Carrieres de Lumieres: glad you enjoyed it. Especially staying so close in Las Baux I definitely want to check it out.

The restaurant you linked looks fantastic! I have noted it down. For us a nice lunch often works better than a dinner since we will have our young daughter plus my photography there are multiple reasons why we want to eat dinner early, in France that may not be an option so a nice late lunch can solve that problem.

I think my husband enjoyed the factory tour more than I did...lol. I guess I was expecting more 'action' - but as I mentioned, we hit over their lunch break. But it is interesting to see where all that nice stuff we use (hubby uses some of their men's product) is made!