Day 1: Cannes and Antibes (sort of). We did get to Cannes, and had a very glam and overpriced lunch at the Carlton Beach Club. They said we could walk the beach, but then when we came back, they sort of made us feel like trespassers. We did RS's walk, sort of, got a bit turned around (I feel like his directions were not very specific), and sweltered in the heat. This was a travel day for us, we had been up at 4 for a flight from Barcelona, and eventually, I withered. We took a train to Antibes out of sheer determination, walked to the water ... and gave up.
Day 2: Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Saint Jean Cap Ferrat. RS's advice to come back at the first stop on the bus is absolutely correct. I followed this advice not thinking much of it, and the bus filled up before leaving. Anyway, we first went to CF and saw Villa Ephrussi. I cannot recommend this highly enough. It was initially just something to do, but it ended up being a highlight of the trip. Then we took a bus to BSM and Villa Kerylos, which was very cool, but in my view, didn't compare. We walked into BSM and had lunch at the square. Then, we took the bus back to CF and this time walked to the dock and the shops around there. From there, we went back to Nice.
Day 3: Mistake day. I had planned to skip Monaco, but RS and real-life friends said not to miss it. We could have missed it. Between that, and a late start, and missing busses, and getting lost, and then a gross lunch, etc., etc., etc., this sucked up time that could have been spent profitably elsewhere. We did make this a three-country day though, as we went to Menton after (the hike to the cemetery is way more strenuous than advertised, and the town was more crowded and touristy than I imagined), and then Ventimiglia. We weren't there for the height of the market, but we saw the standing market, which was impressive enough. Due to the Monaco fiasco, we couldn't wander far from the train station, and I suspect we missed the best parts. It was fun to ride 15 minutes and get off in what is unmistakably Italy.
Day 4: Villefranche-sur-Mer -- we just stayed here all day. Had lunch by the water. Went shopping. Nice mix of stuff like that with non-strenuous medieval fun, like the Citadel, which is much easier to access than Menton's cemetery. We also bought a towel and hung out at the beach, which was rocky and crowded, but fun and beautiful.
Day 5: This was a Sunday, and while I really wanted to, I gave up on Eze, and we explored Nice instead. Did parts of RS's walks, went up the hill (which was our hotel pool was built into the side of), walked the Promenade des Anglais, went to the Chagall Museum (this is where we had the most bus/tram ticket drama). Note: The Chagall Museum makes you empty your bag of all food and liquid, which is fine, but maybe just make us check our bags? Instead, they made you leave it in a bin, outside, just commingled with everyone's stuff? Water bottles are expensive and some food melts? It was so strange and unwelcoming. The museum itself is somewhat hard to access in that it is not walking distance and not near anything else of note (except the Matisse museum) and also very, very small. You can't argue with the art, though.
Provence: We stayed in Avignon, but had a tour guide take us out to Nimes for a very strenuous day. All the Roman sites in Nimes, lunch in Uzes, and Pont du Gard. We had no car and could not have done that much without someone driving us. That night, we checked out the gardens of the Papal Palace in Avignon and took in all the festival fun on the Place d'Horloge. The next day, we went to Arles on our own. We focused on Roman history instead of Van Gogh, but due to timing and leaving a lot of extra time to get to our TGV to Paris bc of festival crowding, we couldn't get to the Roman history museum, which required a bus ride inside of Arles. Too bad, as the one in Nimes was great.