Valbonne, Grasse, Aiguines

Valbonne – someone’s front door

…And another

Picked up our car bright and early (which for France means 9am!). It took us about an hour to actually get completely out of Nice. Headed to Valbonne cause it was used in some scenes from French Kiss. Gorgeous little town. Interesting because the old part was actually laid out in a grid system, so it was all very organised and easy to navigate. “Beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here!” (see the movie!). On our walk through we had to dodge some more road works.

More of Valbonne

These little plaques were in the cobblestoned streets everywhere

Moved on to Grasse late morning, a much bigger town (also with road works going on!). It had a lot of zig zagging streets, like most of the old towns in the area and cute little shops with tempting things to buy. Very charming and plenty of photo ops for John.

The main square in Grasse

How lovely is this?!

Even the roof tops are gorgeous!

We then did the drive to Gorges du Verdon – the largest canyon in Europe. What a sight that was! It was impossible for the brain to comprehend the scale, because your eyes started to play tricks on you looking at it – Escher sketch like.

Gorges du Verdon – Nic looking at…

…this!

Nic looking out the window at Aiguines

We arrived at the tiny village of Aiguines after 5pm to the sprinkling of rain that held off for us to traipse about looking at the views and taking snaps. The hosts at the Hotel du Vieux Chateau were also lovely and helpful and our room had great views of the lake. We were right next to the bell tower of the town, but surprisingly it didn’t bother us at all and we woke at the 8am tolling. Very pleasant, in fact. Our accommodation here also included dinner (not just breakfast), so we had a hearty 3-course meal of ample portions and once again went to bed feeling like gluttons.

View from our room onto the tiny village square

John sitting above the village

Aiguines…still

Aiguines again…with someone’s private chateau in the distance

About bontaks

Nic is the the 'Bon' part of 'Bontaks.' Together we are Nic and John - two travel-addicted teachers who enjoy every opportunity to go places, meet people and experience life.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.