Villefranche Sur Mer

The night before our day trip to Villefranche sur mer and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat we crafted a very nice itinerary based off Rick Steve's visit to the area. Regardless of any schedule, though, it would be impossible not to enjoy such a beautiful area. Villefranche personifies the quintessential, idyllic Riviera city, framing a bright blue harbor surrounded by steep cliff sides, and is immediately next to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat,  which is itself a small peninsula favored by European aristocracy and the internationally super-wealthy as the vacation home destination of choice.

We elected to visit the peninsula first, and would tour the villa of the Ephrussi de Rothschild, lounge at Passable beach, and then make our way back to Villefranche by bus and wander around the city.

To get there we walked through Nice to Le Port, which is the area unsurprisingly by Nice's Port, and caught the bus. This was billed as, 'the most beautiful bus ride in the world,' and it didn't disappoint. As the bus climbed high above the water, we had a gorgeous view of Nice followed by stunning shots of Villefranche framed by turquoise water speckled with super yachts.

We got off at the stop by the the Ephrussi de Rothschild's villa and gardens. The delightful pink mansion was created by and for Baroness Beatrice de Rothschild, a wealthy heir of her family, and is framed by nine separate gardens, each with an international theme from the Baroness' world travels.

We started our tour of the estate by taking breakfast in the outdoor gardens surrounded by orange trees, which was even nicer than it sounds, and was completed by a pastry of our choosing from a decadent line-up.

Electing to tour the gardens first, we made our way through perfectly framed fountains, Japanese gardens, rose gardens, and past archways and gazebos, before sitting at the height of the gardens overlooking the estate back toward the mansion. We met a charming American artist traveling with two Italian friends who referred us to the beautiful Kerylos estate by the sea, which was crafting in honor of Ancient Greece. We would have loved to have made it there but sadly didn't end up fitting it into our schedule for the day. Next time!

After enjoying the gardens it was time to tour the estate. We walked through with the help of an audio guide and enjoyed looking at the Baroness' lovely home with dining areas, sitting rooms, master bedroom, closet, tapestries, artwork, and view from the balcony back over the gardens.

With Kendra, overwhelmed by how much she enjoyed it, and msyelf, ready for a break, we made our way down the hill to the very closeby Passable beach. In any other location it would be stunning, but having enjoyed the relative quiet and coastline view of the beach by Fort Carre', and with some clouds coming in, we ultimately cut our stay a little short. I did get to enjoy an open water swim though and Kendra's company is always delightful. With a lot of loud teenagers enjoying the beach, though, we joked that we should've taken the bourgeoisie approach and gone to the other side of the beach with the umbrellas and lounge chairs.

After cleaning up, we walked back up the steep hill and caught the bus back to town. We got off at the Octroi stop and simply walked downhill. We made our way to the south side of town and walked back toward the main waterfront via the La Citadelle pathway. Looking at the harbor filled with fancy yachts and the facades of the town, all in the light of sunset... man. What a great place.

We stopped at a restaurant along the waterfront called Spalato. We ordered a bottle of wine, and I was in charge of picking the appetizers so naturally I went with frites. Kendra thought that fromage would've complimented the wine better but hey, I saved us 8 Euros.

Interestingly our very polite waiter was Russian, and moved to France to study Chemistry and even pursue a career in medicine. It was nice chatting with him and I was excited to get to say a few phrases in Russian.

A little buzzed on wine, we wandered up the hill to find dinner among the little cafes that are hidden in the narrow alleyways of the town. We stumbled across Le Serre pizzeria. Each of their pizzas was endearingly named after a US state, but funnily enough without any real connection to the actual state's geography or culture (eg the Nebraska had seafood). It was delicious though and we filled ourselves to the brim.

That didn't stop us from getting gelato immediately afterward though because we can't help ourselves. We walked back down to the waterfront to take some more photos and just enjoy the ambiance one final time. We walked back up to the bus stop and were surprised to find the bus had stopped running. Shoot, we should've looked ahead of time but hey, this is a laissez-faire trip. We didn't have internet to order an Uber, but an awesome Australian couple nearby having dinner were the coolest and let us use their connection. They were teachers in Hong Kong and were visiting France before moving to teach in Africa. How cool.

Soon our Uber arrived and took us back in comfort to Nice. We made it back to our hotel and briefly joined the rooftop party at the rooftop Terrace before heading to bed, ready to travel to Monaco and Eze tomorrow.