The Côte d’Azur was just awesome! We just got of the plane a few hours ago. I'll be back in a few days with more details and info. Jet lagged.

The weather was perfect!
The food was delicious!
Our apartment in Mougins was great!
The hikes were awesome!

Cameron

Welcome home. Kick back and get some sleep - then tell us all about it. I definitely want to hear more.

I'm sorting through 250 photos!

The French in that area are the nicest folks! It seemed like we got a 'bonjour' from everyone we met on the trails. All of the restaurants were very friendly. I have quite a few recommendations. The French were much more casually dressed than in Paris and Provence. Many were in sneakers/sandals and jeans/shorts -- including women under 60.

In a nutshell, here's where we were:

2 days in Nice (at the Hotel Suisse along the Promenade).

We loved Nice. We're so glad that we stayed there before going to our apartment in Mougins. We took the bus to Cap Ferrat; walked from the Villa Ephrusi down to the harbor where we lunched; took the path up to Beaulieu sur Mer; took a bus to Menton. Didn't get off the bus in Monaco.

Picked up our rental car at the Nice train station. Driving to our apartment in Mougins, we stopped off at St. Paul de Vence; took scenic backroads up above Gasse along the Route de Napoleon and back down to Mougins.

Incredible gourmet food in Mougins vieux village. Our apartment was just down the hill outside the old village. Walking distance to a grocery and patisserie. We had easy access to the A8 (saves a lot of time). The apartment at Le Club Mougins had a small kitchen, 1 large bedroom, bath, large balcony and living area. We were there for 7 nights. The office had a concierge who provided great maps and information for our excursions.

Our focus was for outdoor hiking activities. We hiked the well-marked trails on Cap Ferrat, Cap Antibes, St. Tropez and the island of St. Marguerite (from Cannes).

We took a scenic drive up to Gourdon and Tourettes sur Loop (in addition to the drive along the Route de Napoleon). We also drove the N98 on a few occasions. The little villages along the N98 have some nice beaches and great views, too. Frejus, St. Raphael, St. Maxime, St. Aygulf, etc.

More details to come.
Cameron

Sounds wonderful. Can't wait to hear more about it & to find out about the hikes you liked best!

Hiking -- upon driving to Mount Vinaigre and then down to Frejus and up Hwy N98 to Cannes, we were so impressed with the scenery that we didn't do the mountain hikes.

We absolutely loved hiking around the St. Tropez penninsula last Thursday. We got to ST without any traffic problems, leaving our apartment in Mougins around 8:15am.

We went as far as Salinas plage and found out that the bus wasn't yet running. So, we didn't continue to Tahiti since we had to walk the road back to town! So, we had the 5.2 miles of coastal hike, then it seemed like 3-4 miles to get back to ST and to our car.

We tried to go back to ST on Friday morning to hike another leg of it, but hit major traffic jams around St. Maxime. We stayed in the traffic for an hour, then decided to drive up N98 to Frejus to catch the Villepey Lagoons.

Another favorite hike was on the sentier littoral around Cap d'Antibes. It was very nice to have hand rails out over those cliffs!

We were pleased with the sentier littoral around Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, but it wasn't very challenging for us. Since we were also seeing the Ephrussi Gardens, that was fine.

An easy hike was the island of St. Marguerite. We took the bus from Mougins down to Cannes and decided to head out on the ferry to the island instead of spending the day in Cannes.

Porquerolles was just too far from Mougins to have time to hike.

I'll send you an email in a few days with more feedback on your hiking book. We had perfect weather and have great tans. We packed sandwiches and water for the hikes and found great places along the trail to lunch. We took one large bottle of water for 2 of us and we should have taken two bottles. The restaurant at Salinas just opened for the season that day and we were able to purchase more water there. I'm glad that I wore good, sturdy hiking shoes and lightweight hiking pants.

There was a fragrant shrub/tree blooming everywhere. Is it a pittosporum variety? Is that deep pink wildflower a valerian? I loved seeing all the flowers.

St. Tropez was a pleasant surprise. We expected it to look more like Cannes with modern hotels, etc. It was great to see a nice, quaint village atmosphere. Walking the road between Salinas and ST, we were also surprised to see rural farms (vineyards) on one side of the road and resort villas on the other side of the road.

It would be very easy to want to live in that area!

Cameron

Right now in May, lots of flowers are in bloom everywhere on the Côte d'Azur.

Around Cap d'Antibes, the very invasive " Griffes de Sorcières" or Hottentot figs form bright pink covers.

Fragrant common myrtles love the siliceous soils of the Maures around St Tropez. This may be what you described, though most flower a little later.

And the rock-roses show off their silky pink petals.

You picked a perfect time to visit!

I appreciate the information about the flora there. It was truly stunning!