St-Paul de Vence, clustered tightly on its hilltop

The elegant, narrow streets of the town

Me in those streets

From Moustiers we drove a couple very stressful hours southward — almost to the Mediterranean — to reach the postcard-perfect hilltop town of St-Paul de Vence. This was once a normal medieval village perched on a hill with beautiful views to the sea. But then it was discovered by Pablo Picasso, and endless streams of artists and celebrities have passed through since.

About that drive: For the first half or so we were on mountain roads so ridiculously narrow that it seemed two cars could not possibly get past each other. Yet cars kept coming from the other direction, instilling dread as we would slow down to try to squeeze past them without scraping the car on our left or slipping off the shoulder-less cliff on our right.

But once we got out of the mountains we started to sense the magic of the Mediterranean below. We connected onto the highway that runs along the Côte d’Azur, watching the iconic place names go by: St. Tropez, Grasse, Nice, Cannes. But before settling on the coast itself we turned inland from Nice a few miles for this stop at St-Paul de Vence.

Here we spent three wonderful nights at Toile Blanche, a beautiful boutique hotel just outside town. This place got everything right — amazing contemporary design, beautiful gardens, good food, wonderful service. This was a close to perfect stop.

I was concerned beforehand that the place was a bit removed from town — nearly a half-hour walk. And I knew we would never want to use the car once we were settled in. And yet my concerns failed to account for the fact that the walk into town was also a seriously steep uphill climb. So after two journeys into town and back we found ourselves pretty content to just stay in the beautiful hotel. In fact, I was genuinely sad to leave this little slice of heaven.

Who needs to go into town when the hotel grounds look like this?

Lunchtime dining at the hotel

…and dinner

A little vineyard on the grounds

A cemetery juts out over the Mediterranean from one end of the town

The painter Marc Chagall rests here with his wife

Dinner one night in the town

Our room had a private pool, for when we got tired of the two beautiful public pools

Lush Mediterranean foliage — that even matched Jim’s outfit

One last look at this amazing town

The Téléphérique climbs up to the Fort de la Bastille above Grenoble

Jesus watching over us in one of the churches

Finding great food, despite all the closed restaurants

Back in Paris, when we were going over our itinerary with a friend, she sneered when we mentioned Grenoble, pointing out that it was very industrial, or something along those lines. That might have given us a bit of pause, but our itinerary was pretty baked in by then. And Grenoble did help break up our travels from Chamonix toward Provence. And we like to see different places even if they are not always perfect.

So we made a short stop here anyway, getting a glimpse of the most populous city of the French Alps. Grenoble offered a few charms, but it did feel like a place whose heyday was in the rear view mirror by half a century or so.

The remarkable 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris have had quite a presence throughout our trip here. And we just left Chamonix, which was celebrating the centennial of the first ever Winter Olympics there. So it was fitting to stop in Grenoble, where the Winter Olympics of 1968 are still quite a point of pride. Maybe even the heyday that has since been elusive.

Our hotel was something of a monument to those heady days of ’68. Memorabilia was everywhere. The Olympic cauldron was just steps outside the front door, at the entrance to a somewhat shabby park.

The rest of the city did have a bit of a run-down look. It didn’t help that we were here on a Sunday and a Monday. It’s frequently the case that French cities are super shut down on Sundays. And restaurants are often even closed on Mondays as well. But here in Grenoble, practically everything seemed to be closed even all day Monday. Made the place feel like a ghost town. I’m not going to insist anyone put Grenoble on their must-see list for a holiday in France. But we managed to find a few nice spots and put away some good food. So now we’ll head into Provence, glad to have made a brief acquaintance with this alpine capital.

Looking down at the city center

The historic center of the city had some elegance, though it was weirdly quiet on a Monday morning

It wasn’t easy to find a lunch spot on a Monday, but we ended up in a friendly place on a square that had kind of a shabby chic personality

Jim at work in our hotel room, which was loaded up with memorabilia from the ’68 Winter Olympics

Just outside our front door was the Olympic cauldron, at the entrance to a park that was a little run down

Grenoble has more than its share of this kind of 60s urban renewal kind of architecture

Something prettier — octopus in a fresh pea sauce with hazelnuts

And there’s old world charm to be found

An elegant park in the old part of town

Riding the Téléphérique

The Isère river and the mountains that ring Grenoble

Annecy straddles the River Thiou, fed by beautiful Lake Annecy

Two and a half hours east of Lyon, by train, things begin to look very Alpine. Especially as we reach the lovely town of Annecy, on the northern tip of sparkling Lake Annecy. This strategic juncture was the home of the Counts of Geneva in the 13th century, followed by the Counts of Savoy from the 14th century.

The third largest lake in France, Lake Annecy boasts some of Europe’s cleanest water. The town began attracting tourists in the late 19th century, thanks to the pristine waters, pastel-colored buildings, and lush alpine scenery.

Fortunately for us, the heat spell broke while we were here. On the first day the town felt unbearably hot and crowded. The second day we got enough relief to enjoy a bike ride around the 26 mile circumference of the lake, including a lunch stop at a truly fantastic restaurant, followed by a late afternoon at our hotel pool. By day 3 we were wearing sweaters.

Jim celebrates the clean cool waters of Lake Annecy

That’s me biking along the beautiful lake

On our first day it was so hot we couldn’t stand to eat lunch at any of the ubiquitous outdoor restaurants. So we went into a well air-conditioned place, where I ordered some kind of steak known as “Café de Paris.” I had no idea that this steak, originating from a restaurant in Geneva, comes swimming in a massive pool of butter, intensely flavored by garlic, herbs, and anchovies. It was amazing!

The castle of the Counts of Savoy

Along the River Thiou

Me again, riding through the beautiful countryside around the lake

The view from our balcony

The same view, the next day when things cooled off and a brief storm rolled into town

At the fancy lakeside hotel where we stopped for a glorious lunch during our bike ride around the lake

That glorious lunch

Lunch on our pleasantly cool last day. We are seated just at the edge of the restaurant in a very atmospheric courtyard…

…where this is my view when I look up

There is a lot of boating and other lake activities going on here

One last look at the wonderful town