French Riviera's Most Beautiful Villages: Visiting Èze & Saint Paul de Vence l SIMPLY SLOW TRAVELER

Hello and welcome to a new video exploring two of my favorite villages in the French Riviera. Located between Nice and Monaco, Aize is a medieval village fully built on a rocky hilltop with cobbled streets winding up and down, ancient pathways and buildings and a very lush green vegetation decorating the facades and the small gardens. Aize is one of those places that made me fall immediately in love with the French Riviera on my very first visit a few years ago. It is just like stepping back in time into almost a fairy tale scenery, so beautiful and picturesque are its many corners, its architecture, its light. My favorite time of the year to visit Aize is in June when many flowers, but especially the bougainvilleas, are in full bloom creating a wonderful spectacle of color in many of its streets. If you are coming in early July you will also witness all this beauty, but I recommend arriving at around 9 am to beat most of the crowds and enjoy a peaceful exploration of Aize. Aize is also home to two beautiful and romantic hotels with the most amazing views and with rooms dispersed across the village in what were originally the villagers' houses. At the top of the village, where once stood the castle of Aize, you can now visit the exotic garden with some of my favorite views of the coastline and especially the beautiful Cap Ferrat with its unmistakable silhouette covered in vegetation and dotted with mansions and the yachts languidly floating in the bay. In the distance you can see all the way to Cap d'Antibes and Les Terrels mountains. The garden showcases a collection of desert plants from all continents on the ocean side with Mediterranean species on its Mediterranean garden in the north hillside among several statues, waterfalls and relaxation spots. At the very top you can have 360 views of the whole landscape over the picturesque rooftops of the medieval village all the way down to the clear waters of Aize Porte de Mer over the garden itself and towards the east to Cap d'Aize and iconic Tete de Chien. These are all places that I have already explored and recommend visiting when in the Côte d'Azur and I share all the practical info on my guide to the French Riviera which you can find in the description box of this video. Our final stop before lunch was the contemplating area of the garden where you can just sit down and relax enjoying the views to the sound of the water running down the rocky hillside. After a morning exploring the village of Aize we went for lunch at Le Café du Jardin the best views you can get and it is also open to external guests. Over a relaxed almost couple of hours we shared the cocktail and the light lunch in the warm sun. We shared the burrata for starters before having a pizza each, enjoying the superb scenery with the crystal blue waters glistening down below and the boats cutting through their surface leaving ephemeral white scars. All the while we could savor the tranquility and quietness of this amazing setting away from the buzz of the streets of Aize now filled with tourists. All felt so perfect with delicious food, magnificent views and the most wonderful weather. Once we finished we went for a walk along the property discovering its terraced gardens beautifully manicured and with plenty of statues and artwork and enjoying more views of the seaside hills. Another of my favorite hilltop villages in the French Riviera is Saint-Paul-de-Vence located between Nice and Antibes. It is also a very picturesque flowery little village, this one with a markedly artistic character. As with Aize, which we had visited the day before, I suggest visiting Saint-Paul-de-Vence early in the morning to avoid the larger crowds. We arrived at around 9.30 am, just before most of the businesses started opening. Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a village with many art galleries and several art pieces, in particular sculptures, scattered around the village. You will also find a few restaurants, gelaterias and cafes, as well as some other stores selling local products and souvenirs. One such store that caught my attention and that was already open was La Cour Gourmande with a wide array of biscuits and local treats. I was initially attracted by the Calisson on display, a sweet made of a paste of candied fruit traditional from the south of France and in particular from Provence. I ended up bringing also an assortment of other biscuits and sweets. While you still have to do some walking up and down in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, it is a relatively flatter village, especially compared with Aize, making it easier to explore and to walk around. The village also has more life on its own, with many people making it their hometown and over the last century many artists and philosophers have also chosen this picturesque village to set their base and get inspiration from Another beautiful little store is the Parfum Rigaudet, with very classical looking perfume side, you can have expansive views all the way to the Mediterranean, with Cap d'Antibes standing quaint and flowery alleyways, discovering all the beautiful corners and views. This is always my preferred way to discover the small towns and I always come back home feeling that I had the most memorable visit and with the certainty that I did not rush the appreciation of all the details. I will leave you with some of my favorite moments of this morning and I am sure you will feel like just going there and exploring it yourself. As we were going back, there was still time for a quick stop at this épicerie, selling a wide range of local food, appetizers, olive oils, wines, as well as products for the kitchen and the home. I hope you liked coming with me and visiting these two gems of the French Riviera. I will continue to share more of beautiful little villages in the south of France and other places I have been exploring across southern Europe in the upcoming videos, so don't forget to subscribe to not to miss all of these favorites of mine. I hope to see you in my next week's video.