Travel Escapades Owner Annie Wolter Summarizes their Recent Tour of SE France

From April 11 to April 21, 2025, Travel Escapades took six wonderful travelers—Andi, Deb, Gwynne, Jane, Rita, and Sandy—to the southeast corner of France on a tour of Provence and Côte d’Azur.

Scroll down to see pictures below this overview of the 10-day trip…

GROUP SUMMARY

This was a special group of travelers and will forever be our Coke Zero Group! If we had drunk as much alcohol as we did Coke Zero, nobody would remember a thing about the trip! Also on this trip, Deb taught us how to say, “Duh” with a simple hand gesture, and we used it on each other from then on. Another fun aspect: after I accidentally said, “Let's get a photo of the four of us” instead of “the eight of us,” we had fun surmising who were my favorite four for the day. Finally, my dear husband and co-owner Paul did all of the driving to which we are all grateful.

DAYS 1-4

For the first four days, we visited Nice, Monaco, Èze, the Villa Ephrussi in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and Villefranche-Sur-Mer, adorable towns (plus the Villa) located in the foothills of the French Alps. We enjoyed a 1-hour boat tour on the Mediterranean. It was beautiful to see Nice and Villefranche-Sur-Mer from the sea and intriguing to learn that Sir Elton John has a home up in the hillside around Villefranche. Maybe we passed him on the street, hidden behind a disguise?

The Hop On Hop Off bus tours in both Nice and Monaco introduced us to these two historic cities and their amazing architecture and stories of the past. In the Monte Carlo Casino, we took our chances with the 10 Euros that came with our entry fees; some of us left with a little cash in our pockets. :-) A walk through Old Monte Carlo led to another delicious lunch and many cute shops.

DAYS 5 AND 6

At the top of day five we picked up our van (our rental company WeVan actually delivered it to our hotel and I can’t say enough good things about WeVan) and drove up into the Alps through mountain roads and past lavender fields. The lavender wasn't blooming yet, but it was still fun to see the long fields of planted lavender along the way. At Sainte Croix lake, we rented electric boats and ventured into the Gorge du Verdon at the whopping speed of 5 mph. Some call the Gorge du Verdon the Grand Canyon of France. The tall rock formations and aquamarine water made this a beautiful and unique experience.

At the end of day five and into day six, we spent less than 24 hours in a nearby town called Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. There was a lot of rain but we still took a few walks into the charming town before we left for the town of Gordes on day six. In Gordes, we had pizza at an Italian restaurant where we celebrated Rita's birthday, complete with the happy birthday song being played over the loudspeaker in Italian. This was another town for shopping, and shop we did. (It was enjoyable to see and hear on a regular basis what people were buying.)

DAYS 7, 8

For the rest of our trip, we set up base in Aix-en-Provence at Hotel des Augustins, a hotel built into a former 12th century Augustinian convent, complete with a foyer of large arching walls that resembled a cathedral, situated right in pedestrian Old Town Aix.

On day seven, everyone had a full day to relax and venture out to explore Aix. Open markets were abundant. The flower markets were especially beautiful.

On day eight we went to Vaison-la-Romaine, a town formed by the Roman empire in the second century after conquering a Celtic tribe that had been there. Here we visited the town's rich Roman ruins with the stone wall outlines of ancient Italian homes available to walk around while listening to audio summaries of each room. This experience made me hungry to go to Pompeii. We also drove to another town called Orange and took pictures under a Roman arch of triumph, only about 18 centuries older than Napoleon's arch of triumph in Paris.

DAY 9

On day nine, it was time to go back to the sea again, so we headed down to the towns of Marseille and Cassis for some sun and touring. The water was lovely and the marinas colorful and active. Off in the distance was Chateau d’If on the island of If. This is where the fictional Count of Monte Cristo was wrongly imprisoned. I wished I could call my mother, long since departed, to send her photos of this island since she was the one who had encouraged me to read the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas.

DAY 10

The last day took us back to Roman antiquity as we visited the Pont du Gard, a giant Roman aqueduct that once spanned 50 kilometers to bring water to the town of Nimes. We enjoyed a French Easter festival going on that day because….it was Easter! The festival was called Easter at the Bridge although its name in French was much more alliterative as “Pâques au Pont.”

Afterwards we drove to the town of Nimes to see the giant Castellum Aquae, where centuries ago water was deposited from the aqueduct. A giant reservoir with the shape of a well, it collected and distributed water through an amazingly designed pipe system that prioritized where in town the water would go, based on its abundance.

The next morning we arose at 4:00 a.m. in order to leave at 5:00 a.m. for the airport back in Nice. We returned our van to WeVan, who met us right at our departure gate to collect the van.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY TOUR

As the primary dreamer and planner behind this company, it was a joy to design this trip. I learned at least four important strategies to serve our customers well in the future. And one of them is that eight is a magical number for traveling as a group. Everybody fits both in the van and at most restaurants around one table. And it seemed to be just the right size for people to connect with others on the trip.

THREE CHEERS FOR THE BUS DRIVER WHO IS WITH US TODAY

I'm forever grateful for my dear husband and co-owner Paul for doing and enjoying all of the driving of a pretty large van through tiny French streets. He even kept his cool when Google maps let us right into a tiny but bustling neighborhood square where the left turn that Google maps wanted us to turn onto was actually a one-way corner coming toward us but the right turn street was closed off. It took at least 15 minutes to get that van turned around toward the direction we came from in the limited space! Well done, Paul!

GREAT TRAVELERS!!!!

Also, we enjoyed getting to know each of our six travelers and could easily travel again with any one of them. Many thanks to each of you for being delightful, initiative, and responding well to our pivots and offering your own pivots at key points along the trip. You will forever be our

Coke Zero Group!

For the love of discovery,

Annie