Parfum de France

Now that we've decided on the excursion we'd like to take for our last port, I decided to turn my attention back to the first port. I must admit, I quite like the sound of the excursions that venture into Provencal villages.

The first is the Grasse & St. Paul-de-Vence excursion. How interesting would it be to visit a perfume factory? I think it would be fascinating.

I also looked up St. Paul-de-Vence (I'd never heard of it before) and found that it's a fortified medieval town about an hour inland from Cannes, right in the Provencal countryside. It's quite an impressive looking place. I fell in love with this stairway (lame, I know), don't you want to know what it's heading off towards? Many of the travel sites describe St P-de-V as "touristy." Seeing as we're first time tourists to Europe, I don't know that that would be such a bad thing.


The other excursion that I think would be tres bien is the tour of Fayence and Seillans. These are villages nestled into the Alps (so we could say we'd been to not only the French Riviera, but the French Alps as well!). I read that Seillans has often been called the "prettiest village in France," and I've got admit, I'm curious. PLUS....Seillans has a CASTLE at its summit. You know how I love castles. Seeing one in real life may bring me to tears.

As these are both afternoon excursions, and relatively inexpensive. We could explore Cannes on our own in the morning, and at our leisure.