French riviera - What to see?

[Cardo]

Evening, all!

The Little Ship Tinkerbell shall be sailing through this area over the next couple of weeks. We are currently in Calvi in the north of Corsica, looking to cross over to Nice probably sometime later this week. The plan then is to visit Monaco, then travel westbound until we hit the Rhone and then head up the canals.

Seeing as this area appears to be the playground for a large group of you, could you provide some advice on what not to miss? We're only a small sailing boat, so things dozens of miles out of the way aren't really viable, but pretty anchorages, etc. en route would be ideal.

Also, Boss Lady would like to know if there's any places to get UK supplies. She's mostly after Twinings Earl Grey tea and Robinson's squash (or similar), so any advice on shops where these are available would be grand.

Ta muchly.

 

[benjenbav]

You'll be wanting Antibes, if only for Geoffrey's British Supermarket.

Even Marmite...

 

[jfm]

Yup, BJB is right. Easy walk from the port. actually most Casino supermarkets now have an English shelf with HP sauce and marmite, but Geoffrey's is the leader. Dont check the prices; just hand over your card and smile. They definitely do Robinsons R squash and twinings EG and EB

I reckon cross to Monaco and don't bother going further east. Then as you head west the nice stops are
The little inlet 3/4mile w of Monaco, forgotten the name
E side cap ferrat (2 ports, Beaulieu and st Jean, and a few on this forum in the former)
Villefranche
Quick look in nice harbour maybe but prepare for stroppy port folk
Antibes - beautiful (plenty of forum folk there)
Garoupe - E side Cap D'antibes
W side Cap D'Antibes (juan les pins)
Lerins islands - beautiful but busy. Most boat brochures shot here
Cannes old port if you want. Nice city port
2 nice ports La Napoule (portofino's) and La Rague)
Theoule (park overnight on the inner edge of the outer breakwater, without paying)
Then a gap till Agay
St Raphael
Frejus but I don't love it
Ste maxime perhaps
St Tropez including port grimaud
Pampelonne beach
Cap camarat and just around the corner Point des doaunes

That's the end of the Riviera

I was in Calvi last week - afternoon stop for lunch and some fuel - I don't know you were there or would have said hello! We were en route from St florent to girolata

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

You'll be wanting Antibes, if only for Geoffrey's British Supermarket.

Even Marmite...

After Monaco I'd definitely head for Villefranche, very pretty anchorage. Get right in and anchor in c. 5m in the ne corner (but not inside the no anchoring buoys). From there heading west, Antibes is worth a visit if you want to pick up Brit supplies as BJB has said (Geoffrey's is a short walk from the port). Then round the Cap d'Antibes to the Iles des Lerins off Cannes, easy anchorage between the islands in 3-5m.

I'll be down at the end of the week so if you've got a catastrophically urgent need for something from the UK (that can go in hand luggage) then feel free to pm.

 

[Mrnotming]

Beware of the Power Cable between Illes Lerins.I cannot remember the name of the seaward one.
Anyhow, it is not where its position appears on the chart,I happen to know!You say your yacht is small, which means that Villefranche will likely find you a space within, especially if you can be seen hovering near the fuel berth.(buy some fuel to gain negotiating time!)

 

[Whitelighter]

There is a chance I'll be in and around St Maxime in three weeks.

I'll happily bring a care parcel down if you can't get anything specific

 

[Portofino]

Your best bet when ashore is to buy from a newsagent
"les plus Beaux Mouillages "
It's got the 2015 best 47 "Mouillages a decouvrir " and " 20 escales incontournables " from Menton to Marseille
English stuff predictably in Antibes and surprisingly Porqueroles
Mid route if you want a few days off or Mistral I reccomend Cavaliere or furthest W Bandol as place to hold up .

 

[Mr Proach]

places to stop on the river upstream for me would be;

Aigues Mortes (the two bridges between Port Camargue and the town need some planning!)
Avignon
Valence
Macon

 

[alt]

I cannot remember all the stop-offs we anchored / berthed at when on the forum cruise with BartW & co. but we did go as far east as Menton and I loved it. I won't argue with jfm who knows this region like the back of his hand, but I know we did go further east than Monaco (Menton) and it was quite nice. However, different time budgets etc. will change that... we were on a cruise and covered a lot of ground.

TBH from the second I boarded Blue Angel, until the second we departed a week later, I had an absolute blast. If I had the time, i'd have my boat down there in a heartbeat. If anyone in that region wants to spend a few days on a beautiful lake on the West Coast of Ireland, i'll happily swap it for an afternoon along the SoF coastline

 

[Sybarite]

You'll be wanting Antibes, if only for Geoffrey's British Supermarket.

Even Marmite...

Marmite you can get nearly everywhere.

 

[Sybarite]

Evening, all!

The Little Ship Tinkerbell shall be sailing through this area over the next couple of weeks. We are currently in Calvi in the north of Corsica, looking to cross over to Nice probably sometime later this week. The plan then is to visit Monaco, then travel westbound until we hit the Rhone and then head up the canals.

Seeing as this area appears to be the playground for a large group of you, could you provide some advice on what not to miss? We're only a small sailing boat, so things dozens of miles out of the way aren't really viable, but pretty anchorages, etc. en route would be ideal.

Also, Boss Lady would like to know if there's any places to get UK supplies. She's mostly after Twinings Earl Grey tea and Robinson's squash (or similar), so any advice on shops where these are available would be grand.

Ta muchly.

Twinings Earl Grey tea - most supermarkets.

 

[mcanderson]

Hi Cardo ,

We have our boat in Beaulieu Sur Mer. Plenty of places to anchor if you don't want to try for a berth. The captinarie are very good and will help you find a berth. Here you can grab a train to Monaco and the local supermarket (SuperU) has an English section. The train is only 3 stops to Monaco. 3 to Nice regular and cheap. Enjoy the area we love it. Most ports will give you a couple of hours for free over lunch if you are planning on eating at the port ?

Also tune your radio to 106.5 for Riviera Radio.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Also tune your radio to 106.5 for Riviera Radio.

... if you really, really like Boney M, that is

 

[Portofino]

... if you really, really like Boney M, that is

Inbetween really duff investment advice

 

[mcanderson]

And the great travel advice!

 

[wakeup]

and interviews with the CEO of a well known underwater lighting company ;-)

 

[Designo]

Sanary sur Mer is a very nice stop, near Bandol.

 

[adey]

Further around there's a must do....Porquerolles.
Ahh, Pork Rolls..

Also the Calanques near Cassis, including Ile de Riou (as well as Cassis itself).

 

[rustybarge]

Its worth getting a hire car for the day to visit the mountains behind the coast. The gorge du Verdon is the 'grand canyon' in France and lovely day out, you can stop in Moustiers for lunch. Remember to take the south side going so you get the view from the car.


The best wine in the Provence comes from the plain d'Escalans near le Muy (horrid) just off the autoroute . have lunch at the farmers co-op on the Escalans road out of Le Muy at Maurette's (shared tables, dish of the day, authentic local cuisine), then visit Jas d'Escalans vineyard: their champenoise is to kill for.

Return via Fayence and have dinner in Seillans at the deux Roch restaraurnt, beautiful little village well worth a visit .
Best gliding in Europe at Fayence if you're interested, world class golf club (yuck :ambivalence

Have fun!

 

[Cardo]

Thank you all very much for all the info. We've made a note of it all and will do as much as we can. We're currently sitting in a cloudy anchorage just outside St. Jean Cap Ferrat marina. A rather intimidating ratio of mobos to yochties around here! We ended up crossing over from Corsica last night, a few days earlier than planned as the Mistral looks to be blowing up again so wanted to beat it before the naff swell picked up. We're now swanning around for a few days before we pick up a friend in Nice. SWMBO has her eye on anchoring outside Antibes so we can go on a supplies run.

I was in Calvi last week - afternoon stop for lunch and some fuel - I don't know you were there or would have said hello! We were en route from St florent to girolata

Ah, we'd only just arrived in Calvi when I posted this, so you'd have been long gone. However, you probably passed quite close to us as we travelled up the west coast of Corsica.