This video is an excerpt from a much longer France travel talk by Steve Smith.
To view other topics or to watch Steve's France talk in its entirety, visit
ricksteves.com, or check out my Rick Steves YouTube channel. Enjoy.
Provence and the French Riviera anchor the south[eastern] corner of your trip here. It makes a grand
finale in the south[eastern] corner. Provence provides a splendid recipe of
arid climate, seas of vineyards, fields of lavender, sunflowers, so good and
great cities and villages, that we had to write a book just dedicated to this one
region, the size of the state of Massachusetts, is this little region of
Provence and the French Riviera. It features great cities like Arles,
a principal Roman city on the Via Domitia that connected Italy with Spain.
Here in Arles, 50,000 people, you can explore its Roman history which is--
its heritage is shown beautifully. It's also an inexpensive place to stay with great
hotels and restaurants in remarkable price ranges.
The Ancient-- Antique Museum of Arles presents its Roman history.
Look at how little the city looks to have changed,
let's look backwards. Here it is today, this is what it looked like in a
model in this museum that I'm showing you, two thousand years ago. Geez, I wish
every city had a museum like this, that presented what the city looked like in its
heyday, you see. And then from the model of the city of Arles, there's the arena,
there's the theater, the Roman theater, there's the forum, and then you go
model to model over, and see all of its great monuments, Roman monuments, in
this museum. It's a great way to start your Roman lesson 101. Then get out
in the city of Arles, and see the real thing, whether it's its great theater, its
Roman arena that could handle 25,000 gladiator crazy fans two thousand years
ago, and enjoy it's market days. Two days a week where you'll feature its
fine olives, a feature of the of the Provence
cuisine and tapenade. The market days throughout the region of Provence are
terrific, and Arles has two of them, has two days of the greatest of them.
Vincent van Gogh spent-- dropped down-- came down to the city of Arles when he was
just 35 years old, hoping to jump-start his career, his artistic career and a
social life. Coming from the flatlands, and the Grey skies of Holland, he was bowled over
by everything Provencal. The wind, the sunshine 350 days of the year, and he
lived here for 18 months, sadly.
And this is the region, when he lived here, that influenced his art so
greatly, and the paintings that we see, that we love of Vincent van Gogh's were painted
when he was at his time here.
Productive artist he was, cranking out a masterpiece every two to three days
during his time here. There are very few of his paintings, maybe one or two, left
that we can visit, depending on the year, in the city of Arles, but you can go in the
footsteps, a tour, of Vincent van Gogh, and stand where he did, you see, and look on
the edge of the river, of the Rhone River, over the city of Arles, and watch Starry
Night over the, over the skylight and see what he say, it looks just the same today.
Twelve different panels are positioned in Arles, taking you on the footsteps of
Vincent van Gogh, showing paintings of what you're looking at that he painted in
his style. I'd love that. Half an hour north of Arles lies the walled city
of Avignon. Behind its powerful walls lies an interesting history. Avignon is
twice the size of Arles, with more of a sophisticated look and a great vibe from
its market squares. It's a young city, it's a student city, with very little to do in
terms of sightseeing. This is the sight in Avignon, and I actually think it's a
rather mediocre one, though historically, it's critically important. This is the
Pope's palace in the year-- in the 1300's, for almost a hundred years. The
Vatican was moved to southern France, and the entire city of Avignon was given a
makeover. Nine popes ruled from here in the 1300's. You can tour the inside of the
Pope's palace in Avignon, it's largely vacant rooms, with not a lot of
things to see, but the history is interesting. That said, you get a lot of
history by staring at it from the outside, if you want to,
as well. "Sur Le Pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse." You can walk
on this famous medieval bridge if you want to, once 3,000 feet long with 22 arches,
there are only four arches left to cross. Avignon makes a brilliant base for those
who don't have cars for sightseeing in the Provence area.
Buses and trains get you out to see its most important sites, and those would be
the Roman sites nearby. The Pont Du Gard is just 45 minutes by bus, 30 minutes by
your own car, probably, from the city of Avignon. Here the greatest Roman aqueduct
that we get to see today in Europe. Carried nine million gallons of water a
day across this aqueduct, along a 30 mile channel, to serve the important Roman city of
Nîmes, dropping one inch for every 350 feet as it went.
It's a remarkable accomplishment that two thousand years ago this bridge was built,
this aqueduct, before the invention of gunpowder, gunpowder?
Mortar. I'm getting tired. Before the invention of mortar, so these stones are
just positioned into place perfectly. Still today, floods happen on a regular basis
in southern France. Modern bridges wash away, Roman bridges lie intact. The Nîmes, the
city of Nîmes, that the Pont Du Gard served, has one of the greatest Roman monuments,
the Maison Carrée, the best-preserved interior, a brilliant Roman arena nearby,
about half an hour from Avignon by train.
Half an hour north, the city of Orange offers Roman sightseers the best
preserved Roman theater of Antiquity. Easy by train to visit, 10,000 people
could attend a Roman play, opera, or musical here and experience remarkable
sound effects, thunder, lightning. Go to visit the theater of Orange to appreciate
what the Romans were capable of. For many people, the most important part of
traveling in Provence is getting out onto the
roadways, like this, and escaping the maddening crowds, and getting out to
explore the gorgeous, arid landscape dotted with olive trees, vineyards. We
do a self-guided driving tour through the Cotes du Rhone vineyards in the France book
and the Provence book. Friendly, easy-going tasting places like this, and
hill towns like this likely, like Le Beau, the powerful hill town of Le Beau. Or France's
answer to Tuscany, the Luberon hill towns of Gordes, or my favorite, Roussillon,
with cozy squares, and lovely places to spend the night or at least some time,
before heading off onto the French Riviera.
Just a few hours east of these hill towns that I just showed you,
and the city of Arles and Avignon, lies the French Riviera.
Attracting cruise ships, sun worshipers, and travelers,
with a surprising array of sights for you to visit.
The city of Nice is the epicenter of this area, with its best--
with France's second-best and most easy to use airport,
lots of people fly into Nice and out of Paris or vice versa.
It's half an hour for all that we cover,
for all that's interesting on the French Riviera.
It's half an hour from Nice to Antibes by train,
and about the same distance to Monaco at the eastern edge.
Don't bring a car. If you're renting a car, rent it when you're ready to leave.
If you have a car when you arrive, drop it off right away.
Public transit in this area is brilliant, and the penalty for trying to drive in this
compact area is high.
Nice is the fifth-largest city of France, it's a gorgeous city that's
really cleaned up its act in the last five years, thanks largely to its tramway
system, where all of the cars were taken off the roads that it goes near
including great squares. Until this tramway was built just a few years ago, the
Place Massena here had cars racing right through it. Today it looks like this, and
at night it looks like this. How pedestrian-friendly, and how-- what a change
to the character of Nice, this is, and for me, as a guide book writer, to see some place
change that, well, that I used to not look forward to going to is a joy. Stand up on
Castle Hill, and admire the fact that just below you, the old city of Nice is
very Italianesque when you wander through it. And we do a walking--
self-guided walking tour through the city of Nice, the old city, that looks more, really,
looks like it could be in downtown
Rome. Well until the late 1800's this was Italian, it was part of a principality
owned by Italy. So the food, the architecture, feels very Italianesque in Nice. Market days, the
Cours Saleya is the heartbeat at the center city of old Nice. The Promenade des
Anglais is essential for understanding that the history of the city began, really of
importance, about a hundred years ago, when Russian and British tourists
started to come here to escape their dreary winter weather. You can-- we
do a self-guided walking tour in our guidebook, taking you along the Promenade
des Anglais, which looks like this today by the way.
Sunny weather, probably 65 degrees, something like that, nobody's lying on the beach.
Come in the summertime, it looks a little bit different, doesn't it. Who would do this?
Lie on rocky beaches like this? The French don't care, it doesn't matter. They rent
lounges, and chairs, and such to avoid the rocks commonly, but for you, put yourself
in one of these lovely chairs and just let the scenery in front of you pass by,
and enjoy the Promenade des Anglais. The Riviera is France's greatest corner for
understanding contemporary art. There it drew artists, thanks to WWI, post-WWI,
a variety of artists from Renoir to Marc Chagall, whose museum we're looking at, to
Pablo Picasso, and many others. And there is a museum dedicated to each of those
artists along the Riviera, several of them in the city of Nice alone, here the
greatest museum that you want to see is dedicated to Marc Chagall, who painted a
series of 17 paintings, just for this museum, inspired by the Bible, passages
from the Bible. This is a brilliant museum and we take you on a self-guided
tour through it, thanks to the genius of Gene Openshaw, again, with the help of
Rick Steves. I just get to update it when I go. The other museum nearby, just a couple of
minutes away, is dedicated to Henri Matisse, who lived just before Marc Chagall, died in
the early nineteen hundreds. And he painted in an abstract style, his museum, the museum
dedicated to Henri Matisse is less compelling to me, less essential for your visit.
Though if you're a Matisse fan you
must go visit, right. Dedicated the church, the Russian Church in Nice is an
interesting site to visit, without question. Here five hundred families doled
together their money to build this church, well thanks to the czar principally, the
500 families who lived in Nice year round used this is a place of worship. And
it's a fascinating-- it's the greatest, probably the greatest Russian Orthodox Church outside
the country.
Fascinating place to visit. Day trips from Nice are easy. Thanks to buses and practical
trains, you can go next door, 15 minutes away, to the lovely city of
Villefranche-sur-Mer, where many people prefer
establishing their home base, because it's so quick to get into downtown Nice,
if you want, and then get away to this lovely little small village for their
Riviera experience.
Buses and trains connect it to downtown Nice on a regular basis in one direction,
in the other you can walk along beautiful seafront promenades, across to
the Peninsula of Cap Ferrat. Visit the remarkable Villa Ephrussi de
Rothschild, with seven different gardens, gorgeous interior, but the gardens are what
it's all about. Looking to Monaco on one direction and Villefranche the other, have
dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, the Plage de Passable here, with views
back onto Villefranche. It's about a 45 minute walk, taxis will take you there in about
10 minutes. Having dinner, watching the light of Villefranche come on, on the
beach, is a marvelous experience to have. And what to eat? In Nice, bouillabaisse. Anything from the sea is
very expensive, bouillabaisse is, but there are cheaper versions like bourride, B-O-U-R-R-I-D-E.
Anything shellfish from the Mediterranean makes logical sense to
order in this region. End your sightseeing on the French Riviera at the--
if you see it once, that's enough, but you gotta go there-- Principality of
Monaco. This principality, just 30 minutes outside of Nice, another twenty maybe
from Villefranche, is where 30,000 Monegasques live today, most because of the
tax-free status, income tax free status. You'll want to tour the rock, Monaco-Ville.
There are two principal parts of this small little principality, I think it's
30 kilometers, it's smaller than Edmonds. It's its own country, but it uses French
currency and a lot. Visit the rock, the Monaco-Ville, where Prince Rainier's palace,
now Prince Albert's palaces, remember, married Grace Kelly, and arrive before noon
every day for the changing of the guard. Which is sort of silly to contemplate
that a country this size has a changing of the guard, and all of its
pomp and circumstance, when you consider there are more people in the
Philharmonic in Monaco than in the army. I like that, alright. Then cross the port here,
where race cars have raised since 1929 up and down these hills, doing 78 laps in
the Monaco Grand Prix, and find the neighborhood of Monaco called
Monte Carlo. And here, the casino is the main site, right, this is the if they
build-- "if you build it they will come,"
structure in Monaco, built as a economic investment plan where you can
feel downright James Bond-like after two o'clock. Anybody can enter, it's free now
to enter the gaming rooms, but you have to dress up and look as nice as you
possibly can.
Shorts are not allowed, tennis shoes, and this kind of thing. Wear the best thing
that you brought with you and spend your last night, maybe, on your French
experience in this glimmering city of Monaco. It's glorious at night. Easy to get back to your
home base in Nice or Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Well, this southeastern corner of France is covered perfectly well in our France book,
but even better in our book that dedicates itself to Provence and the
Riviera. All the information is updated on our website, information about our
tours. Things change, so we update our books on our website. Check our website out
before you go, maybe the price or maybe the price of a great monument has changed, or its
closed. you'll find information on our website. And I know, that if you go to
France, no matter what region you choose to go to, if you paddle on your own,
choosing to do it on your own, or with a group,
you'll have a marvelous experience, because of those waiters, not in spite of them.
"Merci," everybody. Thank you for your attention on this rainy night.
If you've enjoyed this video, you'll find lots more at ricksteves.com, and on my
Rick Steves YouTube channel. Happy travels, and thanks for joining us.