Summer of 2021 was the first summer after COVID when travelling was really possible within Europe. We took this opportunity and decided to visit Southern France in August to get some sun, good food and most of all – see amazing lavender fields while they were still in full violet!

Southern France has everything you will need for holiday – amazing nature, historic sights, incredible food and the seaside. This region is especially suitable for a road trip – we rented a car and were hopping from place to place everyday. That allowed us to see a lot of different spots – Carcassonne with its medieval ruins, lavender fields, cities like Nice or Marseille, but also gems like Gorges du Verdon!

Top spots to visit in Southern France

• Carcassonne. Medieval city with its historic stone walls makes unforgettable impression. Especially if you will go to one of the nearby viewing points at sunset or you will walk around the city after the dark!

• Gorges du Verdon. Beautiful gorge with turquoise water. Ideal spot to rent a kayak and paddle for few hours while chilling on the water. One of the most picturesques spots I have ever visited in Europe!

• Lavender fields in Provence. We were at the absolute end of the season, so the only place we could still see lavender was on the way to Sault, where season is slightly longer (due to the higher altitude and lower temperature). Lavender fields are really beautiful and it is unique experience to see them blossoming!

• Pink lakes. When you search about Southern France on Instagram, the most popular pictures are depicting pink lakes. Surprisingly, they are real and their existence is possible thanks to algae living in very salty waters – that’s why you can usually see such spot around salt factories!

Best things to eat

Southern France is a perfect place for people who like to eat good food. However, it’s different type of dinning than in Italy, where it’s more about extremely tasty basic dishes (like pizza or pasta). In France dinning is more focused on being exclusive, artistic and the dishes are everything, but not basic. Both styles have their supporters, but regardless of your preference you will for sure enjoy food in Southern France! We found our sweet spot when it comes to price / quality ratio by going to Micheline recommended restaurants, but in slightly smaller cities (like Avignon). That made price relatively okey, while the quality was still really high. The best restaurant we visited was L’Agape in Avignon!

On the side note – in Niece and Marseille it’s hard to get table in restaurant without booking it in advance. Due to many tourists, most of the good restaurants are always full. Also the quality on average is slightly lower than in smaller towns – you really need to know where to go.

Costs of travelling

We travelled to Southern France in 2021 and since that time prices increased heavily. However, at that time 9 days holiday with flights, car rental and gasoline, hotels, food and other experiences (like kayaking) costed us around 2.000 € per person. It’s not very cheap, but we really managed to see a lot in that time and it was still the high season in that part of Europe. I can imagine that in September we would manage to cut costs by at least 30%.

Example prices:

• Hotel – between 60 € to 160 € per night for 2 people (Niece and Marseille being more expensive)
• Car rental – 600 € for 2 people
• Dinner at the restaurant – around 25-30€ per person in most cases, but it can be up to 45€ in the really good places

Itinerary

The whole trip took 9 days, but it felt very intensive – almost every day we slept in a different spot and moved few hundred kilometres with car. It helped us to see really a lot during such a short period.

• Day 0: Flight to Montpellier in the afternoon and getting car
• Day 1: Nimes, Pont du Guard and Avignon
• Day 2: Provence: Gordes, Rousilion, Sault, Lavender fields
• Day 3: Gorges du Verdon, Grasse, Nice
• Day 4: Monaco day trip
• Day 5: Nice and Marseille
• Day 6: Marseille, pink lakes at Salon-de-Giraud, Aigues-Mortes
• Day 7: Pink lakes at Aigues-Mortes and Carassonne
• Day 8: Montpellier
• Day 9: Coming back

Day 1: Nimes, Pont du Guard and Avignon

After arriving and renting the car on the previous evening, we started our first day by going to 3 cities with Roman heritage. It was a day focused on the history!

Nimes

We spend few hours walking around the city and the local park with Roman remains, but the most interesting part was the Amphitheatre – one of the biggest ones that are still so well preserved. It’s maybe not the size of the Colosseum in Rome, but still it’s very impressive!

Pont du Guard

Famous aqueduct from Roman era that is an impressive testament to Roman engineering level. The whole route transported water over 50km distance and the alititude difference between start and the end is only 17m. This means that builders of the aqueduct needed to be extremely precise to ensure steady flow of the water. It’s hard to imagine that this construction is over 2.000 years old!

Avignon

During XIV century 7 subsequent popes resided in Avignon instead of Rome. It was connected with French having political power over papacy and church. This was one of darkest moments of Catholic Church history, but it led to building beautiful Palace of the Popes – really impressive spot that is worth visiting!

Avignon has also famous, half-destroyed bridge and beautiful historic city centre with many restaurants. One of our best meals during the trip was in Avignon! We were also lucky to come across light / animation festival during which there were several digital art videos displayed on the facades of the buildings.

Day 2: Provence: Gordes, Rousilion, Sault, Lavender fields

On our second day we drove through Provence and stopped in several villages – it’s quite fascinating how each of them has its unique look and atmosphere, while they are all quite close to each other.

Gordes

Small village located on the hill, which means that view on the surrounding fields is just stunning. We walked around and then drove to visit Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque – famous monastery with lavender fields. Unfortunately, lavender fields were already cut down, so we didn’t manage to really grasp the beauty of the place. But if you are in France during June – July, probably it’s much more rewarding to visit that monastery!

Rousilion

This village is very famous for its ochre deposits (orange coloured clay earth pigment), which also were used for local buildings – this means that the whole village is orange. During sunny day it makes unforgettable impression! You can also take a hike in the ochre mining hills, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to do it, due to time constraints.

Sault

This was one of our biggest disappointments. Sault is located on higher elevation than the rest of the region. This means that lavender is cut there later than in the other places and that’s why they host in August lavender festival. One of our main goals of going to Southern France was to participate in this festival. To our surprise, when we arrived there was absolutely no festival and no lavender fields. It turned out that due to covid, the whole event was cancelled, but it was not really mentioned in English sources of information. Fortunately though, we stopped at Lavender fields on the way to Sault, so we still enjoyed unique violet view of Provance!

Day 3: Gorges du Verdon, Grasse, Nice

This was one of the most interesting days during our trip. In the morning we did a little bit of pedal boating activity in Gorges de Verdon, then we went to Grasse for perfume workshop and finished checking-in in Nice!

Gorges de Verdon

It’s a river canyon most famous from its turquoise water and beautiful scenery. The best way to visit this spot is to rent pedal boat or kayak. It’s worth to come quite early – parking spots quickly fill in and there can be quite long line to the boats rental. I personally advise to go for pedal boat than for kayak – it’s much more relaxing experience and there is a dry spot for your camera and other personal stuff.

Grasse

World capital of perfumes. We visited there museum of perfumes, but due to covid they removed all the scents to avoid people passing the virus. But that completely destroyed the experience – in the museum of perfumes you are not allowed to smell perfumes… So after just few rooms we decided to skip it and instead we booked spot for Yi at a workshop where she could create her own perfumes. We did it at Studio des Fragrances Galimard (link) and it was a really cool experience – they teach you about different elements of perfumes and how to connect them. Plus they help you with getting proper mixture. They were extremely helpful and friendly and even though it turned out that normally you need to book a spot well in advance, they accepted our last-minute reservation – it went through in the system due to a website mistake, but they still managed to create additional workshop spot!

Nice

In the evening we arrived to Nice. We slept there for 2 days, but because we got food poisoned on the first evening, we really didn’t manage to see a lot. It’s a really nice looking seaside city with a long promenade and many posh buildings. It’s quite famous for its rows of blue chairs – you can even buy magnets in such shape! Nice is full of life and parties, but it’s less good if you just want to spend time at the seaside – beach is mainly made of small stones.

Day 4: Monaco day trip

Next day we went to Monaco for a day trip, while keeping our accomodation in Nice. Monaco didn’t impress us that much. You can see a lot of wealth, but most of it is more in the form of expensive cars and yachts. There is not that many attractions and a lot of buildings are rather in style that reminds me more communistic architecture rather than one of the most expensive places on the planet. However, we still managed to see few interesting spots.

Casino de Monte Carlo

One of the most famous casinos in the world. In front you can see a lot of very expensive cars and inside has one of the most beautiful interiors you can find in casinos around the world – it was designed and built in XIX century to generate revenue for at that time almost bankrupt royal family of Monaco.

Casino opens around 14:00 and you can pay 17€ for an entry ticket, but then you can spend this money inside playing. It’s just enough for few minutes of fun, but thanks to that you will have a chance to see beautiful interiors of the casino. Important! Officially there is no required dress code, but entering in flip flops may be slightly too much and they may refuse allowing you to enter!

Musee Oceanographique de Monaco

One of the nicest places in Monaco – especially the aquarium part with many different sea animals from all over the world! Must-visit spot!

Jardin Exotique

Small garden with exotic plants – mainly cactuses and succulents. It is quite famous, but to be honest we didn’t like it that much – it mostly looks like a gardening shop with cactuses. Bearing in mind it’s located quite far from the centre, I would advise to skip it.

La Rocher (The Rock)

The only part of Monaco that was preserved in its original shape. It’s much nicer than the other parts of the city and we enjoyed walking around and seeing the view (as it’s located on the cliff above the rest of Monaco). Even architecture here was way more appealing.

Day 5: Nice and Marseille

On day 5 we were still quite food poisoned, so we skipped everything in Nice and when the time of hotel check-out approached, we drove to Marseille with a short stop at Aix-en-Provence. In the evening we felt a little bit better, so went around the port in Marseille and finally managed to eat some light food.

Aix-en-Provence

This city is very famous due to Van Gogh living here for some time during his life. Aix-en-Provence is really pretty, but due to our food poisoning, we only managed to do a short walk around. I hope that in the future we will manage to come there again to see more!

Marseille’s port

Marseille is very unique city. I must admit I have never been to any similar place in my life. On one side it’s one of the oldest cities in Europe, but on the other it never had that much importance as other cities like Rome or Athens. Always welcoming for the immigration and being a melting pot of very different cultures makes it very lively. And port is the centre of this liveliness and beating heart of the city. There, on the harbour you can see how in the evening people sit around with music and enjoy the water. It was very different than Nice (which is more posh) and absolutely worth taking a stroll at the port at that time!

Day 6: Marseille, pink lakes at Salon-de-Giraud, Aigues-Mortes

The next day we finished sightseeing in Marseille by visiting local museum and getting a boat tour. Afterwards we drove to see famous pink lakes!

Mucem

Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean. When we arrived they already finished their most famous exhibition, but we still spent few hours there. They have the permanent exhibition which focuses more on the Mediterranean life and temporary ones, which may be very different in subject. When we visited, the exhibition was focused on Jeff Koons art, which was extraordinary and quite interesting (it was different than any other modern art I have seen).

Boat trip

We booked a few hours trip to famous Marseille’s Calanques (small rocky bays). We booked it directly in the harbour in the morning and took the shorter circuit. It was nice to spend some time on the boat, but unfortunately, the views are not that specular and you sail long way just for short time at the spot. So my advise would be – if you want the boat experience look for more hours and more private tour with less people. It’s possible to find such trips, but you need to book them in advance!

Pink lakes at Salon-de-Giraud

Pink lakes are very popular on Instagram when you search for Southern France spots. Their unique colour is created thanks to the microscopic algae which lives in salty waters and produces beta-carotene (yes, the same one you can eat in a carrot) to protect itself from the sun. That’s why such phenomena happens only in the places where salt is produced. The most famous is Aigues-Mortes, but we managed to find spot that was much less crowded and still very pink! However, it is very similar to Aigues-Mortes, so I would recommend to visit only one of these two, unless you have more time!

Aigues-Mortes

In the evening we arrived to Aigues- Mortes. We came there mainly for the pink lakes, which we planned to visit on the subsequent day, but it turned out that the city itself was quite nice – mainly thanks to stone walls surrounding it. We even managed to do the small tour of 1,5 hours to walk on the top of the wall around the whole city.

Day 7: Pink lakes at Aigues-Mortes and Carassonne

Aigues-Mortes pink lakes

Next day we visited famous pink lakes at Aigues-Mortes. The only problem was the temperature – it was scorching hot and we needed to walk quite some distance in open field without any shade. But other than this, it was unique experience – water is really as pink as you can see on the pictures! Normally this spot is a salt factory and you can see parts of it operating when you walk around.

There are several ways to visit pink lakes, but the most convenient is walking. It’s possible to bike there, but for this you need to bring your own bike. The other alternative is small train, but this is more interesting if you have children – otherwise you loose freedom to take photos and stay longer at certain spots. More details you can find on their website: link.

Carassonne

Visiting this famous medieval city was my long time dream – probably since I first played board game named after it. And I must admit this place lived to its hype! Thanks to its stoned walls and well preserved interior you really feel like you used time machine and moved to the medieval era. Interestingly enough, Carcassone has its other side – modern city with its normal centre and local people living there. Medieval city is not anymore inhabited by local people – it’s fully tourist attraction and medieval heritage monument.

One of the highlights of our visit was the night tour with an audio guide (link) – apparently in the past it was not the best, but improved a lot in the recent years. It’s really magical to walk on walls of Carcassone in the night while seeing all the city illuminated!

Additional thing that is really worth doing in Carcassonne is visiting during the sunset view point located slightly outside of the city. You can capture some really unforgettable memories! View point is located here: link, but please be aware that this is not an official spot – it’s more like a place where the view at the sunset is very good, so people marked it in Google Maps, even if it’s in the middle of someone fields (fortunately publicly accessible fields).

And if you look for a local bar with a nice view to the old city, La Meitarie is your choice (link).

Day 8: Montpellier

Last 1,5 days we spent in Montpellier. We really underestimated this city – we only thought about it as a gateway to Southern France, but at the end we really enjoyed our time there – a lot of nice shops, restaurants and pretty old town. We especially liked small perfume atelier (link) where we managed to buy very unique perfumes! We also enjoyed visit to farmers market – we could really see that the quality of vegetables and food in France is on a much higher level than in any other country (with maybe exception of Italy)!

Day 9: Coming back

All in all, we really enjoyed our trip to Southern France. We managed to see a lot in just 9 days and I’m pretty sure we will come back one day – especially to Provence! We found this region really unique and magnetic!