AzurAlive

French Riviera Holiday Shopping

Between budget squeezes, financial collapses and electoral hopes, it's easy to forget holidays approach thunder fast.

Southern France has plenty for giving. Take a look at some unique gift ideas to bring back from the Côte d'Azur.

1. Glass Art in Biot

The village of Biot, located north-east of Cannes, is France's capital of glass. You can shop at galleries but also watch glass artisans as they blow and shape melting glass into glass sculptures. Some well-known names: Novaro, Saba, and Pierini. Most of Biot's galleries will pack and ship their wares internationally.

See La Verrerie de Biot, 5 Chemin Combes, Biot, ☎ 33 04 93 65 03 00, verrerie@verreriebiot.com,

2. Perfume from Grasse

The town of Grasse on the Riviera is the perfume-making capital of France. Try one or all of the three factories open to tourists — Molinard, Galimard, and Fragonard set in a former 18C tannery.

Don't miss the newly renovated Musée International de la Parfumerie devoted to the history of perfume and its evolution through the centuries.

3. Wines from Lorgues

The French Riviera back country brims with fine Provence wines, from the Bellet variety close to Nice to the Côte de Provence wines from the Collines du Haut Pays region or from the Coteau Varois along the coast.

For an expansive selection of wines (over 600) for learning, tasting and purchasing, visit the Maison des Vins in Les Arcs. Maison des Vins des Cotes de Provence, RN 7, 83460 Les Arcs sur Argens, ☎ (0)4 94 99 50 20

4. Marrons Glaçés from Collobrières

Candied chestnuts are incontournables in France for the holidays. I admit, I'm addicted. On the French Riviera, one confiserie is especially well-known for these sugar glazed delights:

La Confiserie Azuréenne in Collobrières in the Maures Mountains behind St Tropez.They'll pack and ship.

5. Lingerie from St Tropez

Lingerie is big on the French Riviera. Actually, it's tiny but hugely popular. So it's no surprise that St Tropez offers a number of fine lingerie shops, as does most self-respecting French town.  What may surprise you is that you can buy top-of-the-line lingerie and swimwear at reasonable prices (swimwear sales usually
takes place at the end of June). Maybe for Valentine's.

Eres is a darling of fashion lingerie and swimwear aficionados and has a boutique in St Tropez at: 2 rue Gambetta, ☎ 04 94 97 27 97. Also in Paris, New York, Palm Beach and a handful of other locations.

Le Sanglier & le Hiker

Les sangliers.

Obelix (from cartoon character series Asterix) loved them, especially roasted on a pit fire. Hunters in the Var and Alpes-Maritimes love them too.

As a hiker, I love them only from a great distance.

Wild boars (Sus scrofa scrofa) abound in the denser forests of the French Riviera. Their short, sturdy, scrubby bodies and large pig heads give them a rugged appearance, like a haggard version of a pig.

They forage the Côte d'Azur forests, digging burrows in the dirt with their long snouts. They're snorting around for acorns, chestnuts, mushrooms, roots, berries, anything to gobble up.

But they wouldn't gobble up a hiker? Or would they?

At dusk, below the Maison Forestière du Malpey in the Estérel Mountains I spotted one last week. It crossed my hiking path, sturdy head down, pig tail up in the air. It stopped and looked at me.

I must have looked like one strange animal with my red backpack, my hairless peach-colored top and a vague smell of lavender soap around me.

I didn't impress him (her?). It continued to trot down the road and disappeared offtrack.

Meanwhile, the peach-colored animal was seen dashing down the path, limbs wavering, and squealing: "un sanglier! un sanglier!"

Am I likely to encounter one on my Côte d'Azur walks?

If you ask local hunters, the sangliers are everywhere. They cause beaucoup de damage to local farmers and residents. And they're vicious beasts that could well attack you to protect their babies.

The reality is far lamer. It's difficult to estimate the number of wild boars because, well, they're wild. But they do roam in high numbers in dense forests of the Estérel, Maures or Tanneron and in the Nice back-country in our neck of the woods in South Eastern France.

You can tell of  their visit from the double-digit hoof prints left in muddy paths. Another tell-tale sign is the messy rooting found on the side of footpaths they've foraged. Foraging does happen in people's back-yards where homes border wilder land.

However, when they haven't been taught that some humans give food and grow lovely bulbs, they're shy and nocturnal. Your chances are slim to come nose to snout against one. In my years of hiking the forests between Nice and St Tropez, I've seen a wild boar only twice.

You're far more likely to find one on a Provençal menu in the Fall when hunting season is on.

Where on the French Riviera can I find one on my plate?

Most restaurants who serve wild boar are real and rustic auberges where home cooking prevails.

The restaurant La Petite Fontaine, in Collobrières (in the Maures Mountains), makes one mean Civet de Sanglier and occasional Daube de Sanglier (slow cooked in red wine). They're at 1 place de la République, Collobrières, Phone:  04.94.48.00.12. Call them to check as the sangliers tend to go fast, on food plates as well as in the wild.

Tour de France 2009: Princely Start in Monaco

Details on the 96th edition of the Tour De France went public yesterday with
Christian Prudhomme and Prince Albert II of Monaco announcing the Tour de France 2009 map and innovations.

For 2009, the Tour de France starts from Monaco on Saturday, July 4th. It will run to Sunday July 26th 2009, and include 21 stages covering 3,500 kilometers in total.

What does Lance Armstrong think about the 2009 TdF?

"The route of the 2009 Tour de France strikes me as innovative and very interesting," Armstrong responded to AFP reporters yesterday. Will he be part of the great 2009 Astana team riders? Dunno yet.

Can I stay stay right in Monaco on July 4 and 5?

If you're reading this early enough, yes. Reserve far ahead of July. Monaco expects 100% occupancy the night of the Tour.

Can I enter the Principality of Monaco by car on July 4th and 5th?

Yes, they say. No, we say. If you must, try the southern area of the principality by Cap d'Ail and Fontvieille.  But I would bet on serious jam-packing so let your feet do the traveling in Monaco that day as much as possible.

Will the 2009 Tour de France cross through Provence and the French Riviera?

On July 4th, the cyclists start and stop in Monaco at the Port Hercule.

On July 5th, the cyclists will pedal across the French Riviera preferring the rolling hills to the seaside. They'll zoom from Monaco to Cagnes-sur-Mer to Grasse by Fayence to Draguignan then through the vineyard hills of Lorgues to end the day in Brignoles.

The Monaco-Brignoles leg will stretch for 182 km through an area that makes for a fine tour of the Riviera's backcountry. But at about 40 km/hour on average (2008 winner average = 40.50 km/hr), competitors won't see much other than blurred countryside. But spectators will be sure to enjoy lots of folks out in the streets and plenty of local cheer in restaurants and pubs.

When is the leg up killer mountain Mont Ventoux?

The tour heads up Mont Ventoux on Saturday, July 25th, the day before the grand finale arrival at the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Where can I find out more about the 2009 Tour de France?

Details on http://www.letour.fr

Summer Counting on the French Riviera

It's September.

The French Riviera is chatting about the "rentrée scolaire", the back-to-school day. Kiddies, it's tomorrow, September 2nd.

And we're beginning to hear about the Côte d'Azur's "bilan touristique." How many visitors did the region count this summer? How are the hotels, campgrounds, restaurants and snacks of the French Riviera doing? After all, the PACA (Provence Azur) region counts about 150,000 jobs during the high season that are linked to tourism.

The tone? Mild disappointment. According to Jean-Marc Coppola and Comite Regional du Tourisme PACA, 2008 was not a block-buster summer for folks in the tourism industry. But it was reasonable.

Skeptics among you will say that this is the usual tone when summer draws to an end. OK. But still, a few trends emerged for 2008 tourism on the French Côte d'Azur. More commentary will come by the end of September:

• Number of visitors is stable as compared to last year.
• Visitors opted for shorter stays on tighter budgets.
• Visitors focused on urban areas as well as the coast and beach, as opposed to the mountains or back-country. Anecdotally, we noticed few hikers in the back-country but that's not a trend. It's always been that way (and we're not complaining ;-).
• Restaurants felt most of the impact of economic worries and wallet squeezing. Folks opted for salads, sandwiches and picnics on the beach rather than outings at restaurants.
• On the other hand, five star exclusive hotels and palaces sprinkled around the Côte d'Azur (such as those on Cap d'Antibes, St Tropez) did very well with affluent clients. If you don't care about the number of trailing zeros on the bill for that sea-view suite that wraps around the cape, be sure to reserve early.

Incidentally, Summer is not over. September makes for one of the best months to visit. It's still warm and, after the summer crowds, the sea feels like it's yours exclusively.

 

JellyFish: Mauve on the Move

The Pelagia noctiluca, a jellyfish also known as the Mauve stinger, dropped by the French Riviera last weekend. We had a personal and heated encounter with them on Sunday in Agay, between Cannes and St Raphael.

Sea currents carry swarms of the pinkish blobs across the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them let themselves drift to the shores of the French Riviera.

Not good. The jellyfish's tentacles sting and burn. Most pharmacies carry anti-sting creams that coat the skin and provide some level protection, but nothing fool-proof i'm told (i dare not test the claim).

The Pelagia noctiluca, thus named for its purplish night-time glow, normally floats in the Mediterranean Sea in manageable numbers. Their numbers are on the rise. Why? The main culprit is an increase in water temperatures. The Mediterranean Sea has warmed up by 1C since the beginning of the 20th century. And jellyfish predators, such as sea turtles and tunas, are now in dwindling numbers in the Med. So the lovely-named pulsating jellyfish are having a ball.

And they're moving to wider feeding grounds. Remember the spectacular jellyfish strike in Northern Ireland in 2007? See the CNN article. A dense and gigantic swarm of billions of jellyfish invaded and destroyed fish farm, wiping out 100,000 salmon fish.

Unfortunately, the battle against tuna over-fishing is fraught with short-term vision and not looking good. How about introducing more local sea turtles who gobble jellyfish? That's not necessarily effective: the sea turtles may return to lay eggs on the French Mediterranean coast, but they love to wander far out at sea.

Still, many coastal towns on the French Côte d'Azur are taking measures to keep the stingers at bay. In 2007, the city of Cannes installed a floating net that helps to keep them out of swimming areas. Monaco has them too.

Tourism boards in St Raphael are talking about installing them next year, should the blobs return to visit then. Other seaside towns will surely follow suit. A good measure to keep the stinging tentacles and  swimmers a safe distance apart.

Hiking across Occitania

The Italian cultural association of the "Chambra d'Oc" is  organizing a trek across Occitania, a linguistic and cultural  area that covers parts of northern Italy, southern France and northern Spain.    

The Occitania hike begins in Vinadio in the valleys of Piedmont in Italy on August 30, 2008 and ends in the Arran Valley in Catalonia, Spain, on November 7.    

The trek covers over 1200 km of trail, with a large chunk of the hike slicing across the Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes de Haute Provence, Vaucluse in the PACA region of France. Just above the Côte d'Azur, the hike enters France via the Park du Mercantour, to St-Dalmas-le-Selvage, to the Lac d'Allos and by the Col d'Allos (famous or infamous Tour de France summit), into the northern section of the Verdon Valley.


This trekking initiative is part of an awareness-raising project for the Occitania area, entitled "Occitania a pe"  (Occitania by foot). It's looking to encourage awareness for the Occitan language (we often hear it referred as "Provençal Language") and to foster dialogs between linguistically diverse people.

The hike is also part of a Chambra d'Oc campaign to add  the Occitan language to  UNESCO's world heritage list.

Click on the Occitania A Pe icon for details on the hike (in Oc, Italian and French :). You can join the fun at any of the organized stop points.

The Riviera Times: June Hiking

Hot off The Riviera Times presses!

The first in our series of monthly Côte d'Azur hiking columns is out in the June '08 issue of The Riviera Times newspaper.

It looks good! And it comes just in time for the return of our hiking weather here on the French Côte d'Azur.

We picked one of our favorite among the many hikes on the St Tropez peninsula: Cap Lardier.

Read all about it in the English-language paper. You'll find it in bookshops across the French Riviera.

Côte d'Azur: Nailing the Clouds

Statistics tell us that October and November attract the most rainfall on  sunny French Côte d'Azur. The driest month is July.

But weather in this Mediterranean region, as elsewhere, loves to bend the rules. We might find ourselves like today, in late May, with a drizzle overhead.

How to you best predict the weather before making those trip reservations or your weekend hiking plans?

You make the most educated guess.

Weather web sites abound. Based on poking our noses outside and comparing with predictions, they do a decent job for anything under a week. Keep in mind that the region enjoys micro-climates due in part to its many low-lying mountains, the Alps, the gulf of Genoa.So while the Mistral wind may visit Toulon or St Tropez, Cannes could well enjoy calm waters.

1/ Meteo France
    In French, but easy to follow the cloud/sun/rain symbols and temperatures (in Celsius). You can access a predicted satellite picture for the following day and a 2-3 day forecast. From casual observations, I find this site to be pretty accurate.

2/ The Weather Channel
    You can get a 6-10 day forecast on this channel as well.

3/ CNN.com's Weather channel. In English, includes 1-week forecast and a static satellite pic.   

4/ Weather Underground. In English, includes 5-day forecast. Not as detailed as above.
   
Local French Riviera papers have a great view: VarMatin.com and NiceMatin.com. To check them out online, go to Services drop-down menu -> Select "Meteo". Or for a week's forecast, take a look at their printed copy, weather being printed next to last page.

The French Côte d'Azur enjoys an average of 300 days of sunshine per year. So chances are on your side for warm sunny summers, mild winters and pleasant in-betweens. Hope for clear skies, but plan for changes in the weather just in case.

Spring Springs on the Cote d'Azur

It's mid-March. Spring has sprung on the Côte d'Azur.

Turtles dig themselves out of their hibernating spots (they bury themselves about 30 cm in dirt from mid-November to mid-March - for turtle information, see our post on the Tortoise Village of Gonfaron).

While the Mistral wind still howls today in the Var section of the French Riviera, it's a tad warmer.

A few tourists, thrilled to escape the freezing slush of winter, stroll the beach-side promenade wearing shorts.

Footwear shops have packed up the bottines mini-boots and placed sandals in their shiny glass vitrines.

Chocolatiers and patisseriers show off chocolate eggs and chocolate hens with red and green bows.

For P.E., kids in elementary school hoist their little "optimist" sailboats' single white sails. They scribble the dark blue sea with their sails like chalk on the blackboard.

We talk about les Grandes Vacances...

Spring is a great time to hike the Cote d'Azur. A few ideas for local favorite spring hikes:

• Trek around on the Iles d'Hyères or Golden Islands for a splash of flower color.
• Walk around some of our favorite hiking spots by St.Tropez: poppies will soon pop up and drip red dots by the beaches.
• Ramble in the Estérel Mountains for yellows and pinks and whites against the canvas of the evergreen cork oak trees.

For a handy selection of scenic hikes to the Western Cote d'Azur, with color photos (100+) and maps, check out our latest hiking guide to the Western French Riviera: 26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Côte d'Azur: