I've fallen in love with Saint Paul de Vence

Advantages: Beautiful place
Disadvantages: expensive

...My dad?s friend and his wife work in the South of France and they live in Saint Paul de Vence. I?ve been fortunate enough to visit them with my parents 4 times in the last couple of years. The first time we went to the village, we were staying in a hotel in Nice and only went to St Paul for the afternoon/evening. The following three times, I we stayed in their house in the village for a few days. Having now visited on more than one occasion, I think I have a good feel for this lovely little place. Every year this village sees millions of tourists pass through it?s cobbled streets every year and as it?s such a beautiful place I can see why? Where is it? Saint Paul de Vence is a small walled village located in Provence, in Southern France. We fly to Nice airport (with easyjet) and our friend picks us from there. A taxi from...

bluejules 12.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Saint Paul de Vence, France

A year in Provence.....

Advantages: Great views, great food, great dink, historical and artistic attractions
Disadvantages: Those Roads, Expensive generally

........if only! Just back from one of the best holidays of my life. Two weeks in Provence, and how I wish it had been a year as in Peter Mayle?s book?.. We booked our hotel, car hire and accommodation independently. We found our cottage by leafing through a Blake?s Cottages ? France book, and we were actually able to book on line, so we instantly knew which cottages were available for what weeks. However, we booked six months in advance and many of the cottages which we liked were already gone, so my advice is to book as early as you can, not that we were disappointed with our accommodation at all, quite the contrary. Our gite, which would have slept four, was a tad over £800 for two weeks, although the prices rose quickly after this, as is the norm for accommodation of this kind. We booked flights through British Airways...

helencbradshaw 26.05.2003 (27.05.2003) · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

St Paul-de-Vence

Advantages: 300 days of sunshine per year
Disadvantages: hard to get there

...I recently went to St Paul-de-Vence for my holiday. I am lucky enough to have a friend who owns a beautiful 5 bedroom house with a large swimming pool, so accommodation wasn't a worry for me. I was quite happy to sit by the pool and soak up the sun, but I also enjoyed going down to the village to look in all the lovely small shops and local markets. I thought I would write this review and share it with you. I hope you enjoy it" St Paul-De-Vence. Dating back to the 11th Century, St Paul-De-Vence lies between mountains and sea, overlooking the Mediterranean sea on the world renowned French Riviera. It stretches over 1,700 acres and is home to over 3,000 inhabitants, 300 of which live within St Paul village. St Paul de vence is one of the most visited, best preserved and well kept medieval towns in France. No cars are allowed...

keak123 26.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

SAINT PAUL de VENCE

Advantages: History Art Beauty
Disadvantages: 2,500,000 Other Visitors

...many other places of this size that have found favour with so many great artists. Once you have seen Saint Paul it is easy to understand why they came and others continue to come. Saint Paul is less than eight miles from Nice Airport and a taxi would cost about £25. If driving take the Cagnes-sur-Mer exit  off  Autoroute 8 and then follow the road to Vence. Vence is itself a charming village but is mostly ignored because of its near neighbour. Saint Paul called by its three hundred residents, and many others, "the most beautiful village in the world" has some justification for the claim but on balance I think that there are many that beat it to this title. I may be put off by its commercialism and the sheer volume of visitors here. Even on a rainy winters day you will have plenty of company. There are a number of small hotels...

richard1952 08.09.2002 (10.09.2002) · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

Two weeks in Provence

Advantages: Fantastic scenery, hot weather, 'interesting people'
Disadvantages: Hard work to organise, a very long way to drive

...! Oh, one other thing to remember while driving on French motorways are the tolls... these sort of surprised us at times with a mad scrabble for a few Euros - they arent too hot on letting you know about these things in advance, or indeed how much they are likely to be! Ours ranged from 1.50 euros up to 20 depending which stretch of road you are on... they do take credit cards though so no need to panic if you dont have the cash. But you soon get used to all the French ways, expecially after 12 hours of driving!!! This is not for the faint hearted I tell you... on our journey we drove over mountains and went from sea level up to 3000ft! **ACCOMODATION** On the way to Provence we stopped off for the night to break the journey. We chose to stay in one of the Formula 1 hotels.. this is a huge chain in France with one in pretty much...

miniloopie 26.09.2002 · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

Three trips to Provence

Advantages: sun, great food, scenery, wine
Disadvantages: cold in Winter, hard to get around on local transport

..."Rain Man and many other fascinating items. We drove down the coast to Nice through long queues, Nice has good shops, a long palm lined promenade, but not a very good beach, mainly pebbles. we stayed overnight in a Villages Hotel for 180 FF per night for a room for three, 25 FF each for breakfast. The following day we set off for Monaco and Italy but while driving through Monaco and listening to Radio Riviera, (great radio station) we learned that Tim Henman was playing Tennis in the Masters Tournament in Monte Carlo that day, we just had to go and watch and support "our man"..it was baking hot and Tim lost but it was a great match. Then due to our tennis stopover that left us with little time to spend in Italy, we headed for San Remo where we had a very disappointing meal before heading home, back to Provence where we fell into our...

cpwill 15.05.2001 (19.05.2001) · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

Mas de L Hermitage apartments Provence Beautiful

Advantages: great views and fab food
Disadvantages: a bit isolated

...In September I went on holiday to the Var region of Provence, France for two weeks with my partner. We found a place to stay by searching on the net and didn’t know anything about it before we went so we were pretty pleased with what we found. Our criteria were as follows:- - somewhere with a pool not shared by many people - a good base to explore the region (near cote d’azur) from - near vineyards - somewhere fairly quiet i.e. not a large apartment complex - not outrageously expensive - nice, tidy apartment The apartment The apartment itself was very nice. We had a 2 person apartment in the main building which comprised large double bedroom with en-suite, kitchenette with dining area and a balcony with seating. The apartment was adequate for us. The only minor point was as we were in the eaves...

EmmaJ 07.11.2001 · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

Birthday in Provence

Advantages: Friendly people, gorgeous scenery, lovely red wine :-D
Disadvantages: Too hot at times

...restaurant but we found some great places to eat (and a couple not so great!). The best place we ate (and luckily was my birthday dinner) was Restaurant L'Esprit Jardin attached to Hotel des Pins in Bedoin near Mont Ventoux. Absolutely superb! The food was divine, the service excellent and the setting just perfect. I just wish we'd tried the hotel out for our last night as it looked very welcoming but maybe next time! www.hotel-lhermitage.com www.hoteldespins.net I hope you find this useful and if you venture to Provence have a fantastic time!...

spookysooo 05.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

Viens In Provence

Advantages: Great Area
Disadvantages: Long Journey

...Every summer for the past 7 years my family and me have been making the trip to a little village in Provence called Viens. Viens is a peaceful little town, which is an hour?s drive from Avigon and Marseille. We are lucky enough to have relatives that live in Viens Who own a large amount of land, which has a house with 7 bedrooms and a poolside bungalow, which can sleep 10 people at one time. Viens has little to do but in the surrounding area there are lots of activity centres and in the nearest town there is a market, which is held on a weekly basis on Saturdays. I would recommend this little village as a great summer holiday getaway for anybody of all ages as it is a little jem....

barnetboy 06.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of Provence (France)

Hotel International

Advantages: Location, breakfasts
Disadvantages: Poor rooms

...I recently went on a cultural girlie trip with a friend to Paris. I was left to do all the booking. I was looking for a reasonable hotel, near a metro stop, which included breakfast. I came across the Hotel International on various travel sites and it seemed fairly highly rated so I booked us in for three nights. LOCATION: The hotel is located 6 Rue Auguste Barbier in the 11th Arrondissement. The nearest Metro stop is Garcourt which was a two minute walk away and it was a five minute walk to Republique which gives good links to other lines. It's not really central enough to avoid the Metro and walk to the attractions but it was located so close to a stop that it seemed ideal. PRICE: Prices vary depending on size of room and season. There are singles, doubles and triples available. We paid Euro254 for the whole time...

tartlette83 17.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hotel International, Paris