We left “the big stink” and made our way across the south France to a much better smelling place! Our next stop was on Pont du Loup, just a short drive away from Grasse, the French perfume capital.
On the way to Pont du Loup, we made two stops: the L’Occitane factory and headquarters in Manosque and Chateau La Lieu, an organic winery near Brignoles. We all enjoyed having a tour of the skincare factory, especially seeing the care with which the products were made.
A. and D. appreciated visiting the vineyard (our favourite French wine) and learning more about the history of the Chateau and their commitment (since 1998) to organic wine-making. Sadly, we had room for only two bottles!
Our arrival in Pont du Loup was met with squeals of joy from the kids as they learned our Airbnb had a small pool. And the parents squealed with fear at the wildly steep, narrow driveway with a blind corner leading on to the highway! The location was at the bottom of the valley near the mountain villages of Goudron, Vence and Beaulieu. We had beautiful views down the valley and up to the mountain top fortress village of Goudron. We picked the location deliberately to be away from the crowded Côte d’Azur and to get more value for our money. It was a true breath of fresh air after our stinky Cavaillon Airbnb property!
We enjoyed the area very much, in particular we hiked up the Chemin du Paradis, a somewhat misleading name for the 1.5 hour hike from Pont du Loup up to Goudron. The views were spectacular although well-earned after hiking on a very rugged path in hot weather. Goudron was a lovely cobblestoned village with cute shops and restaurants to go with the dramatic views.
The kids were thrilled to discover Confiserie Florian (a sweets maker) just a few hundred meters away from our Airbnb. We had a private tour of the factory and learned the family began their business growing flowers for the perfume industry in Grasse and then refocused into producing candied flowers, jams and bonbons. The unique characteristic is the inclusion of flower petals and/or floral essential oils in many of their products. We sampled crystallized rose, violet and verbena petals, as well as “mandarines confites” (basically preserved mandarine oranges in syrup) and chocolate coated puffed rice. All in all, very tasty and interesting to see the process.
We also were fortunate to tour the Fragonard perfume factory in Grasse. This in one of the most well-known perfumeries in France. The main building has the factory as well as a small museum dedicated to the art and history of perfumes. We learned about the amount of flowers it takes to make the distillations used for perfumes, as well as the amazing number of smells that their master perfumier (the “nose”) can identify. We were impressed at the purity of the ingredients as very few artificial ingredients are used by Fragonard (only for a small number of smells that cannot be naturally made). Their perfumes are available at their factories and a small number of Fragonard boutiques so it was a unique experience to visit their base in Grasse.
We also drove into Beaulieu sur Mer (close to Nice) to visit the Villa Kerylos, built to replicate a 2nd century BC Greek villa from Delos. The villa is on a small peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean, overlooking Cap Ferrat (and the Rothschild’s Villa Ephrussi). The villa was built in the early 1900s with the best materials to replicate the lifestyle of a wealthy nobleman. The mosaics were incredible to see, as well as the murals, ceilings, metalwork, furniture and statues. The owner, Theodore Reinach, lived there with his wife during their holidays. It really was the best of Greece outside of Greece.
Sadly, we had to drop off our car in Nice. Renting a vehicle for our time in France was a great benefit that provided a lot of flexibility and opportunities in our travels. While it wasn’t perfect – our GPS clearly hadn’t been update to reflect newer road construction which made some parts of southern France more of an adventure than we counted on – having a car was well worth the expense.
Next stop: Cinque Terre!