Gardens of the French Riviera & Monaco

Day 1: Arrival in Nice

Bienvenue! Smell that? It’s fresh-baked croissant in the air. See that? It’s the glint of the sky-blue Mediterranean Sea. The flight is done and dusted, and you’re about to set your internal clock to Riviera time – it’s a touch slower than what you’re used to! Stroll – yep, stroll – from the arrival hall to your first hotel, or hop in the free shuttle bus. You’ll be kicking back beside the rooftop pool in no time, waiting for the rest of your Carex crew to arrive. When everyone’s together, finally, you’ll meet for the first meal of the trip. It’s a special moment where friendships for life are often seeded.

Accommodation: Sheraton Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (or similar)
Included: Dinner

Day 2: Villa Fort France and Grasse

With a whole new group of garden-mad travel friends by your side, you leave Nice and start exploring the lavender-scented Cote d’Azur this morning. First stop: Villa Fort France. It’s a private estate garden that clambers up a series of terraces in the hills behind the sea. Find secrets on each and every level, from the pom-pom blooms of rich yellow mimosas right up to gnarled cypress trees above.

Just down the road, the bijou town of Grasse beckons. And, yes, those really are whiffs of jasmine and osmanthus, oleander and sandalwood that you can smell. They call this one The Perfume Capital of the World, since it’s been at the center of the global perfume industry for over 400 years. Let your nose guide you to the Musée International de la Parfumerie, where you’ll delve into four millennia of scent making, and learn how the cultivation of flowers on the French Riviera is the powerhouse of big-brand perfume labels to this day.

Accommodation: Best Western Hotel Prince de Galles (or similar)
Included:  Breakfast, Dinner

Day 3: Picasso

Today, gardens go backseat so you can focus on the art and works of arguably the Riviera’s most legendary former inhabitant: Pablo Picasso. Heard of him? Thought you might have!

The group weaves and winds up the twisting roads to the town of Vallauris Golfe-Juan. It’s home to a branch of the National Picasso Museum which happens to hold one of the great masterworks of the painter. If you don’t know it yet, we won’t spoil it here, but prepare to be amazed by its sheer size and vibrancy – 1350 square feet, filled with movement and symbolism.

You’ll return to the cooling edge of the Med later, because there’s shopping to be done. Under the wrought-iron covers of a gorgeous turn-of-the-century market hall, you’ll wander and get lost amid the Marché Provençal. It’s been going for over 100 years, and is a hubbub of real Riviera life. See the people weighing up bags of olives, gawp at the fist-sized garlic bulbs, wonder at the bulging bouquets of lavender.

Picasso started your day, and so he ends it. There’s yet another museum dedicated to the groundbreaking artist in the town of Antibes. This time it’s different. The collection resides in an ancient castle in the old town, but was once the studio of the Cubist master, and now you can wander it to see some of his lesser-known sketches and ceramic works, many of which were inspired by the ecology of the surrounding Cote d’Azur. 

Accommodation: Best Western Hotel Prince de Galles (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 4: Fontana Rosa & Jardin Botanique Val Rahmeh

As the morning light creeps over the stone pines, you find yourself at the Fontana Rosa. And, nope, you’re not still dreaming, Cervantes and Shakespeare really are keeping watch as you walk around. Crafted in the 1920s by a Spanish novelist, this escape is a homage to the great figures of European literature. That, and it’s a homage to the clash of Mudejar, Moorish, English and Francophone styles that coexist here on the coast. Be ready for blushes of daisies, lily ponds, rose bushes, and grand balustrades peppered with mosaic-clad seats. It’s quite the work.

The Fontana Rosa makes its home in the handsome town of Menton, and you simply have to see it – the whole thing shimmers a daffodil yellow right beside the Mediterranean. Cafes clink with coffees on the cobbles within; great people-watching awaits.

Cranking up the humidity a little for the afternoon, you enter what’s arguably the finest collection of tropical and subtropical plants in the whole of France. They coalesce at the Jardin Botanique Val Rahmeh, where you could be forgiven for thinking that you’d been plucked from the Riviera and dropped onto the Indian subcontinent. You’ll see flame-like bird of paradise flowers, lotus-sprouting ponds with lilies the size of trays, and strange specimens like the giant Dutchman’s pipe, more Central America than Cote d’Azur.

Accommodation: Best Western Hotel Prince de Galles (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 5: St-Paul-de-Vence & Fondation Maeght

Another day, another exquisite hill town perched on the lavender-plumed bluffs of the French Med. Surely, living in a postcard is starting to feel normal by now? The thing is, even in this star-studded region, St-Paul-de-Vence is a stand-out beauty. Its streets, shaded by plane trees and bursts of bougainvillea, are set to a backing track of church bells and dripping fountains, and it can seem like every corner has the one-time home of a famous writer, or artist, or poet.

You’re not here just to fall in love with the place, though. That happens pretty fast, so once infatuated, head around the hill to the Fondation Maeght. It’s billed as a “museum in nature,” and that it very much is – think cutting-edge contemporary works inside, an enthralling green space out. Just as you were beguiled by the local village, so you’ll be beguiled again, by perfectly angled lawns and lanky pine groves. The punctuation marks? Why, they’re only mind-boggling sculpture works by some of the artists that backed the Fondation: mosaics by Chagall, murals by Joan Mirò.

Accommodation: Best Western Hotel Prince de Galles (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 6: Giardini Botanici Hanbury, Menton, and a taste of Italy

Get ready to swap baguettes for focaccia – you’re Italy-bound this morning. Cruising across the border is easy. Scratch that: It’s a downright pleasure. The ride is under 20 minutes from the hotel, on a road that keeps pine forests and mountains to the left and the sun-glinting Mediterranean to the right.

Italy welcomes you garden buffs with something special, too. The Giardini Botanici Hanbury is plonked on the very first headland you come to in your second country of the trip. These are the grounds of a sumptuous palazzo from the 18th century. In spring, the whole place will be alive with the best blooms of the year, so take time to dissect the beds and the layers, from the fan palms and pampas grass giving structure, to the camellias glimmering magenta, to the acacias showing their best mimosas. You’ll learn all about why this one is celebrated as a true acclimatization garden, seeing how it artfully harnesses the temperature differences created by the Cote d’Azur, the sea, and the surrounding topography to nurture a real variety of species.

France’s coastal hills have had their turn to show off already, so see what Italy can muster by breaking away from the shoreline and scaling up to Dolceacqua. A castle caps off the hill, green hills halo the place, and a river gushes through the middle. Mhmm – it’s yet another irresistible village, and a perfect place to wander around with gelato in hand.

Then it’s arrivederci Italia as you re-cross the border to visit a special private garden. Perhaps we’ll keep this one a little under wraps for now. Some clues to what you can expect: The space is the creation of a certain Major Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor fame, and it’s Romantic to the T.

Accommodation: Best Western Hotel Prince de Galles (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 7: Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Jardin Exotique de Monaco, and Monaco

With two gardens and a whole country on the menu, there’s quite a bit to pack in today. No time to spare! The pink blush of the utterly wonderful Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild brightens the morning straight away. Crowning the handsome headland of Cap Ferrat between ivory-colored beaches, this great home is one of the icons of the French Riviera. Stroll around seven whole hectares of gardens that took seven whole years to build. They’re outrageously ambitious, what with Japanese gardens and Florentine gardens that had to be carved out of the coastal cliffs using dynamite and imported soil.

Half an hour’s drive up the coast later and you’ll enter your third country in seven days. You might have to pick your way through clusters of spiny cacti and twisted braids of succulents to see it, but suddenly the whole of the Principality of Monaco will open up in front of you. You’ll view it first from the lookouts of the Jardin Exotique de Monaco, which clings to a precipitous cliff clad in agave and palms.

You’ll have time to take in the buzz of Monaco at your own pace later. Channel your inner billionaire between the yachts and casinos of Monte Carlo. Hop the designer shops– maybe even dine out on a restaurant terrace around casino square!

Accommodation: Fairmont Hotel Monte Carlo (or similar)
Included: Breakfast

Day 8: Back to Nice

There’s some good news and some bad news today. The bad? You’ve seen your last garden on this trip. The good? That’s because you’ve got time to really explore Nice. Head back to the city and make straight for the Matisse Museum. It’s a must, really, holding one of the greatest collections of the French artist in the whole wide world.

The rest of the day is for you to channel your inner Riviera local. Go at your own pace around this wonderful town. There’s lots to happen upon, including a famous flower market on the Cours Saleya (provided you haven’t had your fill of all things lavender and lilac just yet!), plus urban beaches and sleepy side streets where cats slink through the nooks and crannies, although you may simply opt for one of Nice’s nicest pleasures: sitting on the famous promenade, sipping coffee beside the sea.

All that culminates with one final meal, all together, feeling emotional, reminiscing about a garden and art-filled trip across one of the most beautiful regions in the world.

Accommodation: Sheraton Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 9: Farewell, Carexplorers

The time has come to say goodbye. Meet for a last breakfast with your garden-loving compadres and bid them bon voyage! Then head to the airport – it’s only a walk away, remember? – dreaming of more days spent wandering gardens of orange blossoms above the Mediterranean Sea.

Included: Breakfast