St. Paul De Vence, France
I had thought my mom might want to take it easy her first day after a long flight, but she woke up ready to sight see. She got a tip from a lady on her flight that St. Paul De Vence was beautiful. Plus, my DK guidebook said it was a must see. I knew it would take some transportation connections, so I hadn't really planned on going, but she was up for it and away we went. We definitely had to ask a few times for specific directions on where to catch buses, but once you figure it out once, it's easy to do it all in reverse on the way back.
St. Paul De Vence is a hillside village. There are a few cute shops leading the way up to the old town, which greets you with a cannon stuck right into the stone walls and actually defended the village at one time. The first thing Fierce saw next was a gelato stand and we all enjoyed a cone as a sweet treat start. My mom wanted to peek in all the adorable stores as we went along. At one point Fierce and I found some tiny stone paths or alleyways going further up and we decided to part ways and meet up a little later. At the top we, found a coffee shop and I tried a pink lady coffee which was very bitter, but I was happy I tried something new. The coffee shop clerk said his favorite thing to do here was to get lost and find yourself. It was the perfect description for the place because all of the streets seemed to go every which way, but the village is so small that finding an orienting point was quick enough. We even found my mom not 20 minutes later rather than the hour meetup time. We showed her what we had seen at the top and she showed us her favorite store so I could check it out. It had beautiful blown glass pendant lights for sale. Later we found that you could walk on top of the outer wall of the city and Fierce and I did it for a while...it's a little scary because there is only wall on one side of you, but fun too.
Just outside the village we stopped in a few outdoor stores. Then I discovered a little nook where we could get coffee. The tables were blue and white flowers and it was surrounded by potted cacti with pillowed chairs. Two corners looked out to a lovely view. It was such a sweet way to end the day.
