A fabulous trip around the Côte d'Azur

France | Oct 4 - Oct 14, 2025

My husband and I travelled with another over 70’s couple to the south of France (Côte d’Azur)
using Nice as our main home base. We wanted to focus on art and great food and suggested
several ideas to Kimkim who ran with our requests. They did an outstanding job coordinating
our drivers for each adventure as well as our hotels and walking and boat tours in all of the
towns we visited. Kimkim’s timing for each activity was perfectly orchestrated without a hitch.
Their team responded immediately all during the trip if we had questions or concerns.
Our 3 central hubs were Nice, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. Of the 3 hotels we stayed in
during the 10 day trip, the Aquabella Hotel and Spa in Aix-en-Provence was by far our favorite.
Each hotel was centrally located per our request.
On several days we were driven to various nearby hill towns such as Eze (Fragonard factory),
Monaco (stunning Ephrussi de Rothchild Mansion and gardens), St. Tropez and Cassis (not to be
missed!). We requested an extra side trip to Saint-Paul-de-Vence to visit the Maeght Gallery
which was one of the highlights of our trip. We even had one day when our driver, Donato
realized there was a triathalon in St. Tropez and that it would have been impossible to get to
the town. Kimkim changed our itinerary so that we wouldn't miss St. Tropez.
One highlight was our day with Rosa the chef at Les Petits Farcis cooking school, who first led us
on a tour of the local market and then guided us through cooking all aspects of a meal. Frankly,
the meal we cooked with her was one of our best of the entire trip and that is saying a lot since
the food all during the trip was quite good.
All of our guides from A la Francais were equally charming and informative: Mohamed who paid
careful attention to the late arrival of our planes in Nice, Brigitte who toured us brilliantly
through the history of old Nice, and Donato, with whom we spent the most time touring many
hill towns. Donato spoke in depth about all that we were experiencing as he drove us to special
small villages including in the Luberon. All of his recommendations were perfect for us. He
even surprised us with some special views of Mont Saint Victoire as he drove us from Aix-en-
Provence to Marseille.
Other highlights in Nice were the Chagall Museum and the Matisse Museum which featured all
the preparatory drawings for the Stations of the Cross which we then saw at the Matisse Chapel
when we visited Vence. Our sunset electric cruise was relaxing and beautiful as we learned
about the new electric boat kits. Kimkim arranged this for us as well as the boat tour of the
Calanques National Park (think fijords). We'd never heard of this magnificent place and were
thrilled to have experienced it by boat.
In short, Kimkim did an outstanding job arranging our trip. They were also available and
responsive during the trip, including some last minute scheduling changes. We really enjoyed
the experiences they recommended. They were a pleasure to work with, and their "platform"
was easy to use and quite helpful.