Personal stuff and getting lost in the holiday shuffle came up these past several weeks so I had to postpone this specific post and take a breather. Wrote this on and off. But I'm fully back now
and, as a lead-in to the new year, I'm spilling everything from my most recent international trip! Between October and November, I had an epic adventure jumping onto high-speed trains and long-haul buses. I walked a Strava-echelon achievement of steps. And I had great food to reward me along the way. The itinerary is hands-down THE MOST AMBITIOUS ROUTE I have ever planned, for myself and a close one. I am excited to show you all--
SOUTH OF FRANCEClassic throwback right off the bat! We didn't take a taxi from Marseilles nor Avignon, but figured the train to Arles from Marseilles served as a more reliable checkpoint, then bussed to Maussane-les-Alpilles (more on this later!). We had reserved a night at the Domaine de Manville nearby; it was by far the most exquisite accommodation of this trip. Fast forward to the next day... we set off on a secret trail through the resort's vineyards and olive orchards that take you directly to the escarpments of the chateau. There is a small touristy village at the castle base lined with nougat boutiques, souvenir shops, and Provençal-style eateries (I ate at one, and ordered a delicious steak and cocktail!). After passing the ticketed entry higher up, I met eyes with our TAR30 Roadblock example: the good, old trusty, and unrusty trebuchet! The ones I photoed are permanent on the grounds' and there are daily showings with the big one to demonstrate the mechanism. I also noticed a stockade in the background of one of my other hundreds of pictures here, a neat little detail after the fact. We began the ascent and clicked pictures at every possible cool rock formation and vantage point. The view at the summit is truly jaw-dropping! Some of these pictures can speak for themselves.
Phare de Sainte Marie, Marseille - TAR4A light snack before more main courses. I took these pictures of the lighthouse during a late-morning walk around the Cathedrale La Major and down to the plaza behind the Mucem. The port area was tranquil, had nice weather, and nobody was there. This was more of a flyover on a tight CityPass schedule since my plus-one wanted to sensory overload with all the major museums, galleries, and Notre Dame de la Garde that day.
Musee de Tapisseries, Aix en Provence - TAR4Tian & Jaree's photograph puzzle Fast Forward site! This was tucked away in one of the many courtyards of Aix - a quick day trip from Marseille. The gallery blends in with the rest of the buildings and I can imagine how tricky this would have been to find during season 4's filming when the last relevancies of MapQuest were all we had. I found the museum to be sized on the smaller end. They house a modest collection of stitchwork and paintings from the Age of Enlightenment to the contemporary period around four exhibition wings upstairs. Facing the lobby, there is an impromptu lower pit that they use to host art presentations and an outdoor amphitheater for larger productions. I need to compliment something that was not particularly on display, the grand staircase area. The stained glass windows emitted such a nice light in a rather dim exhibit. Many times, I find the architecture more invigorating than the contents of a museum itself. No disrespect to the tapestry, but this is one of those cases where the theatrics left me a little underwhelmed. I believe I saw at most 3 or 4 large-format tapestries in the whole place while the antique furniture, yarn pattern canvases, and a scale model here or there took much of the attention away. Anyway, we keep moving!
Jardin Albert 1er, Nice - an honest attempt at seeing the statue - TAR6Like how most of Rome's historic attractions are infamously scaffolded right now, the city garden was going through it as well - even when it appeared as if nothing was happening. As a decent compromise, I captured some stills at the various entries on our first official day in Nice. The surrounding area was spectacular to explore: luxury handbag stores along the curved streetway of the park, the Mediterranean coastline from the Centenary Monument, and a gorgeous piazza at the park's vertex where the Victory Arch is in a run's reach. Perhaps you take the last picture into Photoshop, you could, probably, see the Albert I bust where teams picked up their clue. I know I can see it zoomed in from my phone's gallery. The entrance to that view was closed off by wrought iron gates, so I snapped a quick photo between the bars. Nice wasn't built in a day either, but maybe they could've been a little more... nice. /percussion/
Hotel Westminster, Nice - TAR2620 seasons later, we're back! And it was only a few minutes away from the park. This light-pink unassuming hotel still cherishes the same old-world character on the inside as when the race was here. The parlor I have photoed of is the "fitting room" where the racing lovers had to change into cocktail attire before helicoptering off to Monaco. We wandered about and checked out their restaurant menu, Le Duc, before heading to our next location. It was a great stop to bask in the air conditioning after walking to the outdoor market and jogging on the promenade all morning.
Jardin St. Martin, Monaco-Ville, Monaco - TAR26Speaking of, we ended up exploring Monaco as well. Surprise!
We hiked up the Rock of Monaco after taking a half-hour train ride into the city and passed by its neighboring oceanography museum. Little did we know we would get a spectacular double-whammy of one of their outdoor aquarium exhibits and a never-ending view of the Mediterranean. St. Martin is a lush botanical oasis and doesn't skimp on the shade to have an awesome park-bench picnic. Simply beautiful!
Chocolaterie de Monaco, Monaco-Ville - TAR26We saw the emblemed chocolatier on the way to the gardens and returned to buy a treat. I sampled a couple of praline candies, a pistachio and a rose one, and the flavors packed a punch! That was enough influencing to have me buy a bag of chocolates to snack on during our entire trip. The shop also offered a good assortment of other confections and cookies in various boxes and packaging. The store celebrated its 100th birthday just a few years ago so it's a solid historical marker to sit down, have a coffee, and satisfy a sweet tooth, once you are up the Rock.
Port Hercules, Monaco-Ville - TAR26One side of Monaco's iconic affluent culture is yachting. We missed the grand superyacht show by a month, but I can't be disappointed with the sheer amount of boats already moored at the marina. We circled the port in hopes one was being rented out to take pictures on after supposedly reading somewhere that you could, but that seemed to be a tourist's myth that stemmed from my imagination - and saving myself from potentially being scammed. There were numerous boats from different nations, some with water-view cabins, some for strictly pontooning. One of which I saw was owned by an Australian citizen/expatriate or sailed all the way here to port. If someone is more knowledgeable about boats and yacht flag states, please clarify if the country's name imprinted on the stern of a yacht means anything more. Pro tip: The whole port is a stunner when hiking up the Rock.
Casino de Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo - TAR26The other half of Monaco's rich-people culture is gambling. We went at night to the casino and my phone battery was close to shutting down so I didn't get as many pictures of the interior area as I had hoped (all thanks to the map app and mindless scrolling during lunch). The casino and square is an ornate masterpiece intertwined with luxury shopping and dining. I reserved 100 euros to play a couple of rounds to try my luck in blackjack. The buy-in minimum at the poker tables is 25 euros. We win some and we lose some. I ended up with the same amount of money that I started with, so technically I got a free game from this. Thank you Monaco! We'll see you sometime again with better and more pictures.
Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption / Fragonard Parfumerie, Èze - TAR26We worked in reverse from the TAR26 route by starting the day in Èze. It was a winding roller-coaster ride on the bus from one of the train stops in the Nice region. Once we were at our stop, the hike up to the outcropped village was exhilarating! We saw one of the Fragonard boutiques and the main perfumery on the ascent and reminded ourselves to stop by afterward. When we trekked into the village core, gorgeous views of the never-ending Mediterranean and steep terrain surrounded the town. Climbing to the church plaza wasn't particularly challenging, but like Les Baux, you can get quite off-track in the village without a map. They also have a few pavement-side cafes and souvenir options along the way. The biggest souvenir I kept was finding the Detour spot where teams had to combine essences for a matching fragrance. Temp facilities blocked the rest of the plaza, but I was more than enthused to soak in the spectacular panoramic view. As a bonus, we did self-tour the gift shop area of the main Fragonard perfumery. Smelled like a million bucks!
Plage de Passable, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat - TAR26The last Nice-adjacent appearance on this trip, or should I say - Pit Stop. This began an obscure navigation journey. We walked from the closest train station to this beach, which took over half an hour of traversing the cliffside streets with a hint of disgruntlement. Unbeknownst to us, an active bus route could take us directly to the neighborhood where this was located in half that time. In TAR standards, we would've been Philiminated. (We rode the bus back after finding out, don't worry, lol.) This was the "it place" to kick back, boat-watch, eat a snack, and bounce conversations. It felt like a private beach resort when locals began filing out for the evening. Google Map recognizes Plage de Passable as a restaurant, but we were bummed to see the establishment boarded up for the wintering season.
Ecole de Voile Yacht Club, Saint-Tropez - TAR30Surprise number two!
We spent a couple of days in Saint-Tropez, one of my dream destinations for an incredibly long time! We went on foot to the sailing school at one point. It was a 20-minute walk under the best weather from Place de Lices (more on this next) and the venue was perfectly not busy when we arrived. There was an outdoor patio-style cafe for sailing club members and various fiberglass dinghies and catamarans in the open. Although I wanted to see if they offered any courses in the two days there, I believe these classes and waivers are only available to French schoolkids ahead of time. Nonetheless, the water and view was beautiful!
La Tarte Tropezienne, Saint-Tropez - TAR30There are actually two LTT bakeries around Place des Lices, the main one facing the plaza (the one the Detour was hosted at, literally right next to the Pit Stop that season) and a smaller shop in one of the narrow pedestrian streets. I picked out a couple of desserts, a chocolate eclair and an almond pastry, and baguette sandwiches at the main location and they were delicious! We saved some for breakfast the next morning back at our vacation rental. I would be delighted to travel back here during the offseason just for the food and uncrowdedness.
Sandales Tropeziennes, Saint-Tropez - TAR30Another flyover! I passed by the sandal shop walking from Place des Lices to the marina. If I had gone inside, my budget would vanish.
Place des Lices, Saint-Tropez - TAR30I've been typing about it nonstop since a few pictures ago. Finally, Place des Lices! A great little graveled court with an affinity for peacocks and pigeons! There was a pleasant atmosphere of activity throughout the day, then shifted to live music banter at night with all the restaurants along it becoming travel-casual party central. Unrelated to the location in the last picture, but certainly is in its task - by chance, I was in the audience at a pétanque tournament Sunday morning near the quay. So many Head-to-Head battles.
Cafe de la Fontaine, Maussane-les-Alpilles - TAR30Tying back to the Les Baux caption, I sequenced Maussane as the takeoff point toward hiking to Domaine de Manville. The cafe was centrally located in this charming square next to the village church, pizza takeaway, and sushi joint. The main kitchen and bar offer an indoor seating setting, but the locals we saw mainly sat outdoors in the square, so under the umbrella shades we went. Since we arrived right before the lunch rush, they only offered a simplified breakfast menu (no day-drinking red wine). We ended up ordering coffee and a shared serving of toast with assorted jams and butter to hold us over for the trek to our hotel and have the fancy lunch and dinner there instead. The town had such a calming presence, a true highlight in the middle of the French countryside.
Arles Amphitheatre, Arles - TAR30Arles was our connector stop off the train from Marseille to our bus to Maussane. We didn't plan to spend as much time here knowing the bus is a time-sensitive factor (only three bus times ran to Maussane sporadically throughout the day), so I strategized this city's race location visits by heading to their coliseum first thing. We reached it in a little over ten minutes by foot and explored the perimeter. Decisive in our shortage of time, I opted not to tour the inside, but I did capture some neat shots between the gates and at the ticket window to enjoy the medieval architecture of it all. You can even see the stands in the bottom left picture, no admission required.
Langlois Bridge, Arles - TAR30After circling the amphitheater, we took the city bus from the other side of the train tracks to the iconic Pont Van Gogh/Langlois Bridge. Nobody was there when we arrived, perfect, we were team number one! Like in the Detour option, there was a color reimaging of the painting beside the bridge. This time on a plaque and not an easel secret-compartment puzzle. We immediately disagreed on whether the current bridge was the original or a dupe while standing straight at the historical marker. A quick fact check proved this was a reconstruction, not a restoration, funded by the city's tourism board - and I owed my travel partner a lunch. This was located next to nowhere on the outskirts of Arles so naturally we took the next bus back to catch our imperative Maussane one. Luckily, since this was the last stop on its bus route, it was smooth riding to the city center.
Hotel Benvengudo, Les Baux de Provence - TAR30I did the absolute most and misdirected my travel partner here thinking it was the way to Domaine.
Benvengudo is a little out of the way once you are off the Les Baux grounds south and slightly past the street turning into our correct hotel. Congrats to Lucas & Brittany again for getting engaged here! It's a private family-owned hotel with gated access so couldn't achieve much except get as many unique pictures of the signage.
Bonus:
Église Notre Dame de la Major, Arles - TAR30This was where teams opened their clue to go to Prague in the next leg and I got a couple of good photos of this local church while touring the outside of the Arles Amphitheater.
Final statements: I didn't manage to visit all of the TAR places in the vicinity either due to not being able to justify a costly Uber ride there and back (Monaco Heliport, Gorges du Blavet) or public transportation being too tricky and extremely limited for us to plan a return to home base in time (Tete de Chien, Chateau des Alpilles in Saint Remy de Provence), but I am thrilled that I got to explore a majority of the places encountered on the screen now in real life. My travel companion and I went to Nîmes, Cannes, and Toulon in addition to these locations, including various other attractions in these cities, so what is posted is a heavy fraction of what I had visited on our France getaway. Thanks for reading through it if you did and let's see what's in store for 2025.
