visiting Gassin and Grimaud France

We’ve made it back to America and I have a camera roll full of all the places and spaces from our trip to the South of France. My favorite part about our stay was visiting all the tiny towns and villages, so I want to take the time to highlight all of them on the blog. Today I want to share the first two we visited: Gassin and Grimaud.

Our home base was my uncle’s home in La Croix Valmer and both the town of Gassin and the village of Grimaud are only 10-15 minutes away. The older medieval villages were always built on top of the mountain as a form of defense. So just a quick drive up the mountain can feel like traveling back in town as many of these villages have their original buildings, walls, and streets.

GASSIN

On our first day we headed up the mountain to Gassin. The winding streets and alleyways were so fun to walk around and explore. Most of the streets are too small for cars and the locals choose to bike or ride on mopeds so we usually had the streets to ourselves. In fact Gassin has one of the world most narrow streets, L’Androuno, which is something like 12 inches wide. Definitely not wide enough for a car but still considered a “street” per their standards.

We had a lovely lunch in Gassin with fish for Will, salad Nicose for the rest of us, and the best desserts for the kids afterwards. It took maybe a total of 30 minutes to walk and explore the streets of this town. There aren’t many shops here, maybe only one or two but there was a nice small street (Place die Barri) with a few restaurants overlooking the Saint Tropez bay. There is also a nice scenic overlook spot near the Office of Tourism. If you are in the area, its a nice spot to stop by for lunch. But you definitely don’t need to set aside too much time to see the entire town.

GRIMAUD

If you find yourself in the south of France in July, then I absolutely WOULD recommend going out of your way to visit Grimaud. People come here from all over the world at this time of year since it is know as the “Bougainvillea capital of France.” And we definitely saw where this nickname came from.

You need about an hour and a half to see the village, the shops, and of course see all of the flowers. We came on a Thursday which was market day so we ended up spending the entire morning here followed by a hike to the top of the Chateau de Grimaud. We had lunch in the village at Le Cafe de France and ended the day by driving down to Port Grimaud, which is a totally different atmosphere but a fun spot to walk around and see the boats.

The bougainvillea were nearing the end of peak bloom while we were here but there was still so much left and it was so beautiful to see. French people all eat a big lunch and then afterwards everything closes down until the evening and many people go home to rest. So we walked around after lunch when the town was quiet and still, admiring the flowers and taking it all in. I followed this map HERE to find all the best spots in the village so see the bougainvillea.