A few years ago, I was lucky enough to spend two months photographing on the French Riviera. I stayed in Villefranche-sur-Mer and I chose it as my home base for a couple of reasons:
One was that in 1991, I was studying in Aix-en-Provence and one day, we went on a trip to Grasse and Monaco. The bus drove along the coast and it was all beautiful, but one place that really stuck in my mind (even though we didn’t even stop there) was Villefranche-sur-Mer. I remember thinking then that I would love to go back to that town at some point. Well, here I was, 28 years later… !
Villefranche-sur-Mer
The other, more practical reasons were that it’s a small, easily navigated town, a lot less busy than the larger cities, really well located for traveling both east and west on the Riviera and close to a lot of things. It’s a five minute train ride, or 15 minute bus ride, or about 1 1/2 hour walk from Nice. You can also quickly walk over to Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat from Villefranche. And if you don’t feel like walking, the train station is right in town, just above the beach. The trains (and buses) run often and are very affordable.
I had rented an apartment on Airbnb and spent the days walking and photographing, and the evenings working. It was so good to be back, and it was a very productive (and fun!) trip. I walked countless miles and took tens of thousands of pictures.
The French Riviera really is an amazing place. The opulence; the history; the colors; the stories; that special light; those unbelievable views everywhere you turn – it’s a breathtaking part of the world for sure.
You might have seen the “Riviera Reverie” series already, as well as some behind the scenes images on my Instagram feed.
Now I’m finally sharing more of my travel photos here, in a series of journal-style posts with lots of pictures, more in-depth information, walking and travel tips, and a few new prints too!
