Through the lens: France – Biarritz; Lille & Cote D’Azur

Travelling through the vast amount of kilometers, before reaching Frances solid sunny beaches from Holland – there are basically two routes through which you can take. “Route du Soleil” – goes over the eastern part of France all the way to Cote D’Azur; the 2nd route takes you on the western part of France, past Paris, Lyons all the way to Biarritz. Biarritz is basically the surfer’s paradise, with itself being a beautiful and very nice city – but also very close to San Sebastian (beautiful city in Spain – TAPAS!). Cote D’Azur is the place where France really gets it’s name – Nice, Monaco, Cannes, St Tropez!

En route to Biarritz

En route to Biarritz you take the Western route, which would set you back more than 10+ hours going from Maastricht – therefore a stop in the middle at the city of “Orleans” is perfect. Not a world-class city, but good enough to enjoy your first glass(es) of wine on the “Place du Martroi” (fountain square) before heading further down south! Visiting Biarritz – besides the beaches and ocean waves being the main attraction – the city itself is vibrant and packed with beautiful restaurants and bars & cafés. Absolutely worth visiting. Also one picture of “Bayonne” is included – which is a small city next to Biarritz with colorful small packed streets and colourful scenery. Oh yeah really don’t forget to take the car to San Sebastian: Incredible spot and the origin of the Spanish Tapas!

Lille

Now “Lille” – or as it is called “Rijsel” for some whatever reason on google maps – is a place in the Northern part of France just across the border from Netherlands. So basically with a 2 hours 15 mins drive from Maastricht – and it sets you back to a completely French city, which is absolutely beautiful. All through the city you can find the shining golden suns appearing – which refer to the “Sunking” – Louis the XIV (14th) – check out the pictures.  Really nothing more to say than it being a must-visit, especially if you are living near Limburg as it’s just a stone’s throw away!

Cote D’Azur

So… A little bit random to be going from Northern part, to south-west now up to south-east of France. But hey, you only have so much time for holidays. There will very likely be another post coming whenever the “Provence” is hit – but for this one i’m lastly only going to show you some pictures from Cote D’Azur.  “Nice” is one of the cities which is in center – with St Tropez to the left – and Monaco and Cannes to the right. Near Nice you also have a small village called “St Paul de Vence”. The majority of the photos below are from this village – as it’s just an incredible scenery. A little bit pricy on the menu – but very overcompensated by the saturating views from the top of the hills!