4 Days Exploring the French Riviera from Nice: Your Ultimate Guide

Day 2: Les Gorges du Verdon, Castellane and Moustiers Sainte Marie

On day 2 of my 4 days exploring the French Riviera from Nice, I headed inland to the Gorges du Verdon. The South of France has some amazing scenery, at the edge of the Alps, so I wanted to spend the day enjoying it. This day trip definitely needs a car, as it’s not at all accessible by public transport. However, if you’d rather not drive the windy mountain roads yourself, you can do a day trip here. I did a small group tour, which worked well as it meant I could see all the best sights without having the hassle of hiring a car myself.

Views from the roads and Cascades du Saut du Loup

The views from the mountain roads are stunning almost as soon as you leave Nice, and keep getting better. The sides of the cliffs on either side of the roads can be steep. And sometimes you get glimpses down to small remote villages deep in the hills and mountains of this region.

You can also make a brief stop at the Cascades du Saut du Loup, a waterfall on the way from Nice to Castellane village. It’s not a huge area so will probably only take about 10 minutes to see the waterfalls, but it’s a nice place for a brief stop.

Castellane village

Castellane is a cute, small village and a nice place for a coffee stop, or an early lunch. Again, it’s not big so you probably only need about 30 minutes here. But there are some cute narrow streets. There’s also a great bakery selling fresh fougasse, including a fougasse with anchovies which was really nice.

Gorges du Verdon

The highlight of my day was seeing the Gorges du Verdon. You can walk down to the river at the bottom of the gorge at various points along the road that runs parallel to the gorge. It’s definitely worth stopping to walk down to the river. Whilst it’s not the easiest walk down, and definitely not an easy climb uphill, it’s worth it for the views.

High viewpoints

There are also some high viewpoints over the gorge and surrounding mountains. These give outstanding views out to the mountains for miles. Just follow the road from the gorge to the Lake and you can stop off at multiple places along this road, with stunning views from each viewpoint.

Keep your eye out for eagles and vultures here as well – I was lucky to spot one circling high above.

Lac de Sainte-Croix

This huge man-made lake is at the end of the river from Les Gorges du Verdon. The bridge called Pont du Galetas gives some great views over the lake. On a sunny day, the lake is a really vivid blue colour, which is just stunning.

Moustiers Sainte Marie

My final stop in the area was in the pretty village of Moustiers Sainte Marie. I started off with a walk up to the church, which is fairly steep but only takes around 15 minutes. The views down to the village make this walk really worth it.

The old church at the top is also nice and worth visiting. It’s really peaceful inside, and often a lot cooler than outside which can be very welcome in summer heat.

The village is really cute as well. It’s small, so doesn’t take long to walk around. But there are plenty of shops to buy some souvenirs and some local produce to take home with you. There are plenty of ice cream shops as well. It’s a lovely village to spend time in after exploring the Gorges du Verdon.

Lavender fields

On the way back to Nice, we also drove past some of the lavender fields that are famous in the South of France. Unfortunately, the purple flowers of the lavender weren’t out when I visited in early May. The flowers don’t come out until July. So if you want to see the iconic purple fields, you’ll need to visit in July. However, it will be a lot hotter in July to do all the other activities, so I’d decided to visit earlier in the year for more comfortable temperatures. The lavender fields were still quite nice to see, but I can imagine they’d look stunning with the purple flowers out.

Evening in Nice

Back in Nice, I had another evening walk along the Promenade de Anglais, behind the beach. I also walked further to the marina in Nice to see some of the boats. The marina wasn’t as pretty as the one in St Tropez, but was still nice. There’s also the famous ‘I love Nice’ sign near the marina, which is good for a photo.

For dinner, I went to another meditarranean/Italian restaurant in a slightly different part of Nice but still very close to the sea. The restaurant was called La Pizza Cresci, and it did lovely pizza and pasta. And of course, more lovely Rose wine as well.