Okay, it took me over a year to write this but here it goes.
France. The first think that comes to my mind when thinking about the final leg of our #MediterraneanHoneymoon is anxiously figuring out how we would move our wedding to Savannah when the voluntary evacuation was ordered. Luckily, we didn’t have to, but I’m still a little annoyed that so many people were asking if the wedding was cancelled while I was on my honeymoon. Let me liiiiveeee.
I know, I know. “You poor thing. Your life is so hard. How ever did you overcome this trying time? You’re just so brave.”
In terms of France, I had only been to Paris before our trip, and much like my first time in Italy, it wasn’t my favorite. The World Cup was in Germany that year, and I visited right in the middle of the tournament. It’s already a highly touristy anti-tourist city, and all the soccer fans just exacerbated that well earned reputation. Luckily, the Cote d’Azur was nothing like my experience in Paris.
We stayed at the Hotel Royal Riviera in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. This was an amazing old-school-glam hotel that reminded me of all the golden age movie stars who would summer in the south of France. It was a bit like The Homestead in Virginia or The Breakers in Florida, only in Europe and PINK. The rooms were well decorated and spacious (even by American standards), and we had a great view of the gardens and ocean.
The rooms were fantastic, but my favorite part of the hotel was the Jasmin lounge right next to the heated pool. The restaurant was only open for lunch, but they had the best rosé and some delicious lobster pasta. J preferred their tandoori chicken, but agreed about the rosé.
Breakfast was served on the terrace overlooking the pool and beach every morning. It was a beautiful spot, but it fell a little short when compared to the breakfasts in Croatia and Italy. I’ll be honest, it was difficult for me to enjoy the food in France. Not that it wasn’t delicious, but after spending a year working out and counting my macros, my body was not pleased with the dramatic change. I had spent the last 10 days lounging around and eating whatever I wanted and fitting into my wedding dress was starting to look impossible. So it kind of worked out that there was only one restaurant at the hotel open for dinner. It was a great opportunity to check out some of the cute little casual restaurants in town that didn’t offer an 8 course tasting menu.
On our second night in France, we had arguably the best dinner of our trip, and despite our food fatigue. Monaco is extremely close to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, so we crossed the border to enjoy dinner at Le Louis XV in the Hôtel de Paris. I’m going to get on my wannabe foodie soap box for a second and sound like a pretentious prick, but stay with me… or skip to the next paragraph… you do you. Still with me? Okay, Le Louis XV was a culinary dream. It’s the flagship restaurant of Alain Ducasse, the first (of his) to be awarded three Michelin Stars, a member of Les Grandes Tables du Monde, and widely considered one of the 100 best restaurants.
This was the third restaurant on our trip that is included in the Michelin guide, so here is a fun fact: the Michelin Guide and star system was initially created so people would drive more to try new restaurants and therefore wear down their tires fasters so they would have to buy new tires more frequently. The food was delicious, but the service… OH THE SERVICE. White glove service. The waitresses wouldn’t take plates away until we were both done eating. How did they know we were done eating? They paid attention to us fixing our plates! All my mom’s and grandmother’s nagging was finally appreciated. As soon as I arranged my silverware to indicate that I was done, no more than a few seconds would pass before a waitress was there to clear the empty plates out of our way. It was so beautiful.
The service is really what I remember most about our meal. I wish I could remember the details of every little thing we ate, but the highlights were the first course and the tea course. The first was small bites of fresh fish that was quickly steamed in a dome at the table. It was a wonderful presentation and I still remember how delicious each piece was.
The tea course at the end of the meal was my dream. A cart was brought to the table with fresh herb plants. After choosing which herbs you wanted in your tea, the waitress would trim the plants, add it to a glass tea pot, and pour hot water over the fresh herbs. It was the perfect way to end such a gluttonous meal.
Now, with only two days left of our honeymoon, our leisurely vacation turned into a sprint and didn’t stop until we sat down at our wedding reception eight days later. `
Up first, our final boat day of the trip. This was definitely the nicest ship - the yacht was spacious and beautiful. The service wasn’t quite up to that in Croatia and wasn’t anywhere near as good as the service on the yacht in Italy, but the scenery made up for that. We cruised along the coast past Nice, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Antibes, and Cannes before stopping for lunch at Ilê Saint-Honorat. The Island was first inhabited by Saint Honoratus around the year 410. It quickly became home to a large monastery, although it was frequently attacked by tribes of Arabia. Later the island became a popular place of pilgramage, before again succumbing to attacks from the Spanish and Genoese.
During the French Revolution, the island was seized by the state and sold to an actress. Eventually, Ilê Saint-Honorat was sold to a local Bishop who wished to reestablish the monastery. The community still exists today and is home to 30 Cistercian monks who cultivate the vineyards on the island to produce wines and liqueur. While we weren’t there for the Annual Grape Harvest, we did get to try the local wine at La Tonnelle Restaurant.
After drinking wine and snacking on squash blossoms, we hopped back on the boat for a slow cruise back to port with plenty of stops to snorkel and sunbathe.
For dinner we wandered around town until we found a cute spot for pizza and, since we were in France after all, frog legs and escargot, in Beaulieu-Sur-Mer.
On the * FINAL DAY * of our Mediterranean Honeymoon, we ventured on J’s favorite adventure of the trip - a Ferrari Sightseeing Experience. That’s right, my husband would be driving a California T4 on the same roads that killed Grace Kelly, and I would be sitting helplessly in the back seat.
The car pulled up to the Royal Riviera and we jumped right into that bright red Ferrari. After being told that this was a DRIVING experience, and not a RACING experience, Josh started the car and we were off to Monaco. We had beautiful views of the coast before turning around and starting our climb to Eze. It was a pretty cloudy day, but the views were still fantastic and it was kind of fun to chase the clouds up the hills.
We stopped at the Chèvre d’Or in Eze for drinks and snacks before driving back down to our hotel. It was an adorable hotel with the most amazing gardens. It also sits atop a cliff, so the views are breathtaking. Of course I only took videos of the view, and I can’t share videos here. They are saved to my Instagram highlights if you’re interested!
With a whole lotta traveling ahead of us, we headed back to the hotel and had a light dinner at the hotel bar with Rosé champagne & foie gras… because France.
Overall, we had an amazing honeymoon and I am so thankful for the lovely people at Brownell who helped us plan and booked everything for us. Between moving to Charlotte, Josh graduating & taking the bar, finalizing wedding plans, and figuring out job plans, there is no way we could’ve had such an amazing honeymoon without their help.
We liked them so much that we enlisted their services again for our upcoming trip to Hawaii!
Stay Tuned!