French Riviera / Villefranche-sur-Mer

As a true 90s kid, the image that immediately surfaces when I reflect on this corner of the world is a the experience of enjoying a “gusher” – I have not experienced a place so charged with color. It feels like a sno-cone order with at least three flavors, ordered in the thick of the summer, or as though you’ve turned the saturation up completely on a photo, past the point of comfort. During a two week stay in Nice, Villefranche was the place I visited at the midway point, but the place that has left an impression on my heart the longest – when I mentally need to catalogue my happy places, it always tops my list. I stopped through for just a morning (if I recall correctly, I took a taxi directly from Nice because it wasn’t too far away) but finding an airbnb for the week to call home would be a smart way to go about a visit. This town is one where the best and only option is to just allow yourself to wander leisurely; stop for a bite by the sea when hunger strikes, a swim when your legs need a rest, and like some delightful English women I ran into who were spending their afternoon sketching, don’t hesitate to sit on the steps in town and just take it in – the texture is so vivid that you’ll want to leave with a full bottle of it in your memories.