On the Road with Julie

Bienvenue a Villefranche-sur-mer

January 11th, 2026

My spin around the globe has begun in a little village called Villefranche-sur-Mer, nestled cozily amidst the undulations of France’s southern coast between Nice, just 5K to the west and Monaco, sitting ever so enticingly to the east.

Villefranche-sur-mer is, well, aggressively beautiful. It’s the kind of beautiful that sneaks into every nook and cranny of available space, even those so small you didn’t think beauty could fit there. And Villefranche has a panorama that works from absolutely every angle.  Every time you look up from your own footsteps or look out a window, an involuntary gasp, a « Holy crap! » or some other automatic response to having your breath torn right out of your chest is likely to at least pop in your head, if not burst right out of your mouth. It is THAT beautiful. 

And, it’s January! This is the off season! This is how beautiful it is when people DON’T come here.

And, it’s not just that it’s beautiful. 

It is also profoundly and engulfingly romantic.

Not necessarily the kind of romance that makes two people start searching for the right label to communicate to the world because they’ve gone gaga for each other, but the kind that swells hearts just the same.

The layout of the town is like a lifesize version of chutes and ladders – that is if chutes and ladders had been created with all the style and craft and texture of centuries worth of architecture and provincial renaissance. Each corner turned might reveal a new secret staircase from here to somewhere up there. Some streets are flat and horizontal. Some streets are stone steps with street signs on them that escort you up a diagonal path from one terrace of the village to another.

The way the stone rivers they call streets wander through the buildings is an irresistible invitation for your mind to do the same. The way the endless staircases climb towards the sky, beckoning you upwards with bon courage against the resistance of gravity almost insists that your mind and heart climb northwards in solidarity. Even though the sweat will come and the muscles will burn – it feels almost necessary to ascend. The romance of the place makes it seem well worth the effort. The church bells ring, the waves, of a color blue that only nature can make, lap rhythmically and you can’t help but feel your own breath and heartbeat strive to synchronize with it all. How is it that seeing a cat wander independently up an empty alley could seem so rich with mystery and meaning? I don’t know. But, the sheer romance of this place called Villefranche-sur-Mer manages to make it so!

After winding my way through the twists and turns to meet up with a few friends from school for an after-class dinner, after the usual salutations, I burst out with it, “This place is so…romantic!” One of my new friends, a fellow student also here from the good old US of A said – but in French, “I actually JUST said that exact sentence right before you walked in!”. 

It’s not just me. It’s this place! 

Now, behind the romance, there are the sore quads that will likely accompany your first few days here if you do decide to answer the call of those endless stairways. And, as with any romance, eventually, it becomes normal, because it has to, and then the cracks become more visible. But if you have had a coup de coeur with a place, as I have here, there is no degree of normal that can squash the feeling of enamorment. Well, at least after a week, it’s still alive and well. 

Though, it is not only newcomers for whom the magic stays alive.

My uber driver from the airport was a lifelong Nice resident. It was clear from the get that his passion for this place was dripping with that same enamorment after a lifetime worth of traversing the twists and turns, seeming not to have faded with decades of familiarity.

His enthusiasm for his hometown was matched by his enthusiasm for my grand adventure. And he fervently declared that my trip was off to a very good start. Regarding my choice to kick off my trip with French studies here in Villefranche-sur-Mer, he said,

“Tu as bien choisi.” 

You have chosen well. 

He was so excited about my trip and even more excited to share his hometown with me, that, even after driving me to my apartment, he offered to take me on a little driving tour around the town. His excitement for my trip and for this place was oozing out the open windows of the car while the crisp January sea air rushed in to welcome me and my lungs to my first new temporary home.  

It was a wonderful way to start the trip, thanks to his wholehearted welcome, the town’s effervescent beauty and the intoxicating high I got from having conducted my first successful conversation in French with a real francophone.

My first week has gone wonderfully. My airbnb is fantastic and barely 5 minutes from the sea. It is a 10 minute walk uphill to the school where I have joined 38 other adult students, many from the USA, but also from around the world for this excellent program. My french has already improved significantly, partially thanks to my classes and partially thanks to just having stayed in French for 6 days straight (with a few breaks for English to talk to my husband at 2AM struggling with some severe jet lag for the first few days). As for talking with my husband – it turns out his base of highschool french has been enough for us to have a few real conversations during the week and that has been so much fun. I am lucky that one of my close friends from home (shout out to Polina!) is fluent in French, so I’ve had some familiar voices to talk to here and there as well. I found a local group that does an activity called “the sea walk” – it is an exercise where you, well, walk in the sea. So, take three of my favorite activities – walking, running and swimming – and smush them together. It was such a great workout, I was passed out on the couch for hours afterwards! 

I am still pulling together and finalizing elements of all of the rest of my stops, but the itinerary has taken shape and more than 75% of it is arranged and booked, and the other 25% is well on its way there.

So, like I said, so far, so great.

This trip is a lifetime of dreaming in the making, and so far, it has been everything I dreamed and more. Of course, there is much more road ahead and I am here for the ride!  I’ll look forward to keeping you posted and connecting with some of you along the way.