A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
*POST UPDATED MARCH 2024.
Friends, hello! Happy Saturday! I hope this post finds you well, in full weekend relaxation mode, with plans for a lovely night ahead. I myself have some wonderfully cozy evening plans to curl up in front of the TV & watch a movie with Fiancé later – I can barely wait! In the meantime, I’m here to share the first of my Côte d’Azur blog posts with you: A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France! In case you missed it, Fiancé & I were fortunate enough to visit the beautiful French Riviera for a week long jaunt back in January. We were staying in Nice for the duration of our visit, but managed to squeeze in day trips to both Villefranche-sur-Mer & Monaco! This post will deal exclusively with the former, but fear not, a Nice guide will be hitting the blog later this month, and a Monaco one won’t be too far behind! Shall we get down to it?
As soon as we started planning our Nice trip, I knew that I wanted to make a day trip to a nearby little coastal town. Last time we were in Nice, we visited Juan-les-Pins for the day, so this time ’round I wanted to go in the opposite direction. There are so so many tiny towns littered along the coast that it’s hard to decide which one to visit! We were stuck between Éze, Menton, or Ventimiglia just over the Italian boarder, but eventually settled on Villefranche-sur-Mer for sheer ease. And so, on our last bright & sunny morning in Nice, we took the pleasingly short journey to the town two stops over, and spent a couple hours wandering around. Here’s what we got up to 🙂
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
quick links
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
before you visit
A few things to keep in mind if you’re thinking about visiting!
• many of the buildings in town date back to the 12th & 13th centuries, and as a result the town almost feels like a movie set! It’s all winding narrow streets, covered passageways, and cobblestones etc. Add that to the fact that the water is some of the bluest you’ll ever see – it sure makes for one visually appealing town!
• as long as you don’t mind some steep inclines, the town is very walkable. It’s totally compact, small, and easy to get around. We only spent 1.5-2 hours in town, and I feel like we covered a lot of ground.
• from our own personal experience, Villefranche-sur-Mer is very much a summer town. It was the middle of January when we visited, and most of the town’s restaurants and cafés were shuttered up for the season. The only places we found to be fully operational were the tourist traps along the waterfront – but we aren’t into those kind of places. We’d actually planned to eat at Les Garçons restaurant, but when their apparent opening time rolled around, there was no sign of life inside. Damn you, Google! Next time!
• not including the failed dining experience, I’d really recommend visiting during off-season! The weather was super warm and delightful – apparently the town receives over 300 sunny days a year – and there were hardly any people around! I’ve read other travel blogs/guides that talk about how busy the place can be during summer, but that wasn’t our experience at all; it was calm, quiet, and absolutely perfect.
• related to the above: Villefranche-sur-Mer has a very deep port, making it a prime spot for cruises to stop! If you’re visiting during the summer season, you might want to check the cruise schedules in order to plan your visit around them!
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
getting there
From Nice, you can take either the bus or the train to Villefranche-sur-Mer. Heck, if you’re more exercise inclined than we are, you can even walk there! Seeing as our apartment in Nice was quite close to the train station, we chose to go by rail. For information about getting the bus, click here, and for information about walking, click here. Here’s how we made the journey:
• rather than go to Nice-Ville train station and get stressed trying to use the machines with loads of people hanging around, I downloaded the SNCF Connect app and bought our train tickets through that. I’d previously used the app to buy tickets from Saint-Émilion to Bordeaux, so I knew it was reliable.
• one way, our tickets cost €2.10 each, and they appeared on my app in the form of a QR code, which the ticket-checker lady had no problem scanning. Pro tip: never try to skip out without buying a ticket in France! I almost always get my ticket checked on train journeys when travelling there!
• there’s only two stops between Nice & Villefranche-sur-Mer, so the journey time was a brief 6-minutes. From the train station in Villefranche-sur-Mer, we followed the signposts into the centre of the old town, which took about 5-minutes to reach.
Pretty handy, right?
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
what to see
Like I said above, we spent a very chill and casual two-ish hours in town. We arrived with no planned itinerary in mind, and that is exactly the kind of mindset you need in a beautiful little town like Villefranche-sur-Mer. The one thing I’d recommend doing most in a town like this is just wandering around. Get lost in the winding old streets, stroll along the harbour-front, or just lounge around watching the waves. It’s honestly such an idyllic spot!
Anyway, here’s the small list of places we visited, stopped into, or appreciated during our time in Villefranche. Enjoy!
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Rue Obscure // a cool old street that dates back to 1260! Initially built for military purposes way back when, over time the street has since been built over with homes and buildings – encasing it almost entirely in darkness. At 130m in length, it runs underneath the winding streets of the old town, with four different entrances dotted along. We peeked inside at two different points, one was was totally pitch black & the other was illuminated by charming old-fashioned lamps. Fiancé wanted us to walk through from one end to the other, but I was too much of a chicken. Would recommend. Address: Rue Obscure, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
france travel guide
Citadelle Saint-Elme // for the best views over the coast/harbour. We didn’t actually go into the Citadel, but instead walked up to and around it, somehow managing to make our way down the city walls towards the harbour. Added bonus: there was a lovely plateau with beach chairs at the bottom, where we were able to have a little sit while taking in the view. Would recommend. Address: La Citadelle, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
La Darse Harbour // from the plateau, we walked down toward the harbour. It was kind of like strolling along the pier in Dun Laoghaire – except infinitely warmer, cleaner, and generally more beautiful. We walked the entire length of the harbour-front before turning around and strolling along the Citadel coastal path back into town. It was so glorious! Would recommend. Address: La Darse, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer
france travel guide
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Église Saint-Michel // a nice little hilltop church, built in the 1750s. We stopped here on a whim on our way out of town, but it was rather beautiful. I love stumbling across old churches in small towns – they almost always have the most magical light streaming in. Would recommend. Address: 11 Pl. de l’Église, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer
A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
france travel guide
Plage des Marinières // the beautiful beach at the edge of town. Seeing as we a) aren’t beach bunnies and b) visited in January, we didn’t actually go down to the beach – but I rather enjoyed the view of it from the train station! Would recommend. Address: Plage des Marinières, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer
Okay friends, there we have it: A Quick Guide to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France! A short but sweet recap of everything we got up to in the charming seaside village! Have you visited any of the tiny towns dotted along the Côte d’Azur? If so, which was your favourite? Hit me up using the comment box below 🙂
À bientôt!
Vicki xo
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