Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte d’Azur

When we returned to the ship after our excursion to Pisa the Captain announced that we would be unable to dock at our next planned destination, the Principality of Monaco. High winds would prevent our entry into the harbor. He indicated that we would instead sail further up the coast to Villefranche-sur-Mer which has one of the deepest ports in the Mediterranean. However, since Villefranche-sur-Mer (a municipality of 5,000 people) lacks the port facilities to handle ships, the Viking Star would have to anchor in the harbor and passengers would be shuttled to shore via tender boats. 

Villefranche was established as a “free port” in the 13th century and remained so into the 18th century. It was a tax free haven for 500 years. Think of it as the original “duty free” shop. Apparently, the fabulously wealthy mega-billionaires of today still consider it to be so. Villefranche is home to the most expensive residence in the world, Villa Léopolda, which was once the residence of King Leopold II of Belgium. More recently its owners have included Paul Allen (the silent partner of Bill Gates). Our tour guide rattled off a lengthy who’s who of international celebrities who have homes in Villefranche. 

The town itself is a quaint, kind of ramshackle medieval village. La Citadelle is a 16th century fort that overlooks the harbor. It is open and free to the public.  Since cruise ships don’t regularly visit I suspect no one has yet considered that the citadel might be “entrance fee worthy.”

The citadel’s watch towers sport colorful tile roofs that our guide told us were typical of the area. We didn’t see any similarly roofed houses or buildings, so I’m not sure what area she was referring to. She lives in Nice. I think Nice has nice roofs. (Sorry, it was too bad to pass up.)

We wandered around inside the citadel until we found a garden on the lower level. Since it was Easter Monday, a holiday in France, there was garden party of some sort for the children of Villefranche. Faces were being painted, games were being played, all very festive. Betty wanted to take pictures, but understood that two American tourists snapping pictures of French children at play would be creepy. So we went off to explore on our own.