France! It was a stellar trip with my favorite people, and I loved exploring new territories, biking, and eating my way through it.

We started our journey in Paris. After landing, we went straight to the Eiffel Tower, fueled by a quick café American' and a buttery croissant. Being outside in the glorious sun for our first few hours really helped with the jet lag as we adjusted to the new time zone. We opted to walk as far as possible up the Eiffel Tower, which was not only enjoyable but also helped us avoid the long lines.

From there, we walked to the Marais district, stopping to see the gorgeous Notre Dame. We met our good friend Brian Hart Hoffman for a fabulous lunch at Aux Crus de Bourgogne, which might have been my favorite meal in Paris! We sat outside, indulging in delicious food and wine, which made for a very easy nap afterward.

After a long nap at our hotel, The Renaissance Nobel, in the 16th arrondissement, it was time for dinner. While we liked our hotel just fine, if I were to go back, I'd recommend Le Metropolitan, a friend's hotel in the same area. It was more my style and had the most fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower right outside the front door. For dinner, we had the most delicious frog legs and just about everything else on the menu at Auberge Bressane. This classic French bistro is not a fancy spot, but it offers amazing food like tableside Baked Alaska, piles of crisp *pomme frites*, and steak.

The next morning, we set out on an all-day walk of Paris in search of all things vintage and more shopping. We had reservations for a huge group lunch at a highly recommended Chinese restaurant called Le Palais du Bonheur, where we gorged ourselves on bao buns, Vietnamese spring rolls, duck five ways, and everything else under the sun. After walking over 18,000 steps, it was time to rest and change for dinner at a local bistro in our neighborhood called Stella. It was also lovely, but one thing I learned when researching is that some of my most desired reservations were unavailable due to our large party, being walk-ins only, or because many famous places aren't open on weekends! Can you imagine? I will definitely go back and visit Chez Georges and Le Bon George, so be sure to add those to your list! We were celebrating a 21st birthday, so we made a last-minute decision to go to Le Arc, a celebrated nightclub, to ring in her milestone day! Thankfully, the next morning was a three-hour train ride to Aix-en-Provence, as we were certainly lacking sleep.

Once in Provence, we explored the town and settled on an outdoor café for supper before a long night's rest. The next day marked the beginning of our big bike trip with Backroads. If you're not familiar with Backroads biking trips, I highly recommend them! They have trips all over the world, and we love their biking trips, although they also offer multi-sport and hiking options. This was our fourth trip with them, and they just keep getting better. Imagine a curated biking tour through the backroads of an area with curated lunches along the way, cultural stops, amazing hosts, and fabulous hotels. It's a great way to see an unfamiliar area. While I love a beach vacation where you sit and recharge, there's also something so lovely about having an activity each day and everything being planned for you exactly how you'd want it. I always choose the trips with the Premiere hotels because I want to treat myself after all that biking. I even indulged in a couple of massages after all the exercise! I can feel good about eating whatever I want because we're so active, not to mention you see the area in such a different way than you would otherwise. They also transport your luggage for you, so you never have to worry about lugging everything from place to place. Plus, if you only want to bike for half a day, you can tap out at any time and go back to the hotel to enjoy the pool, spa, shopping, or some solitude.

We met our crew and immediately began biking with a 2000 ft elevation gain, which really gave us a preview of what the next five days would be like! We made it to our first hotel, Château de la Gaude, where we stayed for two nights. This happened to be my favorite hotel of the entire trip! The rooms were fabulous, the spa was spectacular, and the grounds, gardens, and art were lush. On days three and four, we stayed in a perch village called Cotignac (a tiny village at the top of a mountain, usually a walled village with tons of history). Our hotel for the next two nights was a super cool eco-hotel built into the side of the mountain called Hôtel Lou Calen. I loved this village and definitely could have spent more time there. On day five of biking, we were headed from the perch village all the way down to St. Tropez—a 67 km ride with no breaks! So, we took a break from the biking and arranged a private car to take us straight there to shop and enjoy the beach for the day. We met up with the rest of the riders in time to take a private ferry boat over to Cannes, where we checked into the famous Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic and had our last dinner with Backroads.

The last morning, we woke up in Cannes and enjoyed a private walking tour of the old village, which was so interesting and beautiful. We departed feeling sore and fulfilled from all the exercise and sightseeing, and decided to stay one last night, but headed to Nice, France, for the night. We loved Nice! Our hotel, La Pérouse, was my second favorite, and we spent most of our time in the old town. I happened upon an incredible vintage store called Caprice Vintage (@capricevintage)—if you're into that sort of stuff, let me tell you, I've NEVER been in a better vintage store in my life—and when I'm not eating or cooking, that's my second favorite thing to do. You can follow them on Instagram. I bought so much stuff that I had to run 15 minutes down the street to get a large suitcase to fit everything to bring home. And I bought my very first vintage Chanel—she's a beaut!