Saint-Raphaël Travel Guide

St Raphael has two harbours - the modern port of Santa Lucia and the ancient fishing port.
We took in both on a pleasant afternoon stroll. We found the ancient port far more interesting as it's stll a working fishing harbour.

After checking in at Hotel Excelsior, it was already well past 1PM. I was hungry and knowing that a lot of restaurants stop serving lunch after 2PM, I had to hurry. Walking around the old port, there are McDonald's and a lot of fast food restaurants. Because of the Christmas/New Year holidays, quite a few of them remained closed. Finally I found this pizzeria. Their daily special caught my eye -- spaghetti with mussels. The restaurant is not very big, there are no more than 10 tables. Most people were having pizzas (no merci). I did not have a hearty breakfast that morning so I was ready for a big lunch :0)). I had the fish soup to start. It was very rich and tasty. The plate of spaghetti must have at least 25 mussels on it. I am not a big fan of mussels (never like to dirty my hands), but for once I enjoyed the mussels very much -- fresh, plump and cooked just right. Overall it was a very good lunch. I highly recommend this restaurant. Rating: 9 out of 10.

Blessed with wonderful surroundings that have inspired the greatest perfumers (or « noses » as they are known in the business) to create legendary perfumes, the Côte d’Azur is widely recognized as the world’s leading aroma competitive cluster with an unrivaled concentration of expertise in fragrances, food aromas and fine chemistry.

The Côte d'Azur perfumes and fragrances cluster is firmly established in the region around Grasse, the perfume capital of the world. The cluster is the industry's secondlargest employment basin in France and accounts for 50% of its domestic revenue.