My boss handed me a bonus check and said “invest it wisely.” I invested it in a round-trip ticket and two weeks somewhere I’d been dreaming about since a geography class in eighth grade — the French Riviera, that sun-drenched stretch of coastline I’d stared at in a textbook map, tracing my finger from Menton to Saint-Tropez. But when I finally landed and started moving around, I quickly learned that the version I’d daydreamed about — all Cannes film festivals and Nice promenades — was really just the postcard hiding something far more interesting underneath. Beyond those famous names lies a quieter, more honest Côte d’Azur: hilltop villages, sleepy fishing ports, and café terraces where nobody seems to be performing for anyone. That’s the French Riviera I want to tell you about.
The One Thing I Nearly Lost to a Pickpocket in Villefranche-sur-Mer
The French Riviera’s crowded markets and tight alleyways are pickpocket paradise, and your passport is the crown jewel. I learned this the hard way when someone’s hand brushed my back pocket near the fish market in Villefranche, and I realized I’d been carrying my passport loose in my bag like an absolute amateur.
What works
- The RFID blocking actually matters on the Riviera, where card skimming is as common as rosé at lunch—I felt genuinely safer knowing my information wasn’t being read from across a café table.
- It fits in a crossbody bag without that obvious bulge that screams “steal me,” so you can keep your documents close without advertising them to every opportunistic hand in a crowded market.
- The slim profile meant I could actually keep it on me during day trips instead of leaving it in a hotel safe and stressing about forgetting it—which, let’s be honest, I would have done at least once.
What doesn’t
- The material scuffed up faster than I expected after a week of beach sand and constant handling—it went from pristine to looking lived-in by day five.
- It only holds a couple of cards comfortably, so if you’re also traveling with multiple payment methods or IDs, you’ll need a second organizer or accept some awkward overstuffing.
I second-guessed whether I was being paranoid until that moment in the market when I actually felt someone’s hand on my back—suddenly this small pouch felt like the smartest investment I’d made all trip. RFID-blocking passport holder
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