Five minutes, and not one more
The tourist office of Saint-Paul-de-Vence leaves no room for doubt: cars are not allowed into the village. The only two written exceptions are residents’ vehicles and those of guests staying in a hotel inside the walls. The same page adds that dropping passengers off and remaining stationary on the road are punishable by fine.
The council, for its part, does provide a bay. Its parking page lists a kiss and ride area at the village entrance, limited to 5 minutes. That is a timed tolerance, not a comfortable stop: the luggage comes out before you pull in, and the destination is known in advance.
A guest coming to have lunch or to visit does not go in. A guest sleeping inside the walls does. The difference is one line of regulation, and it changes the whole shape of the arrival.
The underground car park stops at 1.90 m
The Espace Sainte-Claire car park, at the village entrance, lists 469 spaces on 10 levels, including 9 accessible bays, open all year round, day and night. The official factsheet gives a maximum height of 1.90 m to reach level 1, and says nothing about the lower levels.
A passenger van commonly exceeds that limit. Booking the van therefore means staying above ground, in the outer car parks: route des Serres, montée des Trious, chemin des Gardettes, route de Vence. A sedan goes down without difficulty.
Two landmarks for a group: coaches park on chemin des Trious, 400 metres and about ten minutes on foot from the village, on roughly fifteen bays priced at 80 € a day. And the local blue-disc zone runs to 20 minutes, against 1 h 30 in nearby Tourrettes — the two regimes do not transfer.
Fondation Maeght, the one address you reach by car
At 623 chemin des Gardettes, the foundation has its own free car park and is reached by car without going near the ramparts. It opens daily from 10 am to 6 pm, and to 7 pm in July and August.
It is also the only address in the area that does not involve walking on cobbles. Inside the fortifications, the tourist office notes a cobbled surface that makes wheelchair access tricky; from the bus stop, allow 10 to 12 minutes of steep climb. Public car parks, for their part, are free after 7 pm.