Saturday, October 02, 2004

9/13/04 - French Rivera

The next was stop small pretty port town Villefranche-Sur-Mer on Cote de Azur. We have booked a car in Nice and took a 15 minutes ride along the coast. In Nice we loaded into almost new Peugeot and headed east toward Ez.

Harbor, Villefranche.jpg

Ez is a small medieval village with breathtaking views of the coastline.After an uphill walk through the steep, narrow streets we reached the cactus garden on the top of the village. We spent 1/2 h admiring the views and taking pictures. Without a doubt, that cactus garden was one of the most memorable and beautiful places we have ever visited. After exiting the garden, we browsed around Ez and found a lavish hotel tucked in the remote part of the city. Prices on the restaurant menu were totally outrages, but the view from the restaurant made us envious.

View from cactus garden, Ez.JPG

We left Ez and headed further east. Our plan was to got to X, which was described as a neat town in our guide. We enjoyed the stunning views on the way. Unfortunately, we could not figure out where the entrance to X was. Instead we went through to Menton.

Street, Menton.JPG

Menton is the last French town on the east end of the Rivera. We parked and found rather suspicious restaurant right on the boardwalk. There we were pleasantly surprised for two reasons: one is that food was not disgusting and and secondly, occasional women on the beach were topless.

After lunch we walked around Menton and found it to be much quieter and much less touristy than Nice or Canne. Streets and building were clean; Menton really looked like French French Rivera. We could not spend more time in Menton, because we had to return the car. We headed back to Nice captivated by the unforgettable views.

Rivera is definitely a place that we need to come back too!


All pictures from this trip

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