Easy hiking trails in the French Riviera
Whatever happened to Old Aspremont? It was all a very long time ago. Modern-day Aspremont – approx. 15 km to the north of Nice – is a picturesque and quiet little place, one of a dozen or so “perched villages” on the list of visitors’ recommendations issued by the Nice tourism office. But there is…
Among the peaks of the Riviera, the Mont des Mules enjoys a special place. Not because of its height: at 291 metres, it is little more than a pimple on the landscape. Its long and varied history reaches back into pre-Roman times and includes the episode when, in 1909, the municipality of Beausoleil (to which…
I told you it was going to be a sunny day. Which was no mere coincidence, of course. In fact, we let several days go by since the lockdown in our area had been lifted. Because there was no way we would let our first post-Covid 19 walk since what felt more like an imprisonment…
Most of our Riviera walks are intended for “slow travellers” who do not want or need to pack as much as is humanly possible into a two-day trip. Who love walking for its own sake. Who appreciate the arts and architecture. Who travel either alone or in a group of like-minded adults. Today’s walk belongs…
Here is one point that even the grumpiest visitor of Monaco must concede: the principality is not stingy with its wealth. It provides spotlessly clean and ultra-safe streets (with police officers at every other corner and a dense array of high-tech CCTV systems), while lifts and escalators help the tired huddled masses of visitors along…
Some people find it fashionable to sneer at Monaco. There is nothing categorically wrong about sneering, I enjoy the occasional sneer as much as anybody, but for people who are travelling to see the world, it is the most counterproductive attitude you can imagine. After all, travelling is all about discoveries: about finding new things…
Palm trees, beaches, speedboats: these are the things the Riviera does well. Christmas, not so much. That does not mean that the people over here ever give up trying, but that they do so, with mixed results. Take, for example, Christmas Markets. In the Friench Riviera, any such event always has that unmistakable air of…
Most of the parcs departemental in the south of France lie hidden in the back country. Off the top of my head, I can name only two that you are ever likely to see “accidentally“, passing through by car or by train, and these two could not be more different. The Esterel (with its red…
People like to travel because we are all looking for something that lifts life fleetingly above the level of repetitive routines and rhythms: something that takes us beyond the drumbeat of everyday life. We search for the hardest possible break from daily routines that our budgets and time schedules allow: for new sceneries and experiences,…
Savannah, jungle, farmland: most landscapes on Planet Earth fall into one of these categories. They are quite frequently separated by dozens or even hundreds of kilometres But on Mont Vinaigrier in the outskirts of Nice, you can visit all three of them within a couple of hours: arranged in a neat vertical stack and sprinkled…
