A few weeks ago, we climbed the mountains overlooking Monaco (the Tête de Chien) and Eze (Mont Bastide).
On Easter Sunday, we turned our attention to the steep hills of Menton and tackled one that overlook our adopted home town.
When I wrote late last year that climbing some of the Riviera peaks would be our project for the winter, I also said that the period between December and March with its usually mild weather was a good time for such an undertaking, provided you picked a sunny day, “of which there are quite a few in this part of the world” at any time of the year.
Ha! If only. Instead, we went through the most miserable winter in 30 years, with long cold, wet stretches and few sunny days while most of our target area – anything over 400 metres – lay under a blanket of snow for long periods deep into March.
Tackling the Steep Hills of Menton
Easter Sunday, however, was a glorious day, so we – finally – packed our bags and went for the hills to the east of Menton which divide Italy from France.
Some basic facts first: Of the three easy mountain walks that we have done over the past few months, this was decidedly the least easy.
In fact, the trail steep hills of Menton go up, up, up, relentlessly for nearly 2 hours, sometimes mildly over roots and soft forest soil, …
… sometimes steeply on stony ground …
… but always up.
So much so that whenever you are in doubt as to where to continue the trail, always go for the steepest, most arduous option, and you will be right.
On the plus side, the trailhead is easy to get to – it starts at the tunnel just outside the Menton-Garavan train station on Avenue Katherine Mansfield – …
… and the trail itself is easy to navigate: it is overall very well marked (this is the tail end of the GR52, one of Europe’s premier long-distance hiking trails), and there are no crossings with other trails that could confuse you.
The trail also follows an attractively picturesque route, right from the start: Menton is a small town, so in under ten minutes, you are out of the suburbs and enter a landscape that is filled with flickering sunlight, birdsong and a mild sea breeze …
… while Menton underneath you is becoming smaller and smaller with each twist of the path.
There is more to this route, however, than spectacular views and pastoral scenery. You will be reminded along the way that this Arcadian landscape, too, is stalked by … well, if not exactly Death (as in the classical tale) but the harsh realities of life.
You will come across many heaps of discarded backpacks – most of them bearing the names of charity organizations – and well-worn items of clothing: clearly things that people have left behind who did not pass here on a pleasure walk.
Most likely, we thought, these had been dropped by illegal migrants on their way from Italy to France and beyond, probably because they did not want to look suspiciously burdened in Menton town centre. (Young African men in a French-Italian border town are conspicuous enough, even without backpacks and mud on their shoes.)
For the hiker who is going the opposite way, meanwhile, there are different ways of ending the walk. After a little less than 2 hours, you will arrive at the Granges St Paul, the lowest (at 480 m) in a series of summits on the hill.
After you have enjoyed the wonderful views to Monaco and beyond …
… you have to decide what you are going to do next. You can turn left in the direction of Castellar (another couple of hours, at a rough guess, although mainly in the flat), …
… from where you can take a bus back to Menton (line no. 6, but watch out: there are only two departures all afternoon). Or you can continue straight: to St Dalmas de Valdeblore (the starting point of the GR 52) and beyond, on the GR 5, all the way to Amsterdam. (Hey, let’s meet there in time for Christmas.)
Or you can return to Menton on the GR 52, of course. Which throws up an interesting question: when is the right time to call it a day on hikes where you have no realistic alternative but to return the way you came? But let’s leave that discussion for another day.
