Travelling, in some ways, is a lot like learning. Done properly, they are lifelong preoccupations. You cannot acquire all the experiences that can be made out there any more than you can find out everything there is to know.
And what is more: the mere attempt is a fool’s errand. Much better to paraphrase Socrates: I know that I have been nearly nowhere at all.
Personally, I can safely say that I have not even been everywhere in my adopted hometown of Menton. Menton is not a big city, but we sometimes walk down streets in areas outside of our own little quartier where I confidently expect at every twist and turn to experience the twang of the novel and unfamiliar.
Having said that, I was surprised that the Ubac Foran had escaped me in all of those seven years since we took up residence in this charmed corner of the world.
The Ubac Foran should have been right up our alley in more ways than one: for one, it is a lovely bit of nature, a visitor-friendly forest in the Alpine foothills, exactly the sort of thing for which we are constantly looking.
For another, it is located virtually on our doorstep, a mere 10 kilometres to the north of Menton (half way on the road to Sospel). Why did it take me so long to realize it was there?
The Ubac Foran is on the list of the Department Parks (with which we are reasonably familiar), but I always ignore those parks that lie further inland because anything away from the coast.
If you do not have a car, the trip would usually require a complicated sequence of bus and train rides, with long periods of waiting in between the two, plus walks down busy country roads with no sidewalks and sometimes not even a hard shoulder. No hike, and certainly no parc departemental, is worth risking life and limb in that way.
Ubac Foran – a park far from the Mediterranean’s madding crowds
This particular park, however, comes – as I only found out a few days ago – with a bus attached to it. Bus line no. 15 (from Menton’s central bus station – the Gare Routiére – to Sospel) does not exactly take you to the park’s front door – you pass it along the way – but to a convenient side entrance.
You step out of the bus – and will instantly realize that it is no longer Kansas. Or, for that matter, sub tropically lush Menton.
The entrance to the forest is 50 metres away from the bus station. There is a stairway leading up, and a panel informs you about the circular trails that are on offer.
Before you get to those trails, however, you have to manage a winding path uphill. This serpentine “feeder trail” is well-designed, which means that it is neither so steep that you will lose your breath nor so long that you will lose your will to live (or any hope of ever escaping out of the left-turn-followed-by-right-turn-rut in which you seem stuck; serpentine trails can do that to you).
The trail leads you through thick natural forests, …
… which are so dense that you can only see the surrounding mountains through leafs and twigs …
… and never get to experience much of a panorama, the Alpine totality of it all.
But you will be rewarded for your effort when, after about 30 minutes, you step out into a clearing.
There is a viewing platform from where you get not only a clear view of all the mountains around you but also some information about their names and heights.
Looking into the direction of the sea, you also get a good view of near-by Castellar, which – like many mountain villages – looks best from afar. (I may not have been everywhere, but Castellar is somewhere where I have been, so you can take my word for it.)
There are also some tables for you to take a rest or have a meal. There are, in fact, several such picnic areas scattered across the Ubac Foran, but – suffice to say – you will have to bring anything you intend to consume with you from Menton.
We continued the uphill trail until we reached the peak of that particular hill, at a height of just under 600 metres.
If you are coming straight from subtropical Menton and are used to its gentle climes, you will feel the difference. Particularly at this time of the year, when the difference between a late Mediterranean summer and crisp autumn day in the Alpine foothills can be rather biting. (It can easily be five degrees colder here than at sea level.)
One drawback about visiting the Ubac Foran
The buses may take you straight to the entrance but do so only once every couple of hours, with the first bus leaving Menton before 9 in the morning and the next at 12:15.
If you like to take things easy and go for the mid-day option, you will not have much time left for a longer hike. You must also time your descent carefully, because if you miss your bus (there is one shortly after 1500 hours and another one at about 1720 hours), you will have two hours to kill before the next one arrives.
Other than that, however, the Ubac Foran is the near-perfect destination for a trip to a different world, far from the Mediterranean’s madding crowd. Throughout your walk, you will find it hard to believe that you are only 20 minutes away from the palm trees, the sidewalk cafes and the beaches of the coastal resorts. No matter how much you love those, it is sometimes nice to escape them, too, if only for a few hours.
We will certainly return for a longer hike in the spring.
