A walk and a swim: Èze and Villefranche-sur-Mer

Today we walked up to Èze via the Chemin de Nietzsche. This footpath is only about 2 kilometres long but has 427 metres of ascent… a lot in a small distance! Therefore, we needed an early start before it got too hot for me.

The path was smooth to start with, but soon became rough and rocky, and was fairly strenuous. Thankfully, at 10 o’clock in the morning there were still areas of cool shade between walls, then behind the trees and shrubs lining the path. The views on the way up were stunning, and the plants smelt lovely.

We reached Èze in about an hour. It’s another old village perched on a rock… and we’ve visited a few already… but Èze is rather special.

As well as pretty alleyways with artisan shops, shady squares and stone archways, we wandered around the Jardin Exotique, full of tropical and Mediterranean plants, including many cacti.

There were amazing views in every direction, and there’s no doubt Èze is beautiful. However, by the time we’d finished exploring, the village was rammed… coach loads of people seemed to keep arriving and the narrow streets were far too crowded for our liking.

We managed to find somewhere for lunch that didn’t look too expensive, with a free table and sat down. However, when we came to order, the drinks were extortionate! Never mind… I couldn’t wait until we’d walked back down to the station and travelled to the next town, so we decided to suck it up, and ordered a bottle of wine with our salads… all of which were delicious. John shared his bread with a friendly dove!

We then walked back downhill to catch the train to Villefranche-sur-Mer, timing it perfectly. By now it was very hot and we were glad we weren’t going uphill.

Villefranche was worth visiting too. The buildings in the old town date back to the 16th and 17th century and there’s a port and a beach. It was enjoyable exploring the old streets and the citadel.

I was feeling hot and tired by now so we stopped and had an ice cream in a shady square before heading to the beach.

There wasn’t much space on the sand because the sea almost came up to the sea wall, but we found a space, changed and went in. The water was warm and felt wonderful. After we’d dried off and changed ready to get the train back to the campsite, we had cold beers which were wonderful too!