Travel Blog Tags

walking, mountains, culture and history

Comments

• 

  Scottishrose01 says...

  I visited the Cote d'Azur of France for the first time in February 2007. Although I was enchanted by the seaside promenades and old city sections of Cannes and Nice, locations of some of my favorite French films, it was the tiny medieval villages tucked among the mountain tops high above these romantic cities that won my heart. Especially the remote and ancient village of Peille, above Monaco, enchanted me. It seemed an endless drive up Route D53 but just as we were wondering if we had made a wrong turn, the narrow road narrowed further into one lane through a natural rock arch and behold: below us on our left was the ancient village of Peille, its tan colored limestone buildings and red tile roofs looking like ghosts of their ancient past. We parking beside a low stonewall to enjoy the view and take some pix. Then we made our way down to the village outskirts and parked our car where other cars were parked. By now hungry, we walked into the village along a narrow cobblestone street in search of a cafe or bistro. All was quiet and still. The houses seemed deserted. Where is everyone, we wondered aloud to each other. Shortly, we met another couple looking as mystified as we were. Did they know if there was anyplace to eat? Apparently there was, although their directions were vague, so we walked on. Some of the apartments or houses had pots of flowers on the sills; above we saw an overhead walkway connecting the second stories of the buildings. More flowers adorned the balconies, but still no person was visible. No voices except ours could we hear. Then we were startled by the voice of an ancient man calling out to us, in French, but of an ancient origin. As best as I could, I tried to understand what the old gentleman was telling us. It seemed he was directing us to something of interest. So we went the way he pointed, and came to a sort of lookout with a monument in the center of a grassy plateau with a couple of benches, upon one sat a man reading. He barely acknowledged our presence. The views were intriguing: in one direction over the river gorge and in the other direction the village, its buildings spilling down hillsides into little gardens. Amazing. We then returned to our quest for a cafe, and after several minutes of walking down a long narrow street, came upon a little square where a few children were playing a rambunctious game of soccer. The ball came flying at us, we kicked in back to them, they played on as if we weren't even there. But we didn't care since a door off the square opened into a charming cafe with windows overlooking the deep river gorge below. We were seated at a window table, in the midst of a large party of Italians, and soon were enjoying a delicious lunch with wines of the Provence.
  From Peille, we backtracked to D22 to the perched village of Sainte-Agnes, l’un des plus beaux villages de France, but that’s another story.

  Posted 47 days ago.

You have to be logged in to comment

Travel blog statistics

• 133 views
• 1 comment

Tell your contacts

Why not let your contacts know about this experience by sending them a group email? We can help you do that.

Ok, send this to my friends