Èze-sur-Mer & its Medieval Sister!
With Seaclusion safe in her anchorage, we decided to “pop” across the bay to go and explore Èze. “Pop” we laugh, Navily said it was about 1.9NM’s across, but 30 minutes later, passing under the bows of some rather large motor yachts in our path we were sure it was a lot longer. Still we made it without mishap, which makes a nice change with our new outboard engine and tied our dinghy off at the tiny little port of Eze.
We then walked up the main road in search of the bus stop to take us up to the Village, about 4 miles by road away, on top of a very steep hill, about 1400ft above sea level, in fact I think it would be classed a mountain on which this beautiful medieval village sits, first populated back in around 2000 BC.
Èze Village
This village is today one of the places on the French Riviera most-visited by tourists, we couldn’t disagree, we hadn’t come across so many people for a while. No wonder, the views from above are so magnificent that they are almost unreal and the village is like a castle, with thick stone walls richly covered with colourful flowers, with narrow streets that gives one the impression of visiting a castle that has no end, and with a smattering of 5 star hotels with worn out porters dragging luggage along the tiny cobbled streets! But the best way to describe it, is for you to see for yourself….
Having stopped for a Citron presse and coffee, and with the clouds starting to roll in, we then decided we would take the path down, after all we couldn’t be so lazy as to take the bus down too. Fortunately we were wearing our trainers, not flipflops! It was 6km’s of quite steep and uneven terrain in parts, with not much to see until we neared the bottom, when the views were spectacular, and well worth it…
We finally made the beach but with the drinks menu stating €12 for a beer, we simply headed back to the dinghy, refilled her petrol tank with our reserve (yes we carry one having learnt from past mistakes) as sure as eggs are eggs, we would not have made it there and back on one tank, and spent the afternoon chilling on board under somewhat darker skies.
The following morning the sun was shining again, although it was short-lived, so we jumped back into the dinghy to visit Saint Jean Cap Ferrat itself, chuckling at someone’s sense of humour on one of its monuments, walk the coastal path around the headland, again chuckling at the sun-worshippers persevering despite what was by now a very grey sky, before racing back to Seaclusion before the rain arrived, good and proper!
Saint Jean Cap Ferrat
That effectively brought our stay in this wonderful part of France to an end, for the time being, setting sail for Menton, just inside the French/Italian border.
27th June 2024
