A Beautiful Day in Eze 11-13-25

A short note to remember all the victims killed in the Bataclan massacre in Paris on this date 10 years ago. I was in Paris that day and passed within a block of two of the sites and within an hour of when they took place. One of the few nights that I went out during the year.  I was lucky.

But today everything that could go right went right. We planned a bus ride over to Eze Village which sits several hundred feet up the coastal range from the sea. Taking a train over leaves one at the bottom of the hill with a steep hike up to the village whereas the buses take the Middle Corniche and stop right in the village. The object of our visit were the ‘Botanical Gardens’ which are world famous.  They are exotic because over 90% of the plants are succulents (cactus) and were transplanted from all over the world. What we didn’t fully realize is that the gardens are located at the pinnacle of the hill above Eze and just below the ruins of a medieval castle.  Getting off the bus, then looking up to where we were going really drove home a

point. That we needed to eat lunch before taking on the climb. So we found a nice little restaurant which looked inviting, tucked in behind a temporary street market.  It advertised itself as a wine bar and wine shop. Looking inside at the walls lined floor to ceiling with bottles reinforced that idea.  We got a little table on the patio in front of the restaurant, sharing it with another 3 tables of diners. Deb ordered fish and chips while I ordered raviolis in daube. While her fish was good but the chips were soggy so I won the best dish of the day.  The meat sauce was obviously stewed in red wine and the meat tasted like chuck roast, cooked with carrots and onions until fork tender. Oh, and it was easily enough for both of us as it came in a 10” bowl. We ate a limited lunch because I had purchased timed tickets for the garden. That only gave us an hour to eat and climb up through the town. In truth, had I eaten more I would have been very uncomfortable climbing through town.  

The old part of town has streets that are only wide enough for pedestrians so either you walk or you skip the visit.  Deb was outstanding, climbing all the way up to the gardens. We weren’t fast but we made steady progress all the way up. Her physical therapist would be really proud. The best description I could give of the town would be to say it goes either up or down and has no straight street longer than 40 feet. Every structure is built with stone and it is fairytale pretty.  It’s like a mini Mont San Michel in Normandy and luckily less populated, at least today.  There was a cruise ship in the bay at Villefranche-sur-Mer and they did have a couple of organized tours while we were there. We encountered a group as we were coming down from the gardens. Having 20 people standing together to hear the guide talk created a gridlock until they finished. Thank goodness it was only 2 groups. Someone said that in the summer the traffic is so heavy 

that you walk up lockstep behind the person in front and brushing shoulders with the people descending, Ugh! However today was great.😊. 

We spent an hour of so in the gardens, they are small, and then walked back down to the village where we would catch our return bus. When I checked on the bus schedule it showed that we had an hour before the next bus back. So we headed back to the wine restaurant and had a drink while we waited. When it came we managed to get very good seats and the driver showed us how quickly a bus can descend on the twisting road back to Nice.  

Back to town we boarded a tram back to our stop then walked back to the apartment in the late afternoon sun.  Once again proving that a person can visit a particular place many times and still find new and interesting things to do.