Eze, French Riviera
Posted by Jackie Hewett on Sun 17th June 2007 at 04:58 AM, Filed in Europe
Fancy going to the South of France but want somewhere different to stay?
If you are hiring a car (for hire discount see Transhire Link I can thoroughly recommend the small village of Eze, perched up high on the cliffs between the extremely busy resorts of Nice and Monaco.
Under 3000 people live in the village, but the tourists significantly swell the numbers in summer. There are a few interesting things to do in the village itself, with a few touristy shops and the excellent, and famed Grasse perfumery (there’s a shop in the village and the factory is just outside). But we enjoyed most of all a trip to the botanic gardens. I am not especially into horticulture, but these gardens were beautiful. There were many very well established and large cacti, agaves and aloes winding around a peak with the ruins of an ancient chateau with the azure Mediterranean as a backdrop. You can see down to Italy in one direction and on a clear day across the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer to St Tropez in the other. In high summer it can be scorching (small wonder the cacti do so well) so I’d advise taking plenty of water.
Eze is extremely well positioned for exploring the region. The drive to Nice took about 35 minutes – but we found it teeming with Brits and a bit ‘kiss-me-quick’. While we went down to Nice a couple of times for the buzz and the restaurants generally we couldn’t wait to get back to the haven of Eze. Sophisticated Monaco is less than an hour’s drive in the opposite direction.
W stayed at the lovely 4 star ‘Les Terrasses d’Eze’ Hotel. The helter-skelter driveway down to the hotel is controlled by traffic lights and unusual to say the least. The hotel terraces are a wonderful place to sip a G&T or two while just taking in the spectacular views . The standard rooms are large and airy with a comfortable seating area and Bang and Olufsen tv’s. We stayed 3 nights and ate in the restaurant once. The service was efficient and friendly and the food good, but what made the meal really was the terrific views and relaxing atmosphere. A great place to go for a romantic and quiet stay.
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