PLENTY OF THIS AND NOT SO MUCH OF THAT

I don't usually collect tickets but somehow on our recent trip there were so many I ended up keeping them. It reminds me of my first time abroad when I kept every little piece of foreign information that came into my hands.

Mostly they were rail, tram, boats, museum and palaces but there were 4 gardens among the visits.

July 6th found us on our way to the Côte d'Azur. We had to drop the car off at Nice airport before continuing on to Italy. But first I had plans for a visit to Le Jardin d'Eze, a few miles east of Nice. The garden is perched at the top of the medieval village of Eze.

Build after WW11 on the site of an old castle it was quite a hike up to the entrance along cobbled streets, some of them with the most beautiful bouganvillea.

Like many such villages in France the shops are now there for the tourists, who are plentiful. We had arrived towards the end of the afternoon so most visitors were heading back to the many tour buses parked below. We preferred to take the side streets which seem to hold no interest for most.

You can't help but marvel at the structure of the cobbled walls built with a type of limestone called 'La Turbie' and brought from the quarry to the village by mules.

We paid our 6€ entry fee and began the climb up steep steps.

Almost immediately came the spectacular view, looking down over the coastal road with Cap Ferrat in the distance.

This is a garden of cactus and succulents spilling down the rocky slope towards the red roof tops of the village.

I have to admit that with the whole of Europe in a heatwave and the late afternoon sun beating down on us it was almost a relief to take the pathway around the back-side of the garden and find ourselves in a shaded grotto. What a contrast.

Looking down over the graveyard and the viaduct which now links the two sides of the valley it was time to head back into the heat and more cactus.

Coupled with the incredible view and the village itself this garden is well worth a visit especially if you can get there in the morning before the heat and the crowds.
We headed back down the hill to the car. We had to find our hotel for the night.

Stay tuned for the gardens of Isola Bella and the Zurich Succulent Garden. ( Sukkulenten-Sammlung Zurich)