Gourdon and the Plateau of Cavillore

Gourdon

On the second day of our brief visit to Grasse we have found a lovely walk from the edge of Gourdon, a very pretty hilltop village 760m above sea level. The panorama from Gourodn etends from Nice to Théoule and under the right conditions it is possible to see Corsica. Gourdon has been rated as one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France.

The walk starts at a car park at the edge of the village. You follow the road which leads to Caussols and soon take a right which leads to a tarmaced road which winds through an area of scattered houses. You take a right and begin to climb. The path soon becomes quite rocky, but before long gives you a good view of Gourdon (see above).

As we climbed higher along a switchback path, the sun came out and provided a second view of the village from a higher position and with the sun on the houses.

As we left the village behind, I was struck by what seemed to be a newly planted wood.

We climbed steadily until we were under a rocky massive, with a lone hang-glider cruising around on the thermals.

A narrow path through the rocks brought us to the Plateau of Colliore. This was the view back.

Ahead there was a wild stony area which looked rather barren and uninviting, not least because the clouds were thickening and the temperature dropping.

We trudged across the plateau and were not sorry to quite quickly reach one of the spectacular signposts that France specialises in and to turn left towards the edge of the plateau again.

The route down from the plateau was easier than the way up, but there was still a zig-zag path to negotiate.

At the bottom, we crossed the road and followed a track which led us past the Chapel of St Vincent.

Not long after this we rejoined the Caussols road and followed it past the car park to the village. There is in truth not a lot to it. Behind the 12th century church of St Vincent there is a great belvedere ...

 ... with lovely views over the valley below.

Otherwise the picturesque streets twist and turn, filled with tourist shops – but not many tourists at this time of year. We quite liked this cast iron statue of Medusa on the corner of the church.

Distance: 5.3 km

Change of level: +300m and -300m

Time taken: 2.5 hours.

Source: RandOxygene Guide for the coastal area (Pays cotier) of the Department of the Alpes Maritimes. Free from the Tourist Office in Grasse. Two other guides are available for other parts of the Department.

Rating: four stars.

Vence

The Baou des Blancs above Vence

We set out from the lovely home of our friends Derek and Arlette's in the St Martin district of Vence and headed towards the town. Immediately we noticed this wonderful art nouveau house on the right.

We crossed the bridge over the river far below and followed Avenue des Poilus towards the Old Town. On the right, was the old public laundry (below is an atmospheric shot from the previous evening).

In a road on the right we caught a view of another lovely house.

Further along, in Avenue Isnard, is the former Chapelle des penitents blancs, now used for art exhibitions. The tiled roof was especially impressive. (This view was taken from the back in Avenue de la Résistance.)

We then diverted into the main square to pick up a town trail at the Tourist Office. This quickly led into the Old Town. The main feature the old town is that its houses were built into the town walls, starting from the 15^th century. There is now an oval of houses surrounded by a road and pierced by a number of gates (well, archways) three of which are medieval.

The first sight was the 12^th century Tower.

 Off to the left is an ash tree said to have been planted in 1538 by Francis I.

We went through the Porte du Peyra, with a lovely  fountain dating from 1822 on the other side.

This led to Place du Peyra and Rue du Marche which in turn brought us to Place Clemenceau. Directly ahead was the remarkable Cathedral which dates from the 4^th century – and is the smallest in France.

To the right and left of the main door are two stone tablets with Roman inscriptions dating back to 220 and 239 AD. After looking around the interior we went round the side to the atmospheric Passage Cahours, which once linked the cathedral to the Bishop's Palace.

Now along Rue de L'eveque to Place Godeau at the back of the Cathedral. There was a nice view of the Cathdral's tower.

We walked along the short but remarkable rue des Portiques, a section of a Roman Road which ran from Cimiez to Castellane.

We emerged through the Porte d'Orient to get an external view of the old town.

And now we followed the outside to Place Antony Mars with its old fountain. The reproduction of a painting of it by Raoul Dufy (I think) beside was actually more impressive.

We went through the nearby Porte du Signadour and crossed through the old town again to to see another fine gate, the Portail Levis.

 From the belvedere there was a great view across the river gorge to the Matisse chapel and the rocky Baou des Blancs high above it. Now we retraced our steps and headed towards the Chapel of the Rosary (the Matisse chapel). (It is the white building in the lower right of the photo at the head of this post.) 

The story of the chapel is rather lovely. In 1941 Matisse developed cancer and underwent extensive surgery. During his recovery in Nice, he recruited Monique Bourgeois who responded to his advertisement seeking ‘a young and pretty nurse’. She became his model as well as his carer. 

In 1946 Monique Bourgeois decided to become a Domican nun and was ordained as Sister Jacques-Marie. Having previously qualified as a nurse, she continued to care for Matisse who eventually bought a home in Vence not far from the convent. In 1947 Bourgeois confided to Matisse her wish to decorate the oratory in one of the rooms in their convent.  Matisse, now aged 77 and in poor health, instead offered to design a chapel that would be offered to the Dominicans. 

The chapel is a simple, quite low, rectangular building, painted white with a cheerful blue roof.

Internal photography is not allowed for "copyright reasons", so I have no photos, only one of the decoration above the entrance (below). The interior is white with tall and narrow stained glass panels along the left hand side of the nave. Some of Matisse's images are exquisitely simple and expressive, but on the the west end wall, which contains the Stations of the Cross, his images are, to my mind, crude and cartoon-like. The chapel is well worth a visit though.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: four stars.

Tourettes-sur-Loup

Touretttes sur Loup

We set off on foot from Vence to Touretttes sur Loup along the main road, but soon turned off on a minor road where a sign indicated that it was the old road to Tourettes. This quiet residential area led us to a road bridge (the main road again). On the left were a pair of incongruous, but quite entertaining, giraffes.

A little further on we turned right to climb a winding tarmac road towards the tree line. After a while a view opened up back towards Vence and in particular the Baou des Blancs. From this angle we could see the ridge that lies behind it.

Soon there was a view back towards the sea with our road bridge in the foreground. We noticed as we got higher that the houses were becoming more impressive and we especially liked this splendid one, newly built or refurbished, with a wonderful view down to the coast. We all thought we could probably cope with living there.

At the top of the climb we entered woodland, but rather than carry on climbing we turned left and gradually descended passing the defunct Beaubourg Museum (an offshoot of the more famous one in Paris) to reach the main road again where we quickly turned off to follow the quiet Chemin de Marguerite, which we thought might be the original road from Vence to Tourette. I did see some butterflies along here, notably a Clouded Yellow and this Great Banded Grayling (Brintesia cerce).

Continuing yesterday's theme of investigating the French names of butterflies, I discovered that this butterfly is called Le Silène in French. "Catchfly" seems to be the English translation, which is a bit puzzling.

Soon we reached the outskirts of Tourettes and enjoyed the great view of the town clinging to the top of a rocky hill (picture at the head of this post). We crossed a small bridge ...

... and followed the path towards the town passing a rusty giant iron mill wheel to reach the main square with its attractive church.

After light lunch of ice cream (all the cafés seemed to be full or booked out) we admired a couple of statues placed on the edges of the square.

In the opposite corner to the church was a fine tower.

We headed through an arch under the tower to explore the old town proper and were very struck by how pretty the stone houses and narrow winding streets were and how quite it was away from the main square – a far cry from yesterday's visit to St Paul de Vence.

We passed through a town gate …

 … to a belvedere from which there was a lovely view over a former railway bridge down to the sea.

We wandered along the lovely streets ...

... passing this entertaining ensemble.

 We finished our walk at a another belvedere with a great view of the rocky hillside.

After many phone calls, Arlette organised a cab back to Vence (it was Sunday so there were no buses).

Conditons: warm and sunny.

Distance: about 6 or 7 miles in all.

Rating: four and a half stars. An unspoilt gem. 

St Paul de Vence

 St Paul de Vence

We set out from Derek and Arlette's in Vence to visit nearby St Paul de Vence. We headed into the centre of the new part of the town and followed a road towards St Paul, soon turning right at the 17th century church of Notre Dame de la Pitie (known as for some reason as Sainte-Anne).

Soon a leafy garden wall presented an opportunity for a bit of butterfly spotting and this Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) obligingly posed for a picture.

In English all the numerous Fritillaries are called something-or-other Fritillary, but my newly acquired Papillons de France by Tristan Lefranchis reveals that French names for these species are much more diverse. The Silver-washed is known in French as the Tabac d'Espagne, Spanish Tobacco. I found a splendid French website What is that animal which explains that the name comes from a supposed resemblance of the colour of the butterfly to that of tobacco produced in the Royal Tobacco factory of Seville (shades of Carmen). I am looking forward to exploring the French mindset on naming.

We left the road and headed downhill along a track, passing a barrier that warned that the risk of forest fires meant that we continued at our own peril. At the bottom of quite a steep descent we crossed the dry bed of a stream ...

... and continued uphill to emerge on a road on high ground which soon offered wonderful views over tiled roofs.

As we approached the town a friendly local pointed us towards a track running parallel to the road which gave us a much more pleasant approach. It also offered the view of St Paul at the head of this post.

We headed into the old walled town alongside the walls ...

... and through the narrow gateway.

Just off to the left was the excellent Le Tilleul restaurant where we had a very good light lunch. We enjoyed the view and this lovely statue of a horse made out of horse shoes.

Of course there is really only one thing to do in a walled town and that is to do a circuit of the walls. So after lunch we headed off to do that in an anti-clockwise direction. Soon the surprisingly high walls were revealed.

And at the first bastion there was a wonderful statue of an angel looking south towards the sea.

Further round there was a great view in the direction of Vence and the series of rocky outcrops known as baoux in French.

The circuit was a great delight and not too populous either. When we returned to the main gate we headed up the main street which was rather more crowded and touristy. The shops were mostly art galleries or souvenir shops. The old fountain was a pleasure though.

We headed ever upwards, away from the crowds, to find the former donjon where Derek and Arlette got married all those years ago, which was pleasingly nostalgic.

After passing the church we headed back down to the main gate, exited the old town and were lucky to find a bus back to Vence after a short wait.

Conditons: warm and sunny.

Distance: about 5 miles in all.

Rating: four and a half stars. A lovely afternoon out, so long as you go beyond St Paul's main street.