Sea to Sky Highway

St. Paul-de-Vance on top of the hill

The French also have their own version of our Sea to Sky Highway. 20 minutes from leaving the Med you are in a totally different environment of gorges, mountains and pine forests as far as the eye can see. We were headed for the Inland Riviera and a loop that included three wonderful hill towns.

lThe historical village of St-Paul-de-Vence is immacuate and is home to lots of art shops, jewelry stores and restaurants. Its motor coach parking lot had 9 buses. I counted them as we had to park their due to the car parking lots being full. At times the place felt crowded and I could not imagine what it would be like in July and August. However, there are lots of streets and alleyways to move around as well as the ramparts that surround the village. Rita and I managed to move away from the crowds and really enjoyed our time there.

One of the many alleways that hold artisan shops

The next town was called just plain Vence and was much larger and certainly had other interests than tourism to keep it going. Having said that, the old town, which was built in a circle around the old Cathedral, was very interesting and had several squares which were full of outdoor cafés.

One of the many squares with outdoor cafes

Our last stop was the smallest but Tourrettes sur Loup still kept its medieval title of city. It’s positioned on the top of a mountain and has been a defensive fortress for 30 centuries for the Celts, Romans, Barbarians and finally the French in 1387.

Toureletes-sur-loup with surrounding countryside

Geoff taking it to the street

The buildings were built almost on top of each other.