Searching Airbnb in desperation from our one room den of insanity in Belvedere we hit on this gem in the mountains north of Nice. It was halfway to our next stop. It had 2 bedrooms and amazing views. And it had a pool!
As the temp was high 20s, the pool was the kicker. Donkeys and chickens were a bonus.
But first we had to get there! The first section of road from Parc Alpha was lovely scenic winding highway, but we soon turned onto a tiny little secondary (maybe quaternary) mountain pass road that was often narrower than a single Canadian lane. Def narrower than a typical FSR, although paved the entire route. With some tense moments and taking way longer than the GPS predicted 2 hrs (speed limit apparently 70, I was mostly going 30) we finally came out the other side of the pass into scrubbier drier terrain and thankfully mostly 2 lane highways. However this was short lived and the final local approach road up the mountain to our place was 4km of concrete sidewalk with about 15 switchback corners that needed multi point turns in our long van. Clutching and rolling back even a little with a serious drop on the downhill side tested my shifting abilities and nerve repeatedly.
Felt like driving up a sidewalk.
And of course if we came upon a vehicle going downhill, one of us had to reverse on this ridiculous road to the nearest (not much wider) pullout. The locals were clearly used to this and either drove their trucks right up onto the high side, or pulled around us with inches to spare.
By the end of the day I was exhausted watching for oncoming cars and calculating distance to the last pullout.
But at the end of the day we made it without a scratch! The kids were swimming within 5 minutes of arrival.
Once they had cooled down we explored the huge grounds and enjoyed the evening.
One of the decorations in the old farmhouse was a set of weigh scales which proved surprisingly popular for math, actually weighing household item and calculating exhalation strength.
The road up was so heinous that on our first full day we stayed on the mountain top, ate our groceries and hiked and swam and relaxed. I was not interested in driving for a while. Luckily we had plenty of food and beer. We were a little short on fruit but were able to supplement from a bountiful cherry tree on the farm.
Levi working on his smoulder style.
Kylie enjoyed these berry flowers on our hike.
Back to the pool! There was a German family staying on the farm for part of the time and we enjoyed playing with their 2 kids as well. They helped me improve my German counting skills.
Our outdoor dining room.
Hot tub was very nice and well used.
In the evening we could gaze down on the magical looking town of Touet de l’Escarene (I’m missing a bunch of letter modifiers here) and decided to visit the town and a local swimming hole the next day.
The town itself is ancient and built into the hill.
The community’s centre is predictably the local Catholic Church. The were setting up for some sort of festival when we were there but it didn’t really get going until well after we had left.
We were looking for a patisserie but it seemed the only commercial real estate in town was a lovely restaurant. The owner didn’t speak English but we got by quite well with our high school (and elementary immersion!) French skills.
If you look above my shoulder above or Zeke’s head below, you can see our house perched on the cliff! So fun.
It was hot but the old stone town was quite cool.
What was even cooler was the swimming hole! Took us a bit to find but knowing it was upstream of town we just kept wading and rock hopping.
Boom! Found it!
Even Kylie went for a swim.
Wasn’t long before we were cliff jumping. The water was clear, cool and deep.
The hike out felt much shorter when we had a clear end point.
Back to our place and it was cool enough for the hot tub!
The owner Monique was a lovely and gracious host. She allowed us a late checkout so the kids could get one more swim in before we hit the road (last time down the sidewalk!!) for Dolceacqua.
