Èze

Cars stop at the foot of the rock. From there the village is stairs, archways and lanes too narrow for anything wider than a delivery barrow, climbing through a knot of stone houses to a garden of cacti and succulents planted where a castle used to stand. At the top the whole Riviera lies below you, from Cap Ferrat round towards Italy, and the sea is a long way down.

The village and the shore

Èze covers more than the rock. The medieval village sits on its pinnacle beside the Moyenne Corniche, the middle of the three coast roads between Nice and Monaco. Èze-sur-Mer is the seaside half far below, with a pebble beach, a scatter of villas and a station on the coastal railway. Linking them is a steep footpath through pine and scrub, named for Nietzsche, who walked it while working on part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Walking up is a serious hour or more in the heat; going down is easier on the lungs and harder on the knees.

The village itself takes little time to cross and a good deal longer to leave. Its fortifications were pulled down on French royal orders in the early eighteenth century, which is why the summit holds a garden rather than a keep. Below it the ochre church, rebuilt in the neoclassical style in the same century, stands out against the grey stone of everything else.

When to come

April, May and June bring the garden into flower and keep the lanes walkable in the middle of the day. September and October hold the warmth with fewer people, and the light across the bay turns sharp after rain. July and August are hot on the rock and crowded in it, because coaches and day visitors from Nice and the cruise ports arrive mid-morning and leave by late afternoon.

That daily tide is the key to the place. Couples especially should sleep up here if they can, or at least come for the evening, when the village empties and the terraces turn towards the sunset over Cap Ferrat.

Is it expensive?

Staying in the village is, by any measure. A handful of hotels are built into the medieval houses and priced for the view, and the terrace restaurants attached to them charge accordingly. Visiting is not: the lanes cost nothing, the garden charges a modest entry fee, and the bus and train from Nice keep the day cheap. The usual way to have Èze without the bill is to stay in Nice, Villefranche or Beaulieu and come up for an afternoon and a sunset drink.

What is worth the money

The garden, early in the day, before the coach groups reach the summit. A dinner on a terrace in the village at least once, because the view at dusk is the reason the place exists. And the path down to the sea, taken in the cool of the morning, with the train back along the coast afterwards.

Where to stay

Splurge

A room inside the walls of the medieval village, in one of the small hotels that have taken over its old houses. You get the village to yourself after dark, terraces cut into the rock and a view that runs all the way down the coast, and you pay for all three.

Mid-range

A hotel on the coast at Èze-sur-Mer or neighbouring Beaulieu, with a pool and the sea in front of it. The village is a short drive or bus ride up the hill, and the railway puts Nice and Monaco within easy reach for dinner.

Good value

A room in Nice, where supply is large and rates ease, with Èze as a day out by bus or train. You lose the empty evening lanes and gain a city of restaurants within a walk of the hotel.

Èze at a glance

Rooms in the village are few and go early for the shoulder months, so comparing current stay and experience options across your exact dates is worth doing before anything else is fixed.