Nicknamed the Pearl of France, Menton is well-situated between mountains and the Med. The city was ruled by the Princes of Monaco until the French Revolution. It rejoined Monaco in 1814 and then separated from Monaco again about 40 years later. Apparently this was partly due to the tax that was being imposed on lemon […]
France
Menton Beachfront
The sunny south of France obviously has a sense of charm, attracting tourists and socialites from near and far to crowd beaches and flood cities. We avoided Nice and Antibes because of the crowds, parking and general tourist madness in June/July, but Menton was pretty laid-back at this time of year. I really loved the architecture, pastel buildings and warm colours […]
Camping in Menton
When you look at it on a map, the drive from Verdon to Menton looks long. We woke up early and packed up our tent in Verdon. Then we started the next leg of our scenic European road trip. We headed down to the coast, then east past Antibes and Nice to Menton. It took about two […]
Cliff Town, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie
This old town is nestled in between two steep limestone cliffs. Situated near the Gorges du Verdon, it is a great place to explore, and a great base to explore the area from as well. When we visited in June it was busy, but not throbbing with tourists. As a brief introduction, this town is a centre of pottery that specialises […]
Flowers of Provence
I absolutely love seeking out and photographing things in nature. The plant-world fascinates me and observing nature up close is one of my favourite things to do on hikes. Every country and area has a different climate, landscape and soil with different and yet sometimes similar plants, blooms and trees. When we went on a few walks and hikes […]
Hiking in Verdon
On one cloudy morning on our road-trip in Europe we drove back to the Gorges du Verdon to take a scenic hike down to the river below. We couldn’t find the start of the hike so we just walked up a random little mountain instead. Wild Herbs and Good Views This hike was almost like walking through a […]
Europe’s Most Beautiful Gorge
As a disclaimer, I’ll say that I haven’t been to all of Europe’s gorges. I’m certain that there are some really good ones out there. Nonetheless, the Gorges of Verdon still ranks pretty highly in my opinion. It could easily be Europe’s most beautiful gorge. It’s the kind of place that’s easy to imagine going back […]
On the Verdon River
Once I’d discovered that this place existed, I knew that it was one for the bucket list. I’d done Google image searches, hungry for more pictures. This landscape just has that sort of postcard-picture attraction. I think it was definitely the colour of the water that drew me in. We don’t really get that sort […]
Le Castillet, Perpignan
It was pretty sad to leave our campsite on the Mediterranean Spanish coast. But, it was time to move on. We had a long 700km drive ahead of us on the A9. Thinking back, we had a really great time in Spain! This was the first time I’d been to Spain (except for in the […]
Crossing the Pyrenees
Between France and Spain, a beautiful mountain range joins the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The first time I went to the Pyrenees was back in 2008, for a spontaneous weekend camping trip. Already much in love with France at that point, I was delighted with the discovery of this landscape. I didn’t actually know that the Pyrenees were […]