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.