Luxury Villa Cote d'Azur

North of Mentori
Four narrow mountain valleys converge at Menton, with villages hangingovertheirslopes;theyarelinked by bus from Menton and to each other by mule tracks. Above the easternmost valley is Castellar (7km from Menton), laid out on a grid pian in 1435 to replace the originai 1258 village built by the counts of Ventimiglia high on a rockycrag.An hour's hike will takeyou totheghostly ruins of old Castellar; or take the less strenuous walk up the Sospel road as far as the waterfall at the Gourg de l'Oura. Up the second valley, the Val du CareV, sailors have madethe little monasteryof L'Annonciade (s.skm from Menton) the focus of their May pilgrimage since the nth century. It has gone through countless transformations over the years, and thecurrent building dates from the i/th century. Best of ali are its grand views.from a terrace which looks over the whole valley and outtothesea.and its ex votos, dating back to the i/th century and including an unusual more recent one-a piece of a zeppelin.<br />
Further up the Val du CareT, amid the viaducts of the old Menton-Sospel railway.you can wander through the scented Foret de Menton, then up to Castillon, awaft with the scent of fresh concrete and artisan shops, and well into its third incarnation as 'the most beautiful new village in France'after being flattened by an earthquake in 1887 and bombed in 1941<br />
From Menton the narrow, winding D22 noodles up to Ste-Agnes, at almost 2,625ft the loftiest village on the entire coast, which
huddles on the northern side of the peak with its back to the sea. Mornings can be chilly before the sun makes its way around,even in the height of summer.There are three buses a day from Menton, oryou can drive up, passing under and over the mighty viaducts, which lookas insubstantial asspider's legs once you reach Ste-Agnes.The village was founded in the loth century, some say, by a Saracen who fell in love with a locai girl and converted to Christianityfor her sake. It certainly looks old enough -a patchwork quilt of vaulted passageways and tiny squares that have succumbed to a mild attack of trinketshop-itis.<br />";