Èze, the village on the rock I wouldn't skip

You see Èze from the road long before you reach it, a stone village clinging to the top of a rock above the sea, and it’s the one place on this coast I find hardest to skip. It’s in France, between Nice and Monaco, and half a day does it justice if you go up by bus and come down on foot. Here’s what to see at the top, how to get there and what to bear in mind with the opening times.

Where exactly is Èze village?

The commune comes in two parts. Èze-Village is the medieval village on the rock, 9 km from Monaco, 11 from Nice and 21 from Menton by road. Èze-Bord-de-Mer is its shoreline, on the Basse Corniche, from Cap Estel to the cove of Saint-Laurent, with a shaded beach and the railway station. The Nietzsche path runs between the two, and it’s worth getting this straight before you go, because the train doesn’t drop you in the village.

What’s on top of the rock

The rock has been lived on since the Iron Age, around 220 BC, according to the tourist office. A castle went up at the top in the second half of the 12th century, and its ruins still stand at the summit of the Exotic Garden. You explore the village on foot, lane by lane, and it costs nothing. My advice is to get there early, because it’s small and once the coaches arrive it’s hard to move.

The village church, Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, is neoclassical, rebuilt by Antoine Spinelli between 1764 and 1778 over a 12th-century predecessor. It was consecrated in 1772 and gained historic monument status in 1984. It isn’t what I’d come for, but it’s on your way.

The Exotic Garden, with two prices doing the rounds

The garden opens every day, from 9:00 to 16:30 between November and March, until 18:30 from April to June and in October, and until 19:30 from July to September. Last entry is half an hour before closing and it shuts on 25 December. The tourist office publishes €4 for ages 12 to 17 and free entry for under-12s, but not the adult price. I’d simply pay whatever the ticket desk says without being caught off guard.

What makes me pay is the summit. From the castle ruins you understand why anyone fortified this rock, and the view along the coast is one of the finest between Nice and Monaco. Hours, prices and what to look for inside are in the Exotic Garden in Èze village.

Free perfume at the foot of the village

Èze has two perfumeries you can visit, and both are free. Fragonard opened its factory and laboratory at the foot of the rock in 1968, on the road between Nice and Monaco, and shows it off with a guide trained by a perfumer, plus a scent game. Galimard, in Èze-Village, runs a 45-minute guided visit every day from 9:00. If you’d like to take home something of your own, its cologne workshop lasts an hour and costs €18. For me the free tour is enough, though you’ll find it hard to leave empty-handed.

Down to the sea on the Nietzsche path

The trail links the village with the shore. It’s 2.1 km long, starts out paved and continues with steps and a rough stone section. The official route page gives two sets of figures, one hour and 400 metres of drop in the text and an hour and a half with 350 metres in the table, so plan on something in between. It takes its name from Nietzsche, who according to the tourist office composed the third part of his Zarathustra on this path.

I’d always walk it downhill. At the bottom is Èze-Bord-de-Mer station, with up to 80 trains a day in season, and you’re back in a single journey. Climbing it at midday in August is a bad idea. Timings, the climb and Nietzsche’s years on the coast are in the Nietzsche path in Èze.

How to get from Nice or Monaco to Èze village

Èze’s tourist office lists several lines, which I cover alongside the train and the car in how to get to Èze village. The 602 runs from Nice to Monaco along the Moyenne Corniche and passes through the village; the 605 links Monaco, Èze and La Turbie along the Grande Corniche; Lignes d’Azur’s 82 climbs from Nice; and the 83 shuttle connects Beaulieu beach, Èze-Bord-de-Mer, the village and the Col d’Èze. I haven’t been able to check these numbers against the ZOU! timetables, so I’d look them up on the day. A single ZOU! ticket costs €2.20. The other options are in getting around Monaco and nearby, and the leg from the airport in Nice to Monaco.

One practical point for anyone travelling on a UK phone plan. Èze is France and Monaco is outside the EU, and since Brexit each network has its own rules for both, so if you’re sleeping in the Principality it’s worth knowing what your provider charges in Monaco.

How long to give it and what to pair it with

Half a day. Two hours at the top between the village, the garden and a perfumery, then the walk down to the sea. With a full day, I’d add Villefranche-sur-Mer and its Cocteau chapel, on the same coast. For eating I don’t have sources with specific names and I’m not going to invent them; for sleeping, the tourist office does publish its list, and I go through it with prices in hotels in Èze village. If you don’t mind a village that empties out at night, staying here gets you Èze without the crowds; otherwise I’d base myself in Monaco or Nice and come up by bus. Other outings nearby, each with my score, sit in my guide to day trips from Monaco.