Chapter XX: Section XVIII: Cannes to San Remo, 53¾ Miles

(89 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =Cannes= to Antibes =10= 6¼ =Antibes= to Nice =20= 12¼ =Nice= to Villefranche =6= 3¾ =Villefranche= to Monaco =14= 8¾ =Monaco= to Mentone =12= 7½ [=Nice= to Mentone by the Upper Corniche =31= 19¼]

This upper road can be taken on the return journey.

=Mentone= to Ventimiglia =11= 7 =Ventimiglia= to Bordighera =5= 3¼ =Bordighera= to San Remo =11= 7

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

The whole of this section is on the Rivieras of France and Italy.
There are a few steepish hills, but, taken as a whole, the road is
level.

The =Upper Corniche= is between Nice and Mentone, and the ascent to
it and the descent from La Turbie are both formidable, although the
road is well engineered.

The roads are tarred between Cannes and Nice, but beyond Nice the
dust is not excessive until east of Mentone, where it is
encountered in yellowish-white clouds as far as Bordighera, where
the surface greatly improves.

A moderate pace is recommended to all who drive on the French
Riviera. There are trams to avoid almost continuously from Cannes
to Mentone, and the Continental chauffeurs take such risks that the
ordinary dangers of passing other cars are increased enormously,
unless one keeps under twenty miles an hour.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

=Cannes.=--A large Riviera resort, greatly patronized by English
winter visitors; old town on Mont Chevalier.

=Antibes.=--The Greek _Antipolis_ is now partially modern. The
medieval walled town is quite separate; it is exceedingly
interesting and very picturesque, and contains Roman remains.

=Nice.=--A large town of Parisian aspect, famous for its carnival; is
one of the most fashionable and populous of the Riviera resorts.
Cimiez, on the high ground behind Nice, was a Roman town, and still
retains large portions of its amphitheatre.

=Eze.=--A romantically perched Saracen village, in one of the most
beautiful spots on the French Riviera.

=Villefranche.=--An old town, formerly Villafranca; has a picturesque
harbour and old arched streets.

=Beaulieu.=--A new collection of villas and hotels.

=Monaco.=--Is a principality, including Monte Carlo; it stands on an
almost isolated rock; castle partly thirteenth century, modern
church, and museum of oceanography.

=Monte Carlo.=--A new town, facing Monaco, famous on account of its
Casino, which is conspicuous; foundation-stone laid in 1858 by the
present Prince of Monaco.

=Roquebrune.=--A picturesque rock village, with a ruined castle and
fine views.

=La Turbie.=--An old village by the ruins of the enormous Roman
trophy to Augustus, put up about 12 B.C.; joined to Monte Carlo by
a funicular railway.

=Mentone.=--A beautifully situated Riviera resort, with grand
mountain scenery and a safe climate.

=La Mortola.=--The villa and gardens of the late Sir Thomas Hanbury.

=Ventimiglia.=--An Italian town near the frontier; Romanesque
cathedral, with early baptistery; Church of St. Michele; old
tunnelled passages and medieval walls.

=Dolceacqua.=--Strikingly picturesque rock village, with ruins of an
imposing castle.

=Apricale.=--Another rock village, in a wonderfully fine mountainous
situation.

=Bordighera.=--A modern resort, with beautiful surroundings and an
old village on Capo San Ampeglio.

=Ospedaletti.=--A small and newly built resort.

=San Remo.=--A large and fashionable town, with fine scenery and a
golf-course; old town, full of quaint passages and stairways.

Cannes has a sea-front broken by the isolated mass of rock called Mont Chevalier. Here was founded the early settlement which was, no doubt, the _Aegytna_ mentioned by Polybius as the scene of a treacherous attack by some of the Ligurian tribesmen on some unarmed Romans. The hill is now picturesquely crowned with the thirteenth-century parish church, a medieval tower, and the ruins of the castle of the Counts of Provence. Down below is a small harbour.

The views westwards from the palm-shaded promenades along the shore include the rugged masses of the always attractive Estérels.

Cannes is essentially a resort of English visitors, and the winter and spring of every year bring together in the hotels and flower-scented villas a more or less regular selection of English gentlefolk. The town has grown enormously since the days when Lord Brougham, the founder, who died at Cannes and was buried in the cemetery, first began to find relaxation from his Parliamentary activities at the Villa Louise Elenore. Le Cannet, at one time a separate village among the hills, is now joined by the straggling suburbs and a tramway to the centre of the town, but the main charms of the resort are not lost.

A good road inland takes one to Grasse, an interesting old town with a curious eleventh-century church, fine views, and a huge industry in perfumery and preserved fruits. Beyond Grasse a splendid road takes one to Le Loup, and the romantic limestone gorge of that name, and farther on still is the ancient town of Vence, where a church incorporating part of a Roman temple has several other interesting features.

From Vence a road goes down to the coast at Cagnes, a village whose name the visitor finds difficult to pronounce differently to Cannes.

If this inland route has been taken the coast road is joined east of Antibes, so that one must either go back about six miles or leave that fascinating town for the return journey.

ANTIBES

There is a tendency for ordinary guide-books to say that there is nothing to see at Antibes, but all who have read of the Greek colony of Antipolis should

test this with half an hour in the old part of the town. It will not be disappointing. Facing the wide Cours Masséna is the medieval wall of the town, with a big round-towered gateway leading into a street that almost at once brings one out on to the seaward defensive wall, at the base of which the waves break continuously, often shooting up columns of spray on to the pathway above. In the narrow streets there are arches, quaint doorways, and medieval defensive towers, often incorporating Roman stones and many other details telling of the changes that time has wrought. A narrow doorway in the old wall at the harbour end of the Cours Masséna has a stone lintel from some Roman building, placed upside down by the medieval masons. One of the most interesting relics of the Greek town is a dark green diorite boulder, bearing the strange inscription: ‘I am Terpon, servant of the august goddess Aphrodite; may Cypris reward with her favours those that erected me here.’

The Îles des Lérins that lie opposite Cannes are full of interest. Steamboats ply regularly to them from the harbour. Ste. Marguerite, the larger island, retains the fort, built by Cardinal Richelieu, wherein was imprisoned by Louis XIV., at the end of the seventeenth century, the mysterious ‘Man with the Iron Mask.’

St. Honorat, the smaller island, is the Lindisfarne of the South of France, for there, during the European upheavals in the fifth century, St. Honorat founded a monastery and kept alive the sacred spark of a pure and restrained life beyond the reach of the barbarous waves of invasion that were sweeping over south-western Europe. In the eighth century Saracens wiped out the monastery and massacred the monks, but their crude weapons could not destroy the influence which had gone forth from the islet in the four centuries of its previous existence. In the ninth century the monastery was refounded, and two hundred years later the fortified building existing to-day was put up to secure the monks from attack.

NICE

may be described as ‘Paris by the Sea.’ Its wide streets are entirely reminiscent of the metropolis, and the whole life of the great resort is French, in marked contrast to the English feeling of Cannes. The enormous hotels, the plane-bordered streets, the kiosks, the trams, and the people, are all so essentially Parisian that, out of sight of the sea or the mountains, one easily forgets that one is by the

The wooded promontory separating Mentone from Monte Carlo.]

shores of the Mediterranean. Like Cannes, there is a conspicuous isolated mass of rock on the otherwise flat shore, which was the nucleus of the Greek town of _Nicæa_. The remains of the Greek buildings were found at the foot of the rock, which was, no doubt, a fortified place of refuge. The Romans preferred a site farther inland, and at the modern Cimiez, on the rising ground north of the present city, they built _Cemenelium_, of which shapeless masses of the amphitheatre remain, although a road passes right through them. The site of the Roman baths has also been found, and great quantities of small objects have been discovered. The rock down on the shore became important again after the Lombards had sacked Cimiez, and on it was built a castle, from which the counts ruled under the Frankish kings. It was besieged by the Turks in 1543, when François I. had made his infamous alliance with Kheyr-ed-Dīn, the Corsair admiral, but the bravery of a woman saved the place from being taken by assault.

When Smollett visited Nice the condition of the town must have been exceedingly primitive. He says:

‘The streets are narrow, the houses are built of stone, and the
windows in general are fitted with paper instead of glass. This
expedient would not answer in a country subject to rain and storms;
but here, where there is very little of either, the paper lozenges
answer tolerably well. The bourgeois, however, begin to have their
houses sashed with glass.’

Of the mosquitoes he writes:

‘In the daytime it is impossible to keep the flies out of your
mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears. They crowd into your milk, tea,
chocolate, soup, wine, and water; they soil your sugar, contaminate
your victuals, and devour your fruit; they cover and defile your
furniture, floors, ceilings, and indeed your whole body.’

The Nice Carnival, or Battle of Flowers, has its origin right back in the time of the floral games of the Greeks of _Nicæa_.

THE UPPER CORNICHE ROAD

The advantages of the upper road over the lower are in the finer scenery and in the absence of dust and trams; but as the return journey gives one a double opportunity, it is easy to go by one and come back by the other.

On the upper road one passes above the romantically situated village of Eze, which makes a perfect picture in its setting of pines and its background of sea. This eagle’s nest was occupied by the Romans, and later by the Saracens, whose ruined castle is still visible on the top of the rocky height. A little farther on a bend of the road brings La Turbie in sight. Above the roofs of the houses and the church tower rises the massive ruin of the huge trophy of the Emperor Augustus, put up in the year 12 B.C. to commemorate the defeat of forty-five Ligurian tribes. Part of the present structure is medieval, for the vast monument was at one time incorporated into a stronghold, which was no doubt partially built of the stones of the magnificent Roman work.

From La Turbie the views along the coast embrace practically the whole of the French Riviera, for one can see the Estérels away in the west; down below are Monaco and Monte Carlo; to the east are Cap Martin and Mentone. A funicular railway goes down from La Turbie to Monte Carlo, but this is of minor interest to the motorist. The road descends to the coast past the picturesque old village of Roquebrune, with its ruined castle on a mass of brown conglomerate rock, and joins the lower road near Cap Martin.

If one goes by the coast road, one passes through Villefranche, with its sheltered bay, much frequented by French warships. The old town is eminently picturesque, with its foreground of brightly painted boats in the harbour, protected by an old tower belonging to the days when corsairs were continually dreaded. There are curious old streets, with supporting arches and dark passages, typical of the Ligurian method of building.

Beaulieu is little more than a scattered collection of pleasantly situated hotels and villas. It was here that the late Lord Salisbury had a house.

MONACO

stands on a tabular mass of rock projecting into the sea, and forming one side of the Bay of Monte Carlo. The road and the railway go through the narrow cleft between the almost insulated rock and the vast and precipitous cliffs of pinkish and creamy-grey limestone that tower up to the height of 1,300 feet. On the rock of Monaco stands the castle where the Prince resides in the midst of his toy kingdom. Some of the towers of the castle have survived since the thirteenth century, but most of the buildings belong to the seventeenth century, and contain some fine contemporary furniture.

The little town of Monaco consists of half a dozen very clean streets and a big new cathedral in the Romanesque style. On the extremity of the rock is the Prince’s imposing new museum of oceanography--a subject in which he is deeply interested.

Monte Carlo, a part of the principality, is joined to Monaco by Condamine, which consists mainly of hotels, restaurants, and closely built streets of shops and stuccoed terraces. The Casino is a rococoesque building of the exhibition type, standing out prominently at the opposite side of the bay to Monaco, with its conspicuous pair of towers reflected in the sea. It is approached by imposing terraces from below, and the level ground in front of the entrance is adorned with the brilliant glow of flowers and the pleasant green of carefully cultivated grass under the shade of palms.

The brilliance of the contrast of creamy-white buildings against the deep blue sky is wonderful, and the reflection of the town in the rippling waters of the harbour is astonishingly vivid in its tones.

Where a fork appears near the wooded promontory of Cap Martin one goes to the left on the higher road, and in a few moments Mentone is in sight, spread out along a beautiful bay backed by mountain masses of a most imposing character.

MENTONE

As a resort both for the healthy and for invalids, Mentone is delightful, as it is generally free from cold winds, owing to the close protection of the mountains, and there are also many valleys to penetrate, in which the Ligurian rock village is seen at its best. The sea-front is shaded with big eucalyptus-trees, and there is a complete freedom from that monotony which is so characteristic of Nice, Brighton, and other favourite resorts. The old town is a pleasant contrast to the newer parts. It stands on higher ground above the harbour, where the shore curves in towards the suburb of Garavan.

The road into Italy is cut out of the lofty rock faces, which in Napoleon’s time carried only the narrow Via Aurelia of the Romans.

At the Pont St. Louis there is an international bridge across a small gorge, and here the customs formalities are arranged. If one is armed with a _tryptique_ there is scarcely more than a delay of a few minutes.

The road soon afterwards passes the beautiful gardens of La Mortola, where the late Sir Thomas Hanbury lived for many years. The extraordinary variety of tropical plants and trees he collected there is one of the best testimonials to the mild winters experienced in this sheltered part of the Riviera.

VENTIMIGLIA

is the first Italian town after passing the frontier. It stands at the mouth of the River Roya, and is a place of exceptional picturesqueness.

The old town has retained its ramparts, and is built in the typical Ligurian fashion, with innumerable narrow tunnelled passages, in which the stranger easily loses his way.

The Cathedral is Romanesque, with a very early baptistery, whose fabric is hidden under plaster. Considerable restoration took place after the earthquake of 1831. Another church which should be seen is that of San Michele. It is Romanesque, and the crypt has a Roman milestone supporting the vaulting.

Ventimiglia was a place of importance in Roman times, and also throughout the Middle Ages, when it became a possession of Genoa, and was the scene of frequent fighting between the Guelph and Ghibelline factions. When one is crossing the bridge over the Roya there is a splendid view up the mountainous valley, with great snow-clad peaks wreathed in clouds closing up the northern end. Monte Bego, a conspicuous peak, is famous for the prehistoric rock-carving to be seen in midsummer when the snow has melted. Rubbings of these primitive carvings are on view in the museum at Bordighera. Less than halfway to Bordighera from Ventimiglia the valley of the Nervia opens out, and on the west side a good road leads through the old village of Camporosso to

DOLCEACQUA

The valley closes in a good deal at this point, and the old village clusters up a steep rocky ascent, crowned by the imposing ruins of the castle of the Dorias of Dolceacqua. A narrow old bridge of a single span, suitable only for mules and foot-passengers, connects the hoary little cluster of houses with the less ancient portion on the right bank of the river. The narrow passages in the old village are generally nearly dark and often blocked with a laden mule, while the paved steps are generally slippery with olive oil.

Going farther up the valley in the midst of scenery which becomes wilder and more Alpine

At Ventimiglia. The distant mountains are in France, and the foreground is in Italy.]

every mile, one reaches Isolabona, where the road to the right across the river leads up the Merdanzo Valley to Apricale, one of the most romantically situated of all the rock villages of the Ligurian coast. Such extraordinary compactness and inaccessibility was the outcome of continual intercommunal fighting and fear of corsair raids. The Scourge of the Mediterranean also caused the building of the little stone watch-towers still standing on the hill-tops in convenient positions for giving warning to the surrounding villages.

There is no other road to the coast than the one through Dolceacqua, so one returns by the same way to the main road.

BORDIGHERA

is a thoroughly English resort, with several excellent hotels, a museum, a library, an English church, a tennis-club, and other opportunities of amusement, and it has also the advantage of being small, and without the towny flavour of Mentone, Monte Carlo, Nice, and Cannes. There are beautiful walks among hoary olives at a very short distance from any part of the scattered town, and there is still an old nucleus on the hill of Capo San Ampeglio, where a hermit’s cave is now converted into a tiny chapel.

The road runs through Ospedaletti, a newly built resort, to

SAN REMO

The coast becomes steeper and more impressive as one goes eastwards from Bordighera, and at San Remo the town is backed by an amphitheatre of very lofty hills. The town is busy and smart, and curiously individual in its character.

Perhaps the best way to see the place in a short time is to make for the market-place and enter the gateway that leads into the old town. The moment one begins to ascend the extremely picturesque passages and winding _vicoli_ all one’s bearings are lost, and, as fresh openings and turnings occur every few yards, one is soon hopelessly lost. The only plan to follow is always to go upwards. This will bring one out to a flight of steps leading up to a small public garden, from which there is an enormous view, with the old roofs of the original town immediately below and the new stuccoed houses spread out on the lower ground and on the hill-slopes on either side.

Those who have time should keep along this fascinating coast, and explore those valleys which have good roads. There are a thousand delights awaiting the motorist, but there is unfortunately no space to deal with them here.[K]