The Côte d'Azur: Medieval Towns

Montaroux, Callian, Tourrettes, Mons, Seillans

On the Sunday evening after Jojo’s baptism, Sam & I headed off to our next stop – Montaroux. I had very clear instructions from Google maps on how to get there and it was very pretty drive up in to the mountains. Needless to say, I got lost. After driving up and down the same street (note: dusty, dirty, side road where Google indicated the hotel was) I called and said I was lost. 

Although very helpful, we couldn’t really understand each other – me trying to describe my location and him telling me where to go from there. I ended up driving down a million little side roads, all which led to Lac de Saint-Cassien (a lake), I eventually asked a passer-by for help and luckily he spoke great English and called and got me some directions. Back to the main street and turn left. Duh. I’d missed the sign by about 10 metres.

We finally checked in to Les Gites du Lac. There were absolutely stunning views of the lake from our room and the terrace AAAND breakfast was included. Woo – free pastry! There was also a great big golden retriever roaming around (who I invited in to our room to hang out for a bit). This was easily my favourite place from the trip.

We drove in to the centre of Montaroux where they were in full swing celebrating Bastille day! There were impressive fireworks rigged up for when it got dark, wine for €2, Cola for €4 (I went for the wine) and a brass band playing. Very festive.

There are a number of little medieval towns up in the mountains in the South of France, Montaroux being one of them. The buildings are all built up on sheer rock slopes with little cobbled streets winding around the town.

The following day we drove to Callian, Tourrettes and Mons, more medieval towns. We wandered around each and took some photos and then headed to Seillans for our next night.

There was heaps of cool artwork around the towns too.

And rocks on the roof tiles to keep them in place when it gets windy. 

We stayed at Hotel Restaurant de Deux Rocs right in the centre of Seillans and while the location was great, the hotel was pretty basic. I had a bit of a wrestle with the tiny shower the following morning where the shower won and dumped a whole lot of water on the bathroom floor. Good thing they gave us lots of towels.

The restaurant part of the hotel was closed so we ventured in to town to check out the other three eating venues available. One was closed, one was super busy and quite expensive, so we had pizza. It was cheesy and delicious.