The memories of our French and Italian Riviera trip are, inevitably, fading as post-holiday activities have resumed and taken up head-space. But reprising the experience of our trip in these blog posts is keeping memories of the holiday fresher than would otherwise be the case and so I’ll continue…. On to Menton.
I’d not heard of Menton before the itinerary of our trip became clear. It is one of many towns along the French Riviera with a long history, a small fishing industry, some beautiful historic buildings and a mild sub-tropical Mediterranean climate that supports exotic plants and gardens.
The centrepiece and main tourist attraction in the town is the Les Rampes Saint Michel. This is a series of steep, stepped, cobbled ramps that rise directly from the cafes and bars on the coast to the core of a square bounded on two sides by the Basilique Saint Michel Archange and the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs. The very attractive zig zag ramps were mostly built in the 18th century but, following the Second World War, were restored well near the base.
To the immediate north of the square at the top of the ramps is an incline with a labyrinth of narrow lanes lined by tall, ochre buildings. At the top, sits Le Cimetière du Vieux Château. It has an interesting history as a re-purposed site of the ancient citadel protecting the town. It was developed as a cemetery in the 19th century after Napoleon had decreed that churches could no longer be used for burials and the spare land around Menton’s Basilica ran out. Today it hosts dramatic family vaults and tombstones and provides peaceful but tremendous views of the coast and the Old Town below.
An interest from British aristocracy over the last couple of hundred years in buying up land along the French and Italian Riviera to provide holiday homes with exotic gardens attached was apparent throughout our holiday. Menton has several great exemplars of such houses and gardens. Some of these are open to the public.
We visited the delightful Val Rahmeh-Menton Botanical Garden which was up a steep hill behind our harbour-side hotel. In 1905, Sir Percy Radcliffe started to transform a former farm into a villa and surrounding garden and named it after his wife. In 1957, May Campbell, a wealthy woman from England, bought the estate and enhanced the planting to create an exotic garden full of floral and other horticultural treasures.
There are now over 1,600 different species of planting the garden including a wide variety of bamboo and unusual citrus plants. The current microclimate supports this temperate, sub-tropical and tropical arrangement but I wonder if climate change is going to increase the need for further adaption in the future. For now, it is a lovely place to visit.
Another highpoint in our sight-seeing was a visit to the Hôtel de Ville. This is the Town Hall and it houses the famous Wedding Hall decorated by Jean Cocteau in 1957. The audio tour of the hall that was provided was useful to help us pick out some of the themes in Cocteau’s murals. Certainly, it would be a memorable location for any wedding.
The Jean Cocteau Museum and the Cathedral were both closed for renovation and repair but much of Menton – the Old Town, the best buildings of the New Town, the palm strewn beach – were very pleasant. We ate well too and especially at Tony Restaurant which had great sea views.
Our enjoyable stay was much enhanced by the renewal of our laundry. How to get our laundry done while hopping from one location along the Riviera to another had been bugging me from the time we first booked the trip (I’m a worrier). In Menton, Jane located some public laundry machines near our hotel and we gave them a try.
We survived failing to read the instructions about absolutely not adding our own detergent to the wash – there was too much foam but at least it didn’t burst from the machine. However, when we opened the door at the end of the cycle, our clothes smelt a lot worse than when they went in. We piled the stinky, damp washing into a bag and retreated to our hotel. Fortunately, the bathroom there was large with two sinks and a bidet, our balcony was also spacious, and the weather was breezy and sunny. We handwashed and dried our laundry and I loved the fact that, as we left Menton, I had a bag full of clean clothing again.
