Hike to the Château de Sainte-Agnès

We went on a hike right after lunch, starting at the Hameau de la Colline (above Menton). The marked hike is a loop, but one part of the loop said "trail closed." We weren't sure how recent that notice was, so to be safe we did an "aller-retour" on the other half of the loop. Our destination was a ruined fortress/chateau on the top of a perched village overlooking the Menton area. It was a steep climb, 570 meters elevation gain. I definitely got a workout today!

The kids were initially grumbling. "Why do we have to go on a hike? It's too cold out! My legs hurt." But once we got going, the complaining stopped, the jackets came off, and the lactic acid set in.

Finding the trailhead was a challenge. We initially set off on what looked to be a path, complete with stairs, but it kept getitng narrower until it turned into an irrigation ditch with a 1' (30 cm) ledge and finally ended in some stairs leading to a private driveway. We turned around and tried again. This time, we walked to the edge of what seemed to be a dead-end but had a hidden pathway at the very end that turned out to be our trail.



Our nephew arrives tomorrow for almost 2 weeks, and my parents come next week. From then until the end of April, we're going to have family visiting nonstop! My parents for 3 months, then Eric's parents for a month.