Roquebrune village - 1

Menton is surrounded by beautiful Medieval villages, and one of the most beautiful is Roquebrune. You can see an alternative view below. Over the next days let me show you around this village which is perched, 300 metres above the sea and which looks down on the cape or headland called Cap Martin - the area you've seen in many previous postings. Roquebrune-cap-Martin is between Menton and Monte Carlo.

Roquebrune village is built on a sand and pebble conglomerate from the Tertiary period. It's called the pudding and it appears very fragile and soft. However, it is amazingly strong. The whole village stands on this rock with no foundations, the tangled jigsaw of the buildings has held it all together for centuries.

There is a legend that the village of Roquebrune, clinging to the hillside, owes its survival to the fragile broom shrub which, in the 7th century, during a terrible earthquake, stopped its deadly pull towards the sea.

Do come back tomorrow when we'll be in the village itself.