The village of Sainte-Agnès sits in the mountains high above Menton. It holds the designation as one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France. That entitles it to a separate look in our travel recaps.
As with many such villages, there is not much in terms of defined points of interest here. The eponymous local church that is expectedly intimate and understated. A fort of the Little Maginot Line that is entirely incongruent with the village. Castle ruins that necessitate additional physical exertion in the form of the upward hike to get to (which we were not willing to do). One or two artisan galleries. And the rest is just the “medieval-pretty” village that can be explored end-to-end in the space of very little time.
Unsurprisingly, whatever the flow of visitors may be at the height of the summer season, the village felt deserted in the first week of September, with almost no one sharing the narrow streets of the village with us, tourists or locals alike. Place de la Mairie had just two occupants on it.
While your eyes may be attracted to the cat, I suggest you do not miss the signs above the doors, with the school entrance right next to the Town Hall entrance in the same building.
A dozen steps to the left from here starts the sloping street that basically strings the entire village together.
This is just its first “flight” – it continues further up to the left of the building with the blue window.
A few downward looks as we keep walking up Rue des Sarrazins.
…until we reach high enough points so that the tower of the church becomes visible.
Arched passages in various corners of Sainte-Agnès apparently attracted my eye more than anything else.
And here are the views towards Menton from a viewpoint at the edge of the village, similar to what we’ve seen in the previous post, only from a higher vantage point.
We spent about an hour in Sainte-Agnès, including a stop for crêpes at a fortuitously open café. All in all, a pretty small village that suffered in appearance from being near-dead. As much as I abhor crowds, a shade more liveliness would certainly make our visit more enjoyable.