Peille and Ste-Anges: Heart stoppingly beautiful ride in the French Rivera’s countryside

On our last day in France, we cycled north from Nice into the Alps to see to examples of the 11^th Century perched villages. Built high on the side of mountains, these villages were unwelcoming to blundering gangs of long ago and so have remained intact. The pre-car streets were narrow and designed to keep the wind out. People today welcome visitors (tourists) by painting and planting things (like window shutters) that increase the appeal of the towns. We rode our bikes over a pass, Colde la Madone (927m), between the towns and then finished with a thrilling downhill to Menton, France.