Vallon de Mollieres

So this time, we finally did go to the Alps for some walking. About time... (although in retrospect, we would probably have been better off heeding the weather forecast and staying at Nice...).




Our walk started near St-Saveur-sur-Tinee, in the Tinee valley. The walk took us through the Vallon de Mollieres, to the hamlet of Mollieres. The walk was very scenic, as expected, taking us through a leafy valley along a river up to an altitude of 1572 meters. We were even treated to some wildlife - we saw 2 snakes (including a adder).



Mollieres also has an interesting history... When the county of Nice (which used to be Italian until 1860) became French, Mollieres decided to stay with Italy. During World War 2, Mollieres served as a refuge camp for Italians and French. After being burnt down by German soldiers in 1944, Mollieres finally became French in 1947. But since then it's stayed uninhabited, apart from some buildings which have recently been renovated as summer houses. So it's almost like a ghost town (or more like ghost hamlet).



The walk back was rather unpleasant, because those ominous weather forecasts came true, and we ended up in the middle of a thunderstorm. Of course, it had to happen when we were as far away from the car as possible, as well... Oh well, next time we'll pay attention to the forecast ;-)