cliché Martin ScottVilla Parasol
cliché Martin Scott
Villa Parasol is the pink one on the left, thirty yards down after you turn onto the route de la Mairie; there are two arches on the right opposite the rusty green gate.
- or how to find Duranus by road.
The dwellings of metropolitan Duranus grace its road like the downy fuzz along the bifurcating stems of an unkempt ivy. The village straggles up the mainly south-facing slopes of an enclave or amphitheatrical valley just off the Vésubie gorges. The highest house is perhaps over 600 metres above sea level, the lowest maybe 300; Villa Parasol is at around 450. The road running through the village is the D19, linking Nice to Levens and on to St Jean la Rivière, in the Vésubie valley.
Duranus by any route is legally 47 minutes from the aeroport and under an hour from Italy.
There are two approaches, both obviously by the D19, one from the west & north, which I call Boulder Boulevard, and the other from the south, Rubble Alley.
Some further notes re petrol and bread and so on, are in the addenda.
Note that road directions in words, a tradition that pre-dates Homer and may indeed be the basis of many unexplained cave scratchings in grotto France, are nonetheless tricky without waving of hands, backs of envelopes or, as a last resort, a map... courtesy ViaMichelin.
1 : Boulder Boulevard
The route via the gorges de la Vésubie...
....whereby you take the D2565 up the Vésubie valley from Plan-du-Var, a road also signposted Lantosque and Roquebillière.
1.1 This is the ever improved but nonetheless canyonesque route to the ski resorts and it forks off to the right from the RN202 about 25 kilometres north of Nice aeroport, just after the quaint concrete arched bridge at the north extreme of Plan-du-Var. Then, before you reach St Jean, ten kms on through the gorges and after a couple of tunnels, there is a 180° double-back junction to the right, announced by bands across the road and a signpost declaring with some drama: Duranus. Take this, with caution as to idiots coming at you from both the main road and down the Duranus road.
1.2 Then you enter the village at the top after a small tunnel, and filter down past the old 'phone booth, past the uninviting bar and on less than a hundred yards until, just after a 90° right bend by a house on the right, you find a junction doubling back again to the right, marked on the wall of the pink house before you: Route de la Mairie. Take this; Villa Parasol is the first building on the left as you descend. There are two stone archways opposite the gate and maybe you can park there till given further 'live' instructions.
If you can't park and need to move on, carry on to what is evidently the municipal car park; please do not park in front of the next house on the left, fifty yards down the road.
2 : Rubble Alley
The route from Levens...
...is the continuation of the direct road from Nice to Levens. As you leave Levens, after skirmishing with the suburbs while the town is on the hill overlooking you from the left, there is a fork in the road at the Maison de Retraite Les Rosiers giving you Centre Ville to the left and Duranus / Saut des Français to the right. Follow the latter - this is Rubble Alley. It wiggles through a sort of Chinese scroll landscape for 8kms. Keep your head. Do not be afraid to toot at blind corners.
2.1 As you enter Duranus there is a 30kph speed restriction sign and the road bends 90° right with houses on the left; maybe 80 yards thereafter is a little road falling away between the houses to the left, by a tree - this is the Route de la Mairie. Take this; Villa Parasol is the first building on the left as you descend. There are two stone archways opposite the gate and maybe you can park there till given further 'live' instructions.
If you can't park and need to move on, carry on to what is evidently the municipal car park; please do not park in front of the next house on the left, fifty yards down the road.
2.2
Now, the question is:
Rubble Roulette: or, how to reach Levens directly...
...offers a number of alternatives. There are two direct routes:
a) the most easterly and the simplest is up the D19 via St André & Tourrette-Levens, north from the Nice-Est exit of the motorway;
b) or to go up the RN202, the main road which follows the path of the River Var north from the sea & the aeroport.
2.2.1
The D19...
The direct route from central Nice or points east is simply to come up the D19 all the way. This is the main link from Nice via the Nice-Est motorway exit, usually signposted 'Levens'. You climb first through St André then Tourette-Levens and then to Levens. Then proceed etcetera as for Rubble Alley, see 2.1 above.
2.2.2
The RN202, a.k.a. 'The Two-Oh-Two'...
The direct western approach is to charge off up the RN202 all the way to St Martin-du-Var; there, opposite the narrow-guage railway station, glide right off the bumper-licking fury of the 202 and follow the main access to the town, down past the post office to a village square. Here you double back left by about 300° and carry on out of the town. Sometimes it is signposted 'Lantosque' or 'Roquebillière', others 'Levens'. You set off uphill as the town ends; a plethora of uphill wiggles brings you 15 minutes later to the main road within the suburbs of Levens. Turn left onto the main road towards Levens centre and then proceed etcetera as for Rubble Alley, see 2.1 above.
By the way, at St Martin you can skip going through town; you carry on along the 202 for about a hundred yards after the turn-off just described - past a garage and an odd furniture store - till maybe 100 yards later there is a wee narrow slip off to the right, signposted 'Lantosque' or 'Roquebillière'. You slide right off the RN202 and immediately hook left off uphill.
NOTE that if you miss either exit from the 202 that's your last chance and you are then condemned to contine till Plan du Var and taking Boulder Boulevard as in §1.
2.2.2.1 Note that those coming from the wester hinterland represented by St Jeannet, Vence, Tourrettes-sur-Loup and so on, may want to drop down coastwards to the motorway and go from there, coming off at any of the motorway exits St Isidore (for the RN202), Nice-Nord (for Aspremont) or Nice-Est (for the D19).
That is the smoother way. But you may like to take the curvey balcony road, the D2210 (which I have the annoying habit of calling our Mullholland Drive) that links the towns from Grasse by way of Bar-sur-Loup, Pont-du-Loup and so on via Vence, before it drops down to the RN202 by way of Gattières and (nearly) Carros. Then you cross the Pont de la Manda and turn left to progress up the RN202.
2.2.3
Finding Levens Indirectly...
Levens may also be reached by all sorts of winding and pretty roads tangled between the D19 and the RN202... These are suitable mostly for those coming from Nice or points west and generally involve passing through Aspremont.
2.2.3.1 Reaching Aspremont can be done by one of two general routes, either up off the RN202 via Castagniers or Colomars or even the Château de Crémat; or by leaving western Nice via St Roman, Colomars & La Bégude or St Pierre de Féric or St Silvestre each via St Pancrace. The Nice-Nord motorway exit immediately offers you a swoop to the north off towards Aspremont that is also signposted Levens; this canny route via Gairaud and La Sirène has perhaps the best combination of getting-on-with-it on the motorway and Hollywood-Hills wiggledy-do lush-house country-route thereafter...
2.2.3.2 Then from Aspremont there is a road to Levens via Ste Blaise, the D14; where there is then a choice of two roads between Ste Blaise and Levens, one rather Swissy by-road towards Ste Claire and the other the continuation of the D14 through St Antoine Siga. In both cases when you eventually reach the main road (D19) you go left up through to Levens and proceed etcetera as for Rubble Alley, see 2.1 above.
2.2.3.3 However, that road from Aspremont to Levens, the D14, can also be reached from the RN202 without passing by Aspremont but by turning off where there are signposts offering for instance Colomars. These are pretty too and have houses some reminiscent of Barbara Stanwick's house in Double Indemnity. When in doubt always follow Levens if offered it; or Ste Blaise; or Aspremont, to give these in descending practical order.
3 : Addenda
Petrol
Note that apart from service stations south of the La Manda bridge on the RN202 (where the road from Vence &c. comes in), petrol is only spasmodically available north of the motorway. There is a service station on the D19 as you pass through Tourette-Levens, on the left side of the road going north; and one amidst the houses at Levens, signposted before the fork for Rubble Alley. It isn't always open but on days it is, it stays open over lunch. The man will serve you if you stand and do nothing. Taking Boulder Boulevard, there is a service station as you enter Plan-du-Var.
Bread
If you have been asked to bring bread or other supplies, you may well find that after the coast you're also stuck, depending on the day, the time and the mood of the natives... In St Martin there are a couple of bakeries on, and a Casino supermarket after the triangular village square; in Levens there is a Timy under the Félix Faure bar on the D.19. Note that these bakeries & shops are often shut from about 1230h or 13h till 4 o'clock; generaly shut-shop day hereabouts is Wednesday.
Etcetera
The above account excludes nine permutations I like and seven I have never done in a dozen years.
It is wise to observe the tiresome speed restrictions on the RN202, which is a fond place for speed cops, especially on the three-lane olde-worlde-death-trap stretch north of the Pont de la Manda. The D19 has occasional similar traps, usually around Tourette-Levens.
Note also that Duranus & environs has poor reception if any for mobile telephony signals — Bouygues none, SFR & Orange some. There are no facilities for helicopters and arboreal vegetation dissuades paragliders. There is however 'canyoning' at the foot of the valley, close by the 'hard' geological 'anus' from which the town derives its name.