| At every other turn on the Grande Corniche, you're invited to park your car and enjoy a belvédère. At certain points, such as Col d'Eze, you can turn off upwards for even higher views. Eighteen stunning kilometres from Nice, you reach the village of LA TURBIE and its Trophée des Alpes, a huge monument raised in 6 BC to celebrate the subjugation of the tribes of Gaul. Originally a statue of Augustus Caesar stood on the 45-metre plinth, which was pillaged, ransacked for building materials and blown up over the centuries. Painstakingly restored in the 1930s, it now stands statueless, 35m high, and, viewed from a distance, still looks imperious. If you want a closer inspection, you'll have to buy a ticket (April–June daily 9.30am–6pm; July to mid-Sept daily 9.30am–7pm; mid-Sept to March Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; €4). Several buses a day run from here to Monaco and Nice, from Monday to Saturday. As the corniche descends towards Cap Martin, it passes the eleventh-century castle of ROQUEBRUNE, its village nestling round the base of the rock. The castle (daily: Feb–May 10am–12.30pm & 2–6.30pm; June–Sept 10am–12.30pm & 3–7.30pm; Oct–Jan 10am–12.30pm & 2–5pm; €3.50) has been kitted out enthusiastically in medieval fashion, while the tiny vaulted passages and stairways of the village are almost too good to be true. One thing that hasn't been restored is the vast millennial olive tree that lies just to the east of the village on the chemin de Menton. To get to the vieux village from the gare SNCF, turn east and then right up avenue de la Côte d'Azur, then first left up escalier Corinthille, across the Grande Corniche and up escalier Chanoine-J.-B.-Grana. The best hotel in the old village is Les Deux Frères, place des Deux-Frères (tel 04.93.28.99.00, www.lesdeuxfreres.com; €55–70), which is worth booking in advance to try to get one of the rooms with the awesome view (rooms #1 or #2). Southeast of the old town and the station is the peninsula of Cap Martin, with a coastal path, giving you access to a wonderful shoreline of white rocks and wind-bent pines. The path is named after Le Corbusier, who spent several summers in Roquebrune and died by drowning off Cap Martin in 1965. His grave – designed by himself – is in the cemetery (square J near the flagpole), high above the old village on promenade 1er-DFL. A gourmet treat here is the panoramic restaurant Le Vistaero, on the Grande Corniche (tel 04.92.10.40.20; closed Sun & mid-Jan to Feb), with a brilliant lunchtime menu for €30.
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