The "Baou" of St Jeannet

What is a “Baou”?? In the provincial dialect (that means spoken mostly in the south-east part of France) it means “mountain peak” and there are 2 beautiful ones not so far from Nice, called “Baou of St Jeannet” and his twin the “Baou of La Gaude”. Let’s discover the first one! :)

This Baou is located a few km from the sea and from Nice in the nice little village of St Jeannet. He’s 800 m high and as you’re on a few km from the coast, you can be sure to have a beautiful panorama… but we will see this later..

You don’t can visit this place without some physical efforts. When you arrive to the village, you can’t this impressing rock above the houses. How to get there?? Go through the village, always choose the direction up and you’’ll soon find the little path leading to the top. This path goes along a little valley between the 2 “baous”: on your left the one of St Jeannet and on your right the one of La Gaude (a bit less impressive, but great as well) After 25min walk, climbing slowly, you’ll find a crossing: chose the left way for our baou. There, the way is becoming tougher, climbing much more and you’ll easily see what your physical condition looks like. No worries, even if you don’t practice any sports, you can make it, but you’ll need perhaps a bit more time then others… Well, count around 35-40 mn walk from there on to get to the top. from the village to the top it’s around 1 hour walk, if you take your time and don’t run in the mountain…. and not so hard as it seems, but still a bit… :)

But when you reach the top….WAOW! What a place! You understand that your efforts weren’t for nothing, this place must be deserved!! It’s like a “stone desert” with a few trees and vegetation but you suspect already the panoramic view you’ll get when you’re at the end of way, at the limit of the peak with the village right down of your feet…

Once there, just sit down, relax, breath and enjoy the place. A little orientation table shows you the different directions, and if the weather is clear you can see very very far…. The best time to go there is in winter or spring (January/May) because in this season you the clearest and “bluest” skies of the Cote d’Azur. And better in the morning of course…. It’s an absolute must-see of the area of Nice…

Way down is the same as the way up, goes a bit quicker of course. When you’re in the village again, you have with you this very special feeling you didn’t had before, saying to yourself: “I was up there”, filling you with a kind of proud and happiness to have woke up early in the morning, walked/climbed during an hour and discovered the beauty of this place!!

Enjoy the gallery! :))

written by vicuna on 2009-05-09 #places #mountain #nature #sea #view #rumble #panorama #rock #location #peak #nice #cote-d-azur #st-jeannet