Places to visit
The area is rich in places to visit and things to do. The following is a selection. Distances from La Brigue are shown in brackets.
Mercantour National Park/Vallée des Merveilles
La Brigue lies right at the edge of the Mercantour. This beautifully rugged national park has wonderful paths, streams and lakes set in the valleys of 3000 meter-high mountains. There are wonderful flowers and some interesting wildlife.
Set within the Mercantour National Park and at the foot of Mt Bégo (which can be seen from La Brigue), the Vallée des Merveilles is famous for more than 100,000 rock engravings, largely from prehistoric times. A very popular excursion combines 4W-drives, hiking and an overnight camp in the valley.
Pont du Coq (1 km)
Just above La Brigue is a well-restored and unusual stone bridge, which half way up turns, before crossing the stream with a hump-back peak (dos d'ane).
Notre-Dame des Fontaines (4 kms)
Notre-Dame des Fontaines chapel is located up the valley to the east of La Brigue. Awarded 3 stars by Guide Michelin, the chapel is renowned for its 1492 mural paintings by Canavesio, which cover the walls and the choir and include a vast scene of the last judgment. There’s a tour of the interior (by the young lady from the La Brigue tourist office) 7 days a week (check times).
The chapel is set on a tiny clearing in a thickly forested valley, with a mountain stream just below. A natural spring arises from the river bed beside the chapel.
Morignole (5 kms)
Morignole is a hamlet 5 kms up the valley from La Brigue, on the edge of mountains beside a thickly-wooded valley from which the fast-flowing Levense flows towards La Brigue.
Tende (6 kms)
Tende was a fortified town guarding an important pass into the Piedmont valley. It's a pretty Italian-style medieval mountain town with houses grouped tightly together on the flank of the mountain. The tall ‘needle’ ruin is all that's left of a 14th C chateau, destroyed in 1692. There are many 19th-century forts on the heights around the town.
The line of mountains along the Franco-Italian border include over 20 peaks higher than 2000 meters, and most are heavily forested with larch and pine. Ten kms north of Tende is the Col de Tende, one of hundreds of beautiful valleys in the region. There is a tunnel here to Italy and the ski resorts in Limone Piemonte.
The Musee de Merveilles, on the road leading north out of Tende, is well worth visiting.
Col de Sanson (12 kms)
The Col de Sanson is an old mountain pass between Italy and France with spectacular views. It can be reached from La Brigue by long hike or track (4W-drive recommended).
Saorge (13 kms)
Saorge is a stunning medieval village perched along a narrow rock spur that juts out into the Vallée de la Roya, high above the river. It has been rated as one of the ‘40 most beautiful villages of France’.
At the entrance to the village is a shop selling local honeys. A colorful 17th-century monastery (called the Couvent des Franciscans), which you can visit, sits up high at the eastern end of the village.
Casterino (15 kms)
The road to Casterino starts past the huge old railway station in Saint-Dalmas (2 kms from La Brigue), and winds into the hills 10 kms to the Lac des Mesches, a popular starting spot for walks. A slightly narrower road takes you a further 3 kms to a cluster of auberges and hotels at Casterino, sitting in a magnificent valley along by a swift little river.
Other wonderful places a little over 15 kms:
Breil-sur-Roya - 20 kms
Sospel - 39 kms
Ventimiglia (Italy) - 46 kms
Cuneo (Italy) - 52 kms
Menton - 56 kms
Nice - 98 kms
Mercantour National Park
Saorge in Winter
