Before traveling to France, when we were just brainstorming about where to visit on the Riviera coast, my U2-adoring husband mentioned Eze (apparently Bono had a home there). We tentatively put in on the list in hopes we would pass through. 

Our trip took a sad hiccup when Walker's dad got food poisoning, and as the only one listed on the car rental from Nice, we were also driverless. We tried to figure out how to visit our planned excursions for the day by train. It was proving complicated and messy, so the hotel we stayed in Nice, the wonderful Hotel Perouse, very quickly arranged a private driver for the day.  Walker's dad recovered at the hotel, while the rest of us were off. The brilliance of this strategy was Walker could take photos along the way while our driver maximized our visits to each location. The road above passed by St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat; how beautiful is that peninsula?!

Balanced precariously (or so it seems from the below road), Eze had a historic older city with very few residents, as well as a more modern city below the hill.

See it down there? Anyway, we visited the part on the top, the quaint part, as the first stop in our Riviera tour that also included Monaco later in the day.

From our first, slab-cobbled steps, the town was as adorable as you'd expect from a French coastal town of slate roofs and terra cotta walls.

We climbed up what appeared to be the only main walking path through town, and at the top, paid a few Euro to enter the Jardin Exotique d'Eze: the main attraction in town, a tropical garden that also happens to have the best views in town.

Between the warm sunshine above, the dry sea air, and the happy cacti, the garden was simply delightful.

It's hard to tell from the photos, but the 360° view from the top was this toward the ocean

and this mountain pass bridge behind the village.

The prominent feature of town was the butterscotch church, the Eglise Notre Dame de l'Assomption, that guarded the town from above. The honeyed hue against the mountain greens felt so French.

We didn't have much time in the village--maybe an hour total--so we made a quick stop in the church before heading around the back of the town via steps,

soaking in the perfect autumn warmth of the day and the quintessentially French views.

And then we were back on the road for our next stop: Monaco!