Contributor blog post by Cheryl Shufflebotham: The small perched village of Banon, located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, is authentic Provence at its best. Banon wasn’t at the top of my list to see but was a spur-of-the-moment stop. What a surprise! I had no idea that it would prove to …

The Alpes-Maritimes department in south-east France, including the world-famous Côte d’Azur, is home to several hundred medieval hill villages, fortified towns and ruined iron age camps and many are close to Nice.  The “villages perchés” vary from little more than a pile of ruins to perfectly renovated sophisticated small towns…Continue …