Vinaigrier Park

A traditional farm preserved.

Discover a setting of unspoiled beauty, east of Nice, revealing a unique panorama of the Bay of Angels and the harbour of Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Like theNice writer Louis Nucéra,you will think that "Beauty that wanted to be eternal" had taken up residence on this privileged corner of the earth. This 31-hectare park, owned by the Coastal Conservatory, has been managed by the Department since 1988.

The remains of a cyclopean wall characteristic of the real castellaras confirm the existence of a small Ligurian community with pastoral and agricultural activities.

There are still restanques, evidence of olive cultivation, and an Italian-Provençal-style farmthat was to occupy part of the current area of the park. Currently, the olive grove is maintained by workers at the Specialized Work Assistance Establishment (ESAT). Maintenance includes tree pruning, olive harvesting, and bottling after crushing in a traditional mill. The former farmers had developed an ingenious irrigation system consisting of vertical and horizontal wells to recover stormwater.

Mount Vinaigrier consists of a limestone plateau with an altitude of 370 meters and more or less steep slopes. On the part where the slope is the softer, there are thicker soils where man has installed arable terraces. The plateau is made up of large Aleppo pines and holm oaks. On the embankment, a forest of flowering ash trees, a relatively rare species in the region, blooms in May.

On the edge of Nice a varied and dense fauna lives in peace: small mammals (hedgehogs, squirrels, foxes, badgers), as well as 59 species of birds, sedentary (coal, European hawks, melanocephalic warblers...) and migratory (black martinets, black gobemouches, red-tails with white foreheads...).

Access, from Nice take the Grande Corniche (RM 2564) and turn right on to Avenue Brès after the fire that adjoins the access to the observatory. To reach the upper part of the park, continue about 500 meters after the observatory, access and parking are on the right.

Call to find out the opening hours of the House of Vinaigrier houses an educational exhibition on thesite.

Open on sunday