Taxi Nice — Tourette-Levens

Tourette-Levens is a fascinating medieval village nestled at 380 metres altitude on a rocky pinnacle, at the very gates of Nice. Despite its proximity to the city — barely 14 km — this town has preserved a strong identity and remarkable heritage that make it one of the most interesting cultural destinations in the Nice hinterland. The village is dominated by the imposing Lascaris Castle, a 12th-13th century medieval fortress carefully restored, which today houses a natural history museum and an extraordinary Butterfly Museum displaying a collection of over 5,000 specimens from around the world, one of the finest private entomological collections in France. This collection, assembled over decades by a local enthusiast, offers a fascinating spectacle of colours and forms, from the electric-blue morphos of Amazonia to the leaf butterflies of Southeast Asia. The castle also hosts temporary exhibitions and cultural events. Below the village, the Château caves (or Tourette-Levens caves) bear witness to human occupation dating back to the Middle Palaeolithic, over 100,000 years ago, and have yielded important archaeological remains. The medieval village itself is a charming maze of stepped lanes, vaulted passages, stone houses clinging to the rock and flower-filled small squares offering visual escapes over the Paillon valley and surrounding hills. The Church of Saint-Rosaire, from the 17th century, contains baroque works of interest. Tourette-Levens is also a walking mecca with waymarked trails through garrigue and holm oak forests to the surrounding peaks.