Eagle's nest perched 430 metres above the Mediterranean — medieval village with a Nietzsche path
Èze is the most vertiginous village on the Côte d'Azur — a medieval hilltop commune 430 metres directly above the Mediterranean, with views across to Corsica on clear days. The village's streets are so narrow and steep that a single person fills the lane; at its top, a cactus garden occupies the ruins of a Saracen castle destroyed by Louis XIV. Nietzsche walked the precipitous path from Eze-sur-Mer to the village each morning during the winter of 1883–1884 while writing Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Èze has been continuously inhabited since antiquity — the Ligurians, then Phocaean Greeks, then Romans settled on the rock for the same reason: it is impregnable. The medieval village dates from the 12th century, though its current form largely reflects 14th–16th century construction. It was part of the County of Nice and thus Savoyard territory until 1860, when it passed to France with the rest of Nice. The Nietzsche path (Chemin Nietzsche) from the lower village to the sea is now a marked hiking trail.