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Office deTourisme
Place du Gl de Gaulle Eze France Tel : 33 (0) 4 93 41 26 00 Fax : 33 (0) 4 93 41 04 80 
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The
Legends of Eze
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The
Legends of Eze
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Eze medieval city, where people lived for more than two millenia, is also a ground of legends born from the imagination of collective history.
| La Strega |
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At the time of
Marie Stuart, a delegation of the House of Savoy leaded by the count
Moretti on the way to Scotland stopped in Nice. Don Riccio, a gentleman,
benefited of his spare time to discover the neighbourhoods towards
the heights of Eze. On the edge of a path, his attention was drawn
by strident cries. Two bandits attacked a young woman. Drawing his
sword, he needed little time to drive out the bandits.
Only at this moment he discovered the beauty of the young woman. She was a little savage, but she had the imposing presence of a countess. The subtlety and harmony of her features showed behind her dishevelled hair. She stared at him. It was the first time that a gentleman paid attention to her. And this one was not bad. |
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- What is your
name ? he asked her with a soft voice. "Catarina, Strega, fortune
teller" she answered a little intimidated. - I am Don Riccio,
he answered. Then he proposed to take her home to a house located
on the high Cornice on the middle of the scrub. On the way, with
the Mediterranean as horizon, a romance was born.
The following day, they spent the day together, in some isolated creeks away from the glances. The hours passed and Don Riccio became increasingly gloomy. " What is it ? she asked him ? - Tomorrow, at dawn I leave for Scotland". Catarina begged Don Riccio to remain, to give up his tittle, his functions. " With the assistance of God, we will live here without missing anything". Don Riccio refused. He had to leave to be delivered of a promise. Then, it is sworn, he would return to her. The broken heart, she was solved to listen to him and promised to light snail shells filled with oil, the limaches, to indicate the position of her house in the night. |
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Don Riccio did
not return. But in the twilight, the travellers regularly see
gleams high in the scrub… |
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The
forgotten mill
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Along Nietzsche
path, drown in the green oaks of the Mediterranean maquis, we hardly
distinguish the ruins of an ancient oil mill, known as "La
Calanca", but everybody calls it "The forgotten Mill",
so tragical is its history
Yet, everything was starting well. Batistin, a widower, had two treasures in his life: his mill and his daughter Floriane, one of the most beautiful girls in the village with her shinny teethes, her hairs and her jet-black eyes. One day, while he was crushing his olives, Louis, the owner of the neighbouring olive field, came to see him to propose the union of their children, and by the same time their businesses. |
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Batistin hesitated
talking about it to his daughter. She is so young, so passionate
about freedom. Marry her at her age, only eighteen years old, even
to a notable, would it be good for her? In fact, she already has
a friend in Eze seaside. He decides to speak to her. Floriane, to
be kind with her father, promised to have diner one time at their
home, but nothing more.
The next day, and all the days after, Floriane, who usually was so full of life, seemed to have closed herself. Indeed, she was still swimming and running in the garrigue, but she was not the same anymore. Then, one night in May, everything went very fast. Batistin discovered a letter written by Floriane in which she was announcing her intention to throw herself in the Gaffinel ravine. Batistin runed like a fool to the ravine, searching for his loving daughter's body. He put it in the mill, then, full of pain and culpability, he burned the place. |
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Of Floriane and
Batistin, the Ezasques found no traces. But, among the ashes, the
letter was in a corner, miraculously saved from the flames by a
piece of rock.
Floriane confessed her pain and confusion. She was pregnant. The problem was she ignored if it was her friend's baby or the owner's son that abused her on the diner's night. She was so ashamed of ignoring the father's identity that she preferred to die. That's why since that day the mill is called "the forgotten mill", because all the inhabitants of the village would like to forget this story. |
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| The devil's bridge |
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The edification,
between 1911 and 1914, of the important viaduct, which steps over
the Gaffinel ravine, at the top of its 80 meters, permitted the
achievement in 1927 of the middle cornice. But in the village, it
is said that the construction has been made in one night with the
help of the forces of darkness.
A peasant, bored in losing each day hours walking to reach his fields on the other side of the ravine, make a deal with the devil: a bridge in exchange of the soul of the first living being who will cross it. All night long, the peasant could not sleep, tortured with the idea to sacrifice an innocent victim. |
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A notable? the
priest blessing the bridge? The question has no answers.
In the morning, he went to the road, discovering a wonderful bridge with eight arches in huge stones….but he also discovered the devil on the other side, waiting for his due. All of a sudden, the shepherd took a woodstick and threw it on the bridge, his dog plunged to catch it, offering by the same time his soul to the devil. Satan, annoyed of being fooled once again, turned back, swearing it would be the last time. |
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The bay
of Eze
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Nowadays, the
bay in front of Eze
seaside is called "The Sea of Eze". But did you know
that a long time ago, it bore a much more poetic name: "The
bay of the fireflies". A fisherman baptised it like this, attracted
by the charm and the beauty of the place.
Each day he laid his nets there, admiring the azure blue of the Mediterranean sea, the olive tree sheets under the sun and the clearness of the mountain plunging into the sea, with at the top, the silhouette of the small village of Eze. |
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One day, the devil
appeared to him and asked him to withdraw this so charming name.
The fisherman proposed a deal to him: at nightfall, both will embark
on a pointed boat, and the one who will keep his boat enlightened
till the first gleams of dawn will win. The devil quickly accepted
the challenge, judging it would be easy to enlighten a boat during
a few hours.
Unfortunately, the imps coming from hell for this occasion, suffered from the seasickness and could not achieve their mission. The devil saw them extinguishing one after the others, while the boat of our honest fisherman continued to be surrounded by a soft and luminous halation, due to the hundreds of fireflies fixed on his mast. In the morning, Satan had to admit his defeat. But as a bad player, he threatened to infest the water with poison if this name was adopted. The fisherman then proposed to leave definitively the place with in the other hand the anonymity of the bay. This is the reason why during many years, this shore bore no name. |
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The golden
coat
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In Provence, the
golden goat is at the origin of many stories, without forgetting
the novel of Paul Arène "The golden goat", published
in 1889. Each version has its own alternatives in relation with
the history or the characters of the place. Several of them go back
to the time when the Maure occupied the area.
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One thus tells
that a Maure, according to the road traced by a small goat in the
entrails of a mountain, undertook to hide his spoils made of gold,
jewels and diamonds, where the caprine would carry him. He came
across successively with a witch, phantoms, fabulous plants, and
especially a black beast with shiny and sharp-edged teethes and
claws. A dead fight begins, during the fight his gold turned into
powder.
At the end of this duel, our hero managed to escape the cave, giving up behind him his richnesses to the obscure forces, soon followed by the small goat, covered with gold powder. The Maure left toward new adventures. The animal still lives in the mountain; the shepherds see it regularly. If you are brave, it will guide you towards his treasure, but if your heart is impure, or if you are a coward, misfortune may be with you. |
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In Eze, an oral
tradition says that the Yugoslav violinist Zatlo
Balakovic, while visiting the village, let himself guide
by a goat with golden hairs towards a masonry that he will restore
and that will become the famous "Relais
et Château de la Chèvre d'Or".
According to the leaders of the hotel "la Chèvre d'Or", the hotel owes its name to his first owner. Farmer of profession, she breeded goats and she sold milk at Nice market each week. And each week, she hid the product of her sales, the gold coins (the course of milk was very high!), behind the stones of a wall. During the restoration of the place, someone discovered her treasure buried there for years and gave the hotel a name pointing out the origin of the treasure so everyone could remember it. |
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