Running in Villefranche Sur Mer, France

The town starts at the Mediterranean Sea and climbs up to the top of a mountain.  There is a huge cliff in the middle of town and I felt the need to explore it:

[This is an 1860 painting in the foreground, you can see the cliff in the background]

I started out running at about 6:30.  The town was fairly quiet and I did quite a bit of uphill exploring to try and get to the base of the mountain.

Here is a better shot of the cliff in the middle of town:

Here is the top, a little anti-climatic.  The mansions and armed security guards forced me to turn around.  I was actually being followed by a van with 2 guards for a couple blocks.  I am not sure who lives up there, but it is someone who wants privacy.

Here is a a picture of Nice from the top of the mountain.

It was a pretty fun run.  On Friday morning I am going to run up to the fort that you can see in this picture:

It was built in 1500's and here is a brief history [in french]

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_du_mont_Alban