Aiguines has four pepper-pot towers and a very good view. The village sits on the southern rim of the Verdon Gorge, in Provence, and its château, a seventeenth-century country house with a square plan and four corner turrets topped with coloured glazed tiles, looks like something from a children's book. It is private, but the façade can be seen from the village. Aiguines was once known for the turning of boxwood, with local craftsmen making wooden balls and other pieces on lathes, and the old workshop traditions are remembered in a small museum.
Below the village, the Verdon cuts the largest canyon in Europe, a slot up to seven hundred metres deep and as little as six metres wide in places, with limestone cliffs of cream and grey. The river is a startling emerald and turquoise, the colour coming from fine rock flour and minerals, and it empties into the Lac de Sainte-Croix, a reservoir whose colour is even more intense. Climbers, kayakers and walkers come in numbers, and from the road you can watch them as tiny dots on the rock face.
The riding here is some of the best in France. The Route des Crêtes, a one-way loop along the northern rim, runs through a series of viewpoints, and the Corniche Sublime, built in the 1940s on the southern side, hugs the cliff above the gorge, with tight bends, walls of rock and drops that can make your stomach turn. Both are narrow and need your attention; the surface is generally good, but it can be gritty and there are many cyclists and campervans. Visit early or late in summer to avoid the crowds, and keep your speed low on the blind bends.
Fuel is not in the village, so you must plan. Riez, thirteen kilometres away, and Draguignan, thirty-two, are the nearest options, and it is best to leave with a full tank. In July the plateau is purple with lavender, and the scent drifts into the road, while in autumn the light is clear and the crowds disappear. Summer afternoons can be fiercely hot, and thunderstorms occasionally break over the gorge, so watch the sky. Order a tapenade and a glass of rosé in the village, and enjoy the view while it lasts.