The Way to Calvary

Saying Adieu to Plateau, we started our descend back to the sea level.
At first, I did not pay too much attention to the street we were taking being The Way to Calvary. The not so nice boulders lining it all the way down and just as well reminding me of descend to Zubiri on Camino initially took a chunk of my attention as well..
Only when I stopped to snap a photo and saw what it was it clicked. We were traversing The Stations of The Cross only in reverse!!!(Now you can make the connection to the Station XII depiction we've talked about earlier)
As you can see, it is a steep and treacherous path. I wondered if in ancient times folks did The Stations while walking up. While not the same, turns out, every year, a festival recalls and solicits the protections that the Virgin has offered to sailors since in the XVIth century, her invocation chased away the bubonic plague from Antibes. Traditionally, the statue of Virgin from The Chapel, sculpted in the trunk of a fig tree is lowered to The Cathedral on the 1st Thursday of July by the way of Calvary, then raised the following Sunday, carried by barefoot sailors 😐.
It is also a part of the annual ‘Calvaire Antibois’ - a 10km road race through the streets of Cap d’Antibes. The race starts and ends in Le Ponteil.
The route takes the 500 runners along the coast road of the Cap before leading them through the back streets, up to the Phare, and back down to the start point; The Way of Calvary thus must be run both ways up and down

The initial sign is for Garoupe Woods, which are next to the Way. Eagle eyes might also notice a missing station, and they would be correct; it seems Station II is nowhere to be found....Read more