Cows, goats and ewes love to graze on the rich and varied grass that grows in the verdant Valley of la Vésubie.

For centuries, delicious cheeses have been made by the locals using raw milk often heated by a wood fire, in alpine cheese dairies they call “vacheries”. Cheese producers can still be counted by the dozen; cattle breeders from Lantosque and Roquebillière, goat breeders from Utelle and La Bollène.

The district's farmers have adapted to modern tourism, with farm campsites at La Bollène and Lantosque, a honey producer at Belvédère, a farmhouse-inn at Utelle, organic vegetables and goat breeding at Roquebillière.

But ever since the 19th century, the Valley of La Vésubie, called "the laughing Switzerland of Nice" has been known as a mountaineering mecca. The Authion massif, the forest of Turini, the Valley of La Gordolasque and Boréon are the 4 "cardinal points" where hikers and climbers meet up, on their way to the heights of the Mercantour.

Less well-known medieval villages such as Utelle, Belvédère and St Martin Vésubie offer people who love old stone buildings undreamed of journeys into the past.