Menton's old town climbs steeply from the harbour in stacked ranks of narrow ochre and terracotta buildings, with the Basilica of Saint-Michel dominating the skyline from its perch halfway up the hill. The streets are too narrow for cars and too steep for anything but walking, which gives the quartier a medieval density that the seafront hotels entirely lack.
The market at the base of the old town — Marché du Carrei — is one of the best on the Côte d'Azur, particularly in the morning when local producers bring lemons, olive oil, and fresh vegetables down from the surrounding hills. The cemetery at the top of the old town, the Vieux Cimetière Saint-Michel, contains the graves of William Webb Ellis (the man credited with inventing rugby), Aubrey Beardsley, and Jean Cocteau — an unusually distinguished roll call for a hillside burial ground.