Sunday, March 25, 2012

Another Wild Side Walk

Another seaside segment of the Sentier Littoral begins (or ends, depends on your mood) on the Promenade near the casino in Beaulieu, France, circles Cap Ferrat, passes through Villefranche and heads for Nice.  Having taken the bus to Beaulieu, we followed the Promenade past David Niven's house (no kidding...he really lived there).  From there, we passed through the Nouveau Port and continued south toward the tip of the peninsula. 

Leaving town, sidewalk gives way to pathway.  First, the path goes through an area that seems like it should have been developed a long time ago, but is mysteriously vacant, except for some trash, dog poo, and an abandoned bar.  We never have figured out what gives with this...maybe it's contaminated and we'll all start glowing, especially the dogs.  Then, the "moonscape" begins as the Sentier approaches the tip of the peninsula near the lighthouse.

   
See why we call it the moonscape?  The path through this area is actually cement and very easy to enjoy.


On the west side of Cap Ferrat, looking toward Villefranche and Nice

On the west side of the peninsula is a low point, Pointe Passable, which sports a nice beach and of course the beach bar to go with it.  Leaving the beach, it's a bit of a climb up the road and you're actually very close to where you started because the north end of the peninsula is really skinny.  We found a little plaza and stopped for our picnic lunch of St. Agur cheese on Toni Pain.

The view from our picnic area over the bay at Villefranche

Leaving Cap Ferrat and heading west, the path passes behind some fabulous homes, any of which we'd be happy to inherit (because who can afford to buy 'em?), and on to the beach at Villefranche.  After passing through town, it's another climb up to the road that leads toward Nice.

Looking back at Villefranche from the road to Nice

From the Sentier, arrival in Nice is near the Port.  When we got to the port, it was filled with police and firefighters.  Sadly, the multi-million dollar yacht "360" had caught fire at the quayside, doing something like three million bucks worth of damage.  A week later, it was towed out of Nice, probably headed to Marseille for repair.  Not a good year for ships, considering the two episodes with Costa Cruises.



A Walk On The Wild Side

Not too many tourists ever hear about the Sentier Littoral, much less get out on it.  The Sentier runs along the water from Nice almost to Ventimiglia in Italy.  In some areas, it's actually a sidewalk along the road, but in others it's a fabulous walk along the rocks.

Here, we've started from Plage Mala at Cap D'Ail (just west of Monaco) and walked to and through Monaco.  The Sentier continues at the extreme eastern edge of Monaco and follows the Cap Martin peninsula to Menton, France.

Here, we look back to Monaco and Roquebrune as we start out onto the Cap Martin peninsula.

The Sentier Littoral follows the sea.

The castle and chapel at the perched village of Roquebrune.

After passing below the train bridge, we continue toward the tip of the peninsula.

Beautiful!

Around the tip of Cap Martin and here's Menton!

From here, the path continues into town and along the waterfront and beaches seen in the photo.  It continues out the other side of Menton, toward Italy.  We didn't have quite that much ambition this day.  We took the bus back to Nice and had a glass of wine.



 

Nice Carnaval 2012 - Le Roi du Sport


We'll not bore ourselves with details this year.  Here are some of the highlights from Carnaval!
The King


This year's mascot.  As always, he was all over town.



The Queen


Figure this one out for yourself.

We found that one way to get good photos of the floats and characters is to catch them on their way to the parade, instead of in it:

Floats on their way to the Flower Parade

Preparing for the Flower Parade

A salute to the Dakar Rallye, sort of.

Live, at the Corso Carnavale, we have here, uh, something...

The Royal family, on their way to the 2012 Olympic Games

The other Royal family, on their way back to Place Massena

And France's favorite footballer, Zidane