The French Riviera: It's also about the Alps!

Discovering the mountains above Nice!

This past summer, one of my goals was to make it to the mountains about an hour North of Nice that constitute the Parc National du Mercantour. This banana-shaped national park makes for the Southern part of the Alps, and is shared with Italy.

Luckily I discovered that the local regional council had set up a few buses to reach mountain resorts and trail heads during the summer. These were still running during September, albeit on weekends only.

So about a month ago now I sat on a bus that took me –and only 5 other persons– to the picturesque Saint-Dalmas-le-Selvage village. The bus would park up there for the day and come back down to Nice at the end of the afternoon. Roundtrip cost: 5 euros - can't beat that!

Church in Saint-Dalmas

It was a beautiful Saturday, but I only met a few other hikers, including a local who actually drove me to the trailhead that the bus was supposed to drop us at...

I hiked all the way to the Col de Gialorgues, a pass at 2,519 meters altitude (~ 8,000 feet). Nothing by Colorado standards for sure, but when you come from sea level, it's quite some elevation gain! It's actually the same elevation gain as when you live in Boulder and go up a fourteener. You just have more oxygen in the end ;-)

I was actually quickly above tree line and the landscape was just as stunning as when going to Rocky Mountain National Park when living in Boulder. I sort of expected to find decent mountains because after all there are plenty of ski resorts not far from Nice, but actually being there in person to see that was a profound revelation!

Another revelation followed upon my return to Nice. As I told my parents on the phone what I did during the weekend, I was surprised to hear my dad tell me his parents would take him to that same village on vacation in the late 1940s, early 1950s! I knew my dad had grown up in Nice, but I also knew he did not particularly like mountains. I guess at that young age he did not have a choice! Doesn't seem that it's not because he went there on vacation as a kid that he does not like mountains though - he actually had a few stories like going up to the mountain refuge on the back of a donkey...

Anyway, this place is beautiful and with the luscious waters and these stunning mountains, C and I feel quite blessed to be living in this area!

Sheep: white; Dogs: black; Shepherd: blue – herding sheep again a serious business since wolves were reintroduced in the Mercantour in 1992

Blue but not a Columbine (nor a shepherd...)

Quite reminiscent of Lake Haiyaha!

Happy New Year and welcome to the French Alps, Chrysa!

After celebrating the Christmas holiday with C's family in Maryland, we drove a couple of hours to the French Alps, near the scenic town of Briançon. The tiny and winding road going straight from Nice was blocked because of snow falls, so we went through Italy and the area of Torino. For an overview of our travels, check out our itinerary on Tripline.



We had booked 3 nights in a hotel right on the ski run front in Saint Chaffrey, a few miles up the road from  Briançon. We had not been on skis since leaving Colorado, so it had been a while! Luckily as we all know this is pretty much like biking or driving, it's still there (stretching was quite a requirement though). We skied on both January 1st and 2nd. Our first day was sunny and lovely, and our second day was powdery with some fresh snow flakes that made us look like snowmen. We loved every second of it!

And we ate twice for dinner at restaurant Le Triptyque, the kind of modern/traditional fusion bistro that we both enjoy. Unforgettable!

Back in Nice, we celebrated Epiphany with Sascha...

The Trip to Nice!

 Hello World!

Well, maybe not the whole world, but since we traveled through five different countries, it sure seems like we saw a lot of it! We started our two day trip in Denmark where the temperature was around 50F (10C) the morning we left. After 13.5 hours in the car driving through Germany (yes, Germany is a very large country with lots of construction) we arrived in Niederbronn-les-Bains and visited Q's family for the night.

The next day we went through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. Sascha was not so happy about the trip at times and is shown here during an emergency "walk" in Switzerland. The weather in Switzerland was a bit warmer, but as you can see from the pics, very cloudy and gray, but still beautiful scenery. 

The photos of Switzerland feature lots of mountains, tunnels, and cute Swiss towns with lots of chalets. Normally the cows are out, but I think that since the weather was bad they were either inside or hiding.

 When we got to Italy, the sun came out. We saw some nice villas and churches in the middle of farms from the side of the road. Also, the driving became a lot more interesting as things like speed limits and lane markings were really just suggestions to many drivers. We also had our first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea here with a backdrop of orange, pink and yellow houses and blue skies!

The weather in Nice is decidedly nice, with most days now around 26-28C (75-80'sF), not too hot, but not too cold. Our first night in Nice we went to a traditional Nicois restaurant that was featured in the NYTimes, L'Escalinda, in Vieux Nice. Our food was excellent as was the vibrant atmosphere among the wait staff. We took a little walk around some of the old winding streets afterwards and took a few pictures of some nice buildings. There is definitely more exploring that needs to be done here!

Finally, I included some pictures from along the promenade des anglais (walk of the english) where the very fancy hotels are. In the last picture, you can see two palm trees, which grow like weeds here. That's right, we live with palm trees, orange and lemon trees and tons of other very fragrant plants. Each time we walk down boulevard de Cimiez the air is heavily perfumed from all of the Tilleul trees (Linden trees).

That's it for now, these are just the pics we took with the iPhone, more pics from our real camera and other excursions to follow. It's nice here in Nice!