Hiking in the French Riviera

On the trail above Eze-sur-mer

Hiking? That's not really what the French Riviera is known for, but hey, that's great! If everybody's on the beach that means fewer people will be on the trails ;)

The Alps are close by, as we have shown in a previous post. The proximity of such quality beaches and quality mountains does not cease to amaze us, but without a car it's actually easier for us now to enjoy the coastal area than the snowy slopes.

Unfortunately as C has been busy growing a baby, I've gone alone on a few expeditions in the past few weeks. Below are some of the highlights from such day trips with the hiking shoes and the day-pack!

Coastal pathway around Saint Jean Cap Ferrat (~ 5.5 mi / 9 km)

This is one of my favorite hikes or walks simply because Saint Jean Cap Ferrat is one of my favorites places. Saint Jean is insanely quiet and peaceful considering its location, right on the outskirts of Nice. It's also not just a paradise for rich folks, but also for Mediterranean bushes and trees, and more or less a marine reserve.

I like it cause it's not overbuilt, and a trail (sometimes paved) goes all around it. The rocks, vegetation, and views are surprisingly varied too, even though it's a rather tiny peninsula.

Saint Jean on its southernmost side

View over the Eastern protrusion of Saint Jean at a distance and Monaco and the Italian coast in the background

The Paloma beach - beautiful water, serene pine tree surroundings, and a gorgeous view on all the Riviera East of Saint Jean!

Luscious Mediterranean vegetation right above the trail - and that's in December!

Quick 'n easy panorama over Nice and the French Riviera (~ 3 mi / 5 km)

From downtown Nice where the harbor is located, it is possible to hike up the Mont Boron to one of two forts: Fort Mont Boron or Fort Saint Alban. Last month I chose to spend a Saturday afternoon up Mont Alban. It's not really a hike because it's paved all the way, but man, was it a lot of stairs to climb!

Fantastic reward from up there though, on either the West side overlooking Nice, the bay of Cannes, and then the Esterel mountains at a distance, or the East side overlooking Saint Jean and further to Monaco. From Mont Alban one can also get a glimpse of the Alps North of Nice.

The old Fort (mid 16th century) on the Mont Alban from up close

The fort's entrance

Sunset over Nice

Peeking over on "the other side": Villefranche, Saint Jean Cap Ferrat and the Cap d'Ail (right before Monaco)

And on the North side...

Another mesmerizing sunset over the now dark blue sea!

Hike on Mont Bastide and toward Beaulieu (~ 6.3 mi / 10 km)

Now for a real hike! From Eze-sur-mer ("Eze-by-the-sea") to the picturesque perched village of Eze, all the way to the top of the nearby mount Bastide (~ 1,900 ft / 600 m), back down to sea level, and out over a pass down to Beaulieu-sur-mer. Most of the trail is actually on land that was purchased by the region to keep it away from real estate investors. It's actually the wildest area I have seen along the coast yet. Quite remarkable I could get there by train from the main station in Nice in about 15 minutes!

Enjoy the views! I found them just to be breathtaking. This is really a special place. So does Bono from U2 think as well, as you can view here and on some of the shots below ;)

Starting the hike: View of Eze-sur-mer; Saint Jean at a distance

Cliffs in between the two Eze

Seeing the bell towers and some roof tops up there!

Panorama of Eze-village and the bay of Eze-sur-mer

A t-shirt is really all that's needed to hike here at winter time!

Overlooking the bay of Eze-sur-mer - "Bono's island" is on the left side of the bay

Protruding out onto the sea, from left to right: Saint Jean, Cap de Nice, Airport!

Hiking down the "secret but rough" breach from Eze to Beaulieu-sur-mer

Panorama of Beaulieu-sur-mer and Saint-Jean

Coming up next: The red rocks of l'Esterel mountain between Cannes and Saint Raphael; I trust we can get there by train since the train line Marseille-Nice goes through it!

Sticking our heads out of the boxes: "Look! There's the French Riviera!"

Villefranche-sur-mer (Nice is behind the hill) around Easter

Coming from Denmark, Winter in the South of France is pretty mild. Spring down here is almost like the Danish summer!

We did our best to not forget amidst our installation that we were living in a place where people typically go for their vacation :-)

On April 9 (according to the picture file dates) we actually dined out on the terrasse of a wine and cheese bar on the harbor in Nice.

Enjoying cheese and wine on the harbor in early April!

Beaches, coves and bays which tend to be crowded with people, boats, and jet skis in the summer were stunningly still. Didn't expect the contrast would be so drastic! In the town Villefranche-sur-mer that we both like very much, we could hear the wind in the shrouds while walking along the harbor...

On the beach in Villefranche-sur-mer in early April

The bay from Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to Monaco is free from boats...

Walking along the coastline in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat at sunset

The harbor at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in early April

Wisteria flowers in full bloom by a fountain close to our apartment

The moon showing her pale face over palm trees in Nice

Mer, Soleil, Paris, Aznavour, la Famille

Place de l'Opera

Champs Elysees

How to park your Smart car

The Seine by Notre Dame

Rue de la Montagne Ste Genevieve

Stained Glass in Eglise St Etienne du Mont

"France makes me happy!" :)

Eglise St Etienne du Mont

A new coat in front of the Pantheon

After the concert

In front of the Olympia concert hall

Charles Aznavour rocks!

Another nice day by the sea...

We spent our time from Sept. 11-18 between Nice, Strasbourg, and Paris. The heat wave was still hitting Europe and we enjoyed days at the beach as if we would be still in July... Quite a treat coming from Denmark where the summer had long long long disappeared...

Our main motivation for going "North" to Paris via Strasbourg was our tickets to a concert by Charles Aznavour at the famous French music hall called l'Olympia. At 87 years old he had booked the concert hall for an entire month with plans to then tour the rest of France until Christmas.

In a shape that most of us near 40 could envy, he sang 27 songs over 2 and half hours, with no break! The warm energy in the room was quite palpable, even to C who was missing out on half of the French lyrics. This evening really illustrated how Charles Aznavour is sort of a grand father to pretty much any family in France. People just love him, and he clearly loves to be on stage. It looked like he was at home, at least more than on the TV sets where he has been spending a lot of time these days, advertising for his concerts, his new album, and his latest book.

This evening was not only great, it felt like a so unique and perfect way to spend an evening in Paris! Especially with a fine early dinner before at the old Parisian restaurant Chartier and an aperitive on the boulevard, at sunset, right before the concert... Chrysa also chose this opportunity to get herself a brand new and cheerful coat from Desigual that has since attracted much envious looks from other women ;-)

We also spent a fair amount of time exploring Paris' past and history, by visiting some of its oldest sites and paying homage to Sainte Genevieve, one of Paris' first patron saints who rests in the church of Saint Etienne du Mont in the Latin Quarter. During our visit we met a French fan of 17th century painting who joined us on a tour and shared his knowledge of what we were seeing. We ended this quite inspiring day with a dinner at L'epigramme, a modern Paris bistro. We ate there with Q's sister Sigo, who will be studying in Paris this year, and her boyfriend, Manu. Then Sigo took us all to the Grand Palais (built at the end of the Champs Elysees avenue at the same time as the Eiffel tower) for a special exhibition and "meditation in action" for the victims of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

On our way to Paris we made a stop-over in Strasbourg to return Q's parents car that we had been borrowing for too many months now... That was a quick but always enjoyable opportunity to cross Q's beloved Switzerland, and also to remain in awe at the wonderful vistas on the Aosta valley in Northern Italy. After this scenic but a bit long trip (10 hours in the car...), we were welcome by Q's parents and grand father. We enjoyed a fine dinner, with C now able to participate and even launch complete conversations in French with Q's family! They were all quite impressed (they should be!).

Dynamo Fukushima - Grand Palais

Meet the parents

South of France is an enjoyable place to be...

At home when surrounded by art!

C'est pas mal ici, non ?

Arriving in Saint Paul

A narrow street in Vence

Mosaic by Chagall in Vence's cathedral

Une jolie fontaine a Saint Paul

La chapelle Matisse a Vence

View over Vence

My favorite place in the Nice area

My favorite place in the Nice area and my favorite person (not just in the Nice area)

My favorite...–oh, you probably get the picture by now :-)

From Q: It's sunny here in Aarhus today so the climate invites some friendly memories from my sorely missed four weeks in Nice last month. It's also Sunday, a day on which the family typically gets together for a copious and joyful meal. For these two reasons, it's perfect timing to pay a tribute to my parents who visited us in Nice while I was there.

My parents, Mireille and Jacques, were very helpful in helping us get an apartment in Nice. They also served as our references for the lease, as we could not come to visit the apartment ahead of time nor meet the owner. They were both psyched when we announced we'd be settling down in Nice, since they plan to spend most of their soon-to-come retirement in the cute village of Vinça where we have an old family house. This area is about 5 hours away by car, but still in super-scenic and magical South of France, as you can see on this post from last summer. It's just Spain instead of Italy on the other side of the border...

My sister is already in Montpellier, raising her daughter Mila with her S.O. Mathieu. My other sister Sigo almost made it down there as well but she is still in the midst of her studies, so life fluctuates a lot for her. It looks like she will definitely make it further South than Brussels, Belgium though!

My parents stopped by for two days on their way from Strasbourg to Vinça, right before Bastille day. So Chrysa was at work in the day time, and joining us for dinners in the evening. I spent the days with my parents, walking around historical towns, visiting museums, and going to the beach.

There were mainly two themes during my parents' visit. My dad grew up in Nice from ca. 1947 until 1960, so we went back in time... We found where he was living, we even went inside the building and it was fun to hear my dad comment on what had changed, what had not... Isn't there's just something always fascinating about hearing some insights about one own's parents lives "before you were born, son". Always makes me feel like we're getting to mysterious land.


We also went to swim in Beaulieu-sur-mer, where my dad did his first swim in the late 1940s. For sure the town had grown since, and he was not so sure about which beach has had been to any longer... But already back then apparently the most quiet time to go to the beach was 6am! That's when my grand father would take my dad for a swim. We also visited the beaches in Villefranche and Saint Jean, that Chrysa and I both like a lot (and prefer over Nice's beaches).

The second theme of this visit was contemporary art. My dad's first hobby has always been art. Painting and making collages (see here for one of his recent exhibits). The Côte d'Azur is famous for having attracted the most talented artists over the years, such as Matisse, Picasso, Cocteau, Renoir, etc. The vibrancy of the art community down there reminds me of that in Taos/Santa Fe in New Mexico.

We walked around the very cute village of Vence, which has a mosaic by Marc Chagall in its cathedral, and of course a few art galleries. We visited a chapel designed by Matisse on the outskirts of Vence. Matisse considered this chapel to be his most accomplished piece of work, and it is truly a wonder.

Most of the art galleries were in super scenic and now (mid-July) super touristy Saint-Paul de Vence, where Chrysa had already been in June. We spent quite a fair amount of time talking with various artists and gallery owners, which got me to suspect my dad's trying to get that kind of business started... stay tuned...

Fine dining in Beaulieu

My parents' visit ended up with a dinner on the harbor in Beaulieu with our friend Christiane, who was the best friend of my now-deceased grand mother. After dinner we enjoyed great Bastille day fireworks that were shot from the jetty. My parents left early the next day for Vinça, which they will leave again at the end of August.