In Nice: day two

May 7, 2025

The weather is offering us a partial day today. It's fine but windy this morning and looks to remains so until thunderstorms roll in somewhere around one or two. Too nice a day to sit inside, but walking is particularly challenging for me at the moment - between the elevator and the stairs I did the knees no favors yesterday - so I wake up resolved to take the bike out for some sort of ride. Two destinations come to mind - a loop up the high corniche and back through Èze for a second shot at shooting some video of the descent; and a ride along the waterfront to the Var delta just past the airport, reputed to be the best birding spot in the region.

Together they add up to just over thirty miles, so I map a route that includes them both and see how the day's weather holds up. Our plan is to meet at a restaurant at the Old Port at one, after I've dropped down from Èze and Rachael's back from her hike up to Mont Boron. If there's still time afterwards I'll head out to the Var after lunch and maybe score a new bird or two.

First though we have to get my bike down five flights of stairs. Rachael helps me carry it down the first half flight to the elevator landing, but it seems manageable enough that we just keep going rather than dealing with the frustrations of the elevator again.

So finally we're off and on the street. We validate that we can contact each other, and then Rocky speeds off west on her hike up Mont Boron. Later she'll tell me that the first bit climbing up the west face from Old Nice isn't the most interesting. Once she's up though she enjoys the first views she hoped for - and she really likes the walk along the rocky shoreline on her way back.

She packs all her photos and walking video into a slideshow, but I'll add this photo I took when I biked along this same stretch of coast after lunch.

The four guys have been standing around for several minutes, screwing up their courage as they walk up to the edge, stare down at the water 20 feet below, and back off. Then two gals come up, walk straight to the edge, and just go for it.

Heart

Comment

Link

Rachael turns the corner and is out of sight before I discover I have a problem - my route that I just selected doesn't show up on the map, and in fact isn't even loaded to the device at all. Foiled again by another Garmin Goof! It takes awhile to realize what's happened here: it's another Finger Fault Fiasco, just the latest in annoyances like this I've been plagued by since going binocular. Once you select a route on the Garmin, two options pop up - do you want to load the route, or delete it? I must have jabbed the wrong box, and now there's no undoing it.

This puts it in the same class as irksome/annoying/enraging incidents like pouring milk or sugar onto the table because I've missed the cup and am pouring it off the back end. Over time these have become less frequent as I've trained myself and adapted, but here's a new twist to learn from.

My first thought is to continue with the ride plan, so I follow the coastline west to the Old Harbor thinking it will be well signed and obvious when I come to the turnoff for the route to the high corniche. But it isn't, and I decide that there's enough risk that I'll lose my way somewhere in the upcoming climb that I scrap it and decide to head for the mouth of the Var instead as a much safer idea.

First though, I stop for a few shots west along the coast.

Looking across the Baie Anglais and the Nice waterfront. The airport and the mouth of the Var are about seven miles off, just past the last visible point on the left.

The Urchin reminds me of a macrame art work, stitched on the surface of an inflated balloon.

It's an easy, entertaining ride long the promenade for the next six miles on an excellent bikeway the whole distance. I'd stop for more photos of the usual subjects: bikers, scooters, rollerblades, buggies, cute dogs, beach scenes volleyball games, tight squeezes - but I've got the GoPro working for that.

Relaxed riding along the Baie de Anglais. There'd be more shots like that, but we have video for that. Just you wait.

So instead I'll mostly just stop for the artwork.

This reminds me of the Earth From the Air exhibit we observed in Melbourne long ago.

I especially like this print, because I recognize it. It's the section of South Holland we biked through after catching the ferry from England to Rotterdam last fall.

After six miles I pass rhe airport and am crossing the Var when I gradually realize there's a constant keening sound coming in through the roar of the traffic from the adjacent highway. Birds! The Var delta is a biological preserve, protecting the breeding ground of a large colony of common terns. There are maybe two hundred of them here, alternately settling down to the water or sand bar below or suddenly taking wing at once in a bird panic.

I don't often see terns, and especially ones up close like this that give me a good look, so this is a special moment for me. I stand overlooking the railing enjoying the show for about ten minutes and then move on.

Such entertaining birds! One good tern deserves another, I guess.

It's not far to the mouth of the river where according to the eBird reports the best birding happens, but I can't get there because the last section of the trail is gated and padlocked shut for some reason. Frustrating, but I make do with the distant but best view I can get.

And pick up a few new things - including a few Eurasian crag-martins (#154), all of which flash by too quickly for a photo. There's another young woman standing here with a set of binoculars too, and eventually she breaks the ice. She's Virginie, an apparently serious birder - she pulls out her phone to show me the photo of the night heron she saw here recently. She knows Portland, and I think lived in Eugene for a while, as well as in Perth. We chat for awhile, she points out some birds she can see from where she's standing that I can't, but eventually I break it off because I need to head back for lunch.

Some yellow-legged gulls just hanging out at the beach, yukking it up over the poor sap they just crapped all over probably. Just the usual gull talk.

On the way back I stop at the bridge to breathe in the atmosphere of the terns one last time when the phone rings. It's Rachael. Her walk went faster than expected so she wants to know if I can make it back for lunch earlier. So I head straight back, only stopping a few times for photos and once to swap batteries in her GoPro so you can enjoy the action going both ways.

The mouth of the Var, streaming down from the high Alps.

An accident, but I like it well enough to keep it in.

We enjoy a fine lunch at Gigi Taverna on the old Marina - I have faux fillet with awesome potatoes as a side, and she has salmon with polenta and zucchini - and then she heads back to the apartment while I continue down the coast for awhile, hang out in a park just enjoying the ambience and sun for awhile longer, and then head back to the room myself once it looks like the rains are due to arrive soon.

My timing is perfect, and I just feel the first few drops fall as I enter our alley. Rachael comes down to let me in, and then thanks to a suggestion from our friend Michael I try the elevator again after first pulling the handlebar stem - something I couldn't do when we first arrived because I couldn't pull it in under the cramped conditions once I was crammed inside. it's still no picnic but definitely much easier and easier than the stirs too, so thanks, Michael! I'm sure we'll do this again when we leave.

I'm sitting on the couch studying bird photos when I hear some increasingly exasperated muttering coming from partner. We aren't sure just what happened, but she guffed it somehow (Guff: GoPro Unload Failure Fiasco) and the video from my ride is missing - it's not on the IPad, and it's already been deleted from the camera. It's a rare event - I'm not sure we can remember this ever happening to her before - but the upshot is that you'll have to look elsewhere for video from Nice. It shouldn't be hard, and I'm certain there's a ton of it out there.

A couple of hours later after I've rested up I decide to head out again on foot this time of course, to see if there's anything else worth including in the post. I do find a few things, so you can look at these instead of the video you've been dying for. You're welcome.

Oh, so that's what this tower is that I tossed in a shot of yesteday - it's the Nice Cathedral.

One of the approaches to the hills east of the city.

#156: Rose-ringed migrant, another African immigrant that sfstart3x colonizing southern Europe.

I'm not sure what this place is. I'll look it up soepme day and report back.

Heart

Comment

Link

Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 538 miles (866 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	3
Comment on this entry	Comment	0