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We continue with our tips on how to get most out of your short trip to Nice

In contrast to the mountainside, the Riviera’s other great area of wilderness, the Mediterranean Sea does not require its prospective visitors to embark on a long and protracted journey: it is always there, at most a few hundred metres from where you are.

Well, that is the theory.

In practice, however, what you find when you walk those “few hundred metres” to the nearest coast will rarely fit the bill of a wilderness: odds are that, at best, you will get to see a manicured version of a natural land- or seascape, a marina or a beach promenade, and at worst, a coastal strip that has been fenced off for private use by a hotel or an exiled African dictator’s clan.

In theory, the French sentier littoral – the footpath that stretches the entire length of the French coast – has been a part of the national heritage since the days of Napoleon. But like so much else in modern-day France (liberté, égalité, fraternité: who feels like constructing a rational argument against that?), this represents a lofty ideal rather than actual reality.

In truth, the sentier littoral no longer exists as a continuous route, although in fairness it must be added that, where it does exist, it frequently is very, very good.

So good in fact that a short walk can provide you with a pretty good idea of what the coastal landscape is all about, cramming the wild, …

"View from a Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

… the lush or garden-like, …

"a garden-like view on a Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

… and the forbidding …

"a forbidding view on a Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

… into a neat little hiking package to Cap Nice of an hour and a half.

Where to start that neat little hiking package to Cap Nice

As it happens, one of the littoral’s best patches is very close to the centre of Nice, a short bus ride or walk away from the Old Town.

Just follow Boulevard Stalingrad on the left side of the port around the corner or take bus no. 38 to the station called La Reserve.

If you come by bus from Monaco or Menton (line no. 100), leave at the station Saint Aignan and walk down either Avenue Saint Aignan or the (slightly more picturesque) Chemin Tordu du Mont Boron to join the coastal road.

Just behind the restaurant La Reserve, walk down to the beach. You cannot continue on this stretch of the route for long and have to rejoin the road just before the bridge ahead of you, but this will serve as a good introduction into what is to follow.

"by the restaurant La Reserve along a Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

The sentier proper begins a hundred meters or so behind the bridge, in a small garden (called Jardin Felix Rainaud) on your right hand side.

From here, just follow the signposted path …

"signposted paths along a along a Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

… all the way to and a few steps past the Cap de Nice …

… from where you will get splendid views across the Baie des Anges and all the way to Cap Ferrat.

"view of Cap Ferrat along a Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

The route ends underneath the Palais Maeterlinck (built in a slightly surrealist style for the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1911).

You will need to walk up to Boulevard Carnot from where you can catch a bus (nos. 100 or 81) back to town.

The walk along the sentier itself may be quite gentle, but the stairway provides a bit of a challenge. Time for your exercise of the day!

"stairway out of the Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

One final tip: if you have started your walk early, you will be back in town for lunch and may want to try La Reserve for their excellent lunchtime menu (which is a bit pricey but just about affordable; evenings are a different story).

If it is too late for lunch, you should visit the adjacent (more informal but even more dramatically located) Le Plongeoir …

"Le Plongeoir "to the destination along a Neat Little Hiking Package to Cap Nice"

… for a snack or a cup of coffee anytime of the day. Either experience will make your day even more unforgettable.

What do you think of this neat little hiking package to Cap Nice?

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