French Riviera FRN
Promenade du Paillon, a new green belt of 12 hectares between the Théâtre National de Nice and the sea. The end of October 2013 marked the inauguration with great fanfare of the new “green axis”, officially known as the Promenade de Paillon. Given the massive amount of hype in the press and social networks and the lovely weather we’ve been having so far this autumn, I decided to head over to Nice and check out what all the fuss was about… At the same time, I also had a proper walk around the Castle Hill so what follows is a nice itinerary to fill a sunny afternoon in Nice, especially if you have kids with you. The opening of the Promenade du Paillon pretty much marks the end of around 10 years of building work undertaken by successive mayors to improve the quality of life and infrastructure in Nice, including a new tram network leading to the rejuvenation of avenue Jean Médecin, Place Massena and Place Garibaldi and the demolition of the old bus station and car park which was a total eyesore and scarred the town centre architecturally. This was located on the bed of the Paillon, a mountain torrent that flows down from its source high above Lucéram in the Southern Alps and separates Old Nice from the new town – you can easily see the difference in terms of the architecture – and which due to numerous devastating floods was covered up in various stages between 1868 and 1972 over around a mile between the start of the city centre and the Promenade des Anglais where the Paillon hits the sea. When the bus station – which along with the neighbouring multi-story car park was a 1970s concrete monstrosity blocking the view over the old town complete with some dreadful “hanging gardens” (definitely not of the Babylonian variety) – was finally demolished in 2011, the council decided to create a different and better quality public garden area which evolved into today’s Promenade du Paillon.
Size: 4822px × 7225px
Location: French Riviera Nice
Photo credit: © Rik Hamilton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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