The river of Nice

At some point last week, wanting to find out what my Cook's guide to the Rivieras (purchase of which was noticed at references 1 and 2) had to say about Juan-les-Pins, I could not put my hand on it. Had I retired it by mistake? Had it found its way into a box in the attic for some reason? Eventually, much later in the day, I tracked it down, the difficulty having been that I thought that it was a small, dark red book, when actually it was a small, mid brown book. A sort of mistake that I often make when looking for books, and very time consuming it can be too.

In the event, it did not tell me much about Juan-les-Pins, only giving it four lines. But in 1927 at least the place had magnificent pine forests and a magnificent beach.

From there, for some reason, I wandered onto Nice, to be struck by a waterway called Le Paillon, running north from Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate, presumably in what was once the working class quarter of Nice noticed by Maigret and noticed by me at reference 3. A waterway which looked as if it had been a river but which did not make it to the sea.

Google maps told me that the central Nice part of this waterway was now grass, but further north it was indeed a river.

From there I started to wonder about what France does in the way of Ordnance Survey like maps and remembered about their Institut Geographique National, to be found at reference 4. I would not pretend to have bottomed their maps out, but what I did find was aerial photographs of France on which road and street maps had been superimposed, an interesting blend of street map with topography. So if one zooms in from the scene snapped above, one gets something much more like an AZ of London. With the Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate being a bit to the right of the yellow spot marking the centre of Nice, before you get to the green castle hill. Zoom out and the river wends its way to the north east, rising somewhere in the Alpes Maritimes. Plus there seem to be all kinds of widgets for adding more stuff onto your map. Quite different from the Ordnance Survey online offering that I know.

Now my understanding is that these rivers in hot, dry parts of the world, rising in coastal mountains, are prone to flash floods. So from time to time, these wide, stony river beds, usually containing little or no water, flood. The water needs all the space it can get. With such floods regularly killing people who stray too far into canyons in California when there have been warnings about rain. So how do the French get away with building over the mouth of this river? One can only suppose that there is some huge storm drain running underneath.

PS 1: so far at least, no question of payment for this maps service.

PS 2: the cathedral appears to be orientated with the altar west which is odd. But Wikipedia talks about much rebuilding over the years, including a Baroque revival west front which seems on the map to be east, which is also odd. All very confusing. To be sorted out in due course.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/10/just-back-from-short-break-at-lamb-at.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/12/cooks-tours.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/09/cheese-hunt.html.

Reference 4: http://www.ign.fr/.

Reference 5: https://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/. From where you can search for places.