Only a couple of weeks to go until the Olympics! And to get in the right mood for this biggest sporting event of the year, we have created our own Olympic challenge: the Easy Hiker Pentathlon of (1) visiting what was 100 years ago the biggest tourist attraction in the area around Nice, …
… of (2) hiking from there to the Riviera’s most mysterious ruin (under which an ancient treasure of tremendous value may be buried), …
… while (3) taking photos of the beautiful scenery along the way …
…and (4) getting terribly lost on the way back (is that a path I see before me?) …
… and finally (5) of dealing out sartorial advice.
The Easy Hiker Pentathlon
All of that in a single post – so there is no time to lose. Off we go!
But first, one important thing about the rules of the Easy Hiker Pentathlon: in sharp contrast to the proper Olympic events, it is perfectly all right to cheat a bit.
You can of course, if you insist, cover the entire trail on foot from Nice central station, but I would question whether that is a good way of managing your time and energy budgets. It is far better to take tram line no. 1 all the way to Henry Sappia (tickets can be bought from a machine at the Gare Thiers stop on Avenue Médecin, 100 metres to the left of the station) and, from there, to continue by bus (lines 35 or 63 just outside the tram terminal) to the stop Cascade de Gairaut.
Cross the road, walk down a few steps and you are looking at the Gairaut Waterfall.
This spectacle was created in 1883 to put a celebratory full stop behind the works of constructing the Vesubie Canal, which ensured a safe water supply for the growing and perennially dry city of Nice.
The site reflects the 19th century’s love for grand gestures and ornament (the waterfall, the caves and the stalactites are all artificial, of course) and was a great tourist attraction of its time.
Today, it comes across as a little quaint, belonging to a half-forgotten world of technological optimism and simpler joys. (The past is a different country, after all.)
Walk around a bit to enjoy the panoramic views …
… before catching a 35 bus from the same stop at which you arrived. (They come every 30 minutes, a little after each full and half hour, so you may want to keep an eye on the timing of your visit.)
Leave the bus at the stop La Ronde des Pins, cross the road and start your ascent of Mont Chauve by walking up the gentle incline of the Chemin des Giaines.
When you reach a small settlement shortly after that – the last outpost of civilization you will see for a while – you may think that you have reached a cul-de-sac.
But the angled succession of short stairways …
… will eventually lead you to a more arduous and rugged path.
This section of the trail can be a bit steep at times, making this not the easiest of easy hikes, but it serves as a welcome reminder of why you preserved your strength by taking the bus when you still could.
Soon, you will reach the ruins of an old farmhouse, identified on Google Maps as the Ruine de Falicon. Sit for a moment on the remaining walls of its outhouse and catch your breath. You have now reached the halfway point between the Ronde des Pins bus stop and our final destination.
Take the path on the left side of the ruins and, after a few steps, turn right at the fork. You are now walking on the eastern slope of Mont Chauve, and since there is little vegetation around, you will get many opportunities of enjoying the scenic views of Nice in the distance.
After about half an hour, you will arrive at the Pyramide de Falicon.
The pyramid may have little in common with its namesakes in Egypt, least of all its size (while the shape of what is left looks more like a saddle), but can rival them in intrigue and mystery.
The site was discovered in 1803 by a holidaying lawyer from Siena named Domenico Rossetti who was so moved by his discovery that he promptly wrote a long epic poem about it, La Grotta di Monte Calvo.
This was the first but certainly not the last book that was published about the Falicon Pyramid and the Grotta di Ratapignata, as the cave is still known in France (the “bat cave”: remember that Nice at the time was part of the Italian-speaking kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.)
Most of these books focused on the cave and the various purposes it may have served in the past. Some argued that it housed a Mithraic temple in the first century AD, others thought that it was extended by rogue Templar knights who needed a place to bury their loot or suspected that it was used for secret freemason rituals – which would tie in neatly with the existence of the pyramid on top, a well-known masonic symbol for rebirth.
While few dispute that the cave itself is of ancient origin and may have been used for centuries or even millennia, nobody appears to be quite sure about the vintage of the pyramid: some cynics have even suggested that Rossetti himself – who, after all, never mentions the pyramid in any of his poem’s 1400 lines – had a hand in its construction.
Feel free, by the way, to survey the evidence independently and establish your own theory. There is a ladder that leads down into the bat cave. It may even be your lucky day and you could find the Templar treasure, who knows?
After you’ve finished the Easy Hiker Pentathlon, for your return to civilization, it may be a better idea not to count on your luck. On Google Maps, a couple of shortcuts to the next bus stop look tempting.
But beware: several of the “secondary” paths on the map do not appear to exist, and those that do, all look like this …
… making it hard for you to discern where you are going – up or down, left or right – or whether you are going anywhere at all.
One of these paths leads into a small forest but, as far as we could establish, not out of it again, and it took us a while to sort things out. (Maybe we should have left some bread crumbs to mark the way.)
Eventually, we found our way out and back to the main path that we had been using for our arrival. If you want to save time, you should skip that bit of running around aimlessly and bite the bullet of returning exactly the same way you came in.
And if, on top of that, you have followed our advice of taking the tram and the bus for the first stages of this trail (and provided you started your trip first thing in the morning), you should arrive back in the town centre in time for lunch – plus, if you have any strength left, for a brief walk through town in the afternoon.
If so, you will be faced with the old sartorial dilemma of combining outdoor activities with a trip to department stores, coffee shops and restaurants.
In northern Europe and North America this may not be a problem at all (nobody cares), but in Latin countries, people do care and have actually rather strict dress codes for what is appropriate in what environment under what circumstances.
Fortunately, this is where our partners from adidas can help. In particular, the choices they offer for men’s tracksuits…
…..specifically designed to combine comfort with style and elegance.
The adidas online catalogue is a veritable treasure trove – and one for which you do not have to bum around a dark cave. What could be better than that?
