Èze - Chemin Savaric - Basse Corniche - Chemin Frederic Niezsche

We had spend the previous day at the beach and Colin had contracted a sunburn. He refused to come along for this gem of a hill run.

Who knows who went over the edge here or succumbed to heat exhaustion.
Glad I did this early in the morning!

I had reconnoitered the trail head for the Chemin Savaric on the previous night. I left Èze again along the Moyenne Corniche, direction Nice but continued for about 1 km past the viaduct and past the heavily fortified Savaric estate. I began the steep descent, first on a rocky path. As I descended past a shrine to the BVM, a back-country homestead complete with chickens and donkeys, the Chemin Savaric became smoother, with the addition of concrete.

The trail head for the Chemin Frederic Nietzsche is fairly easy to find: it starts
across from the pedestrian bridge across the SNCF tracks. One caution: the
road closest to the highway is a driveway!

Finally, I reached the upper reaches of Èze Bord-de-Mer and kept following the steep switchbacks of the town streets.

At the bottom, I followed the Basse Corniche, past the SNCF station to about where a pedestrian bridge crosses the rails. Here, I asked a street sweeper for the foot path back to Èze. One of the two paths was a drive way, the other one, the one on the left is the Chemin Frederic Nietzsche.

Steep switchbacks most of the way up.

 Now that is a hill run. Steep switchbacks that seem to go on and on for ever. I quickly realized that I did not have the necessary stamina to cover the 300+ m of climb without stopping, so I made it an interval exercise: run for a few minutes, then rest and take a picture. That way I got to the top surprisingly fast.

Beautiful vistas of the bay and some of the fabulous estates.

Soon, Èze Village seems within reach.

Èze - Mont Bastide - Èze-le-Col - Èze

For this run I was lucky to have Colin along. After yesterday's cloud cover, rain and unseasonably cool temps, this morning started out with gorgeous blue skies. We took the Moyenne Corniche dirction of Nice out of Èze and started climbing the Chemin de David right, at the end of the viaduct. It was a steep climb of about 250 m and Colin needed to take a few walking breaks while I took pictures.

A minute or so from the top of Mt. Bastide, with Cap Ferrat in the background

We met near the top of Mont Bastide and began the downhill from there, for a short way on the Grande Corniche and then along D46 back into Èze Village.

All downhill from here!

Almost back to where we started. At the right hand side of the bridge the
Chemin de David starts climbing in steep switchbacks on the eastern face
of this hill. 

Èze - Rte de Turbie (D45) - Grande Corniche (D2564) - Chemin Serre de Fourque

A real jog with a view and a 180 m climb. Glad it wasn't hot.

Just after turning onto the Grande Corniche

I followed the Moyenne Corniche out of town and then took a left onto eastbound D45, steadily climbing to the intersection with the Grande Corniche, here called Ave. des Diables Bleus. Doing a hairpin west, I kept climbing till I almost reached Èze-le-Col.

Looking at Èze from the top of Chemin Serre de Fourque

When I spotted a foot path heading back to Èze-Village, I took the opportunity and dropped steeply back to my starting point.