The Promenade des Anglais is a four mile stretch of walk. Originally started by a priest who liked to walk along the beachside with his wife, a very English idea. When he first started walking, the area was muddy and filled with poor who were escaping the harsher winters elsewhere. As a priest, he thought he could improve their plight and his by hiring them to build a promenade. The first promenade only extended a few hundred meters. The rest of the visiting english aristocrats and wealthy liked what he had done, and funded an expansion. They kept widening and expanding it over the years to stand as it is today, the Walkway of the English. 

Right infront of the Hotel Negresco is a bit of history. If you love dance, you will recognize the name Isadora Duncan, the founder of modern dance. Isadora was a bit of a drama queen and loved her affairs. In September 1927, she was having an affair with a mechanic working on cars for the Grand Prix which was being raced along the Promenade des Anglais. The car he picked Isadora up in that day had open spokes in the rims. She was wearing a long scarf. He gunned the car upon take off, her scarf caught, and she as instantly decapitated right on the spot. The hotel a couple buildings down belonged to a single heiress who dissappeared over 30 years ago. Neither her or her car have ever been found. The lawyer boyfriend was thought to be the culprit but was not convicted until 2007 when his ex-wife went to the police and retracted her alibi of 30 years. This area is rich with current and past history. When you have a playground like the French Riviera, you are bound to have a history as colorful as the town.

A bronze statue facing the bay of Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory and Nice's namesake.

The French mention WWI a lot, in part because it was fought on French soil. Nice gave 4,000 young men to the war effort, meaning 4,000 from Nice lost their lives in this effort. The WWI memorial has all 4,000 names inscribe upon the marble floor.

Ty guy with Mom up one of the three stops we made on our way up to Colline du Chateau, Castle Hill. This was where the Greeks originally settled Nice. In the Middle Ages, a massive castle with all the trimmings of high walls, turrets, and soldiers stood on these grounds. With the sea to one side, the river to the other and a mountain fortress at its base, Colline du Chateau seemed inpenetrable. Not so, Louis XIV completely flattened it in 1706. He removed the city walls surrounding the town spanning from Cours Salaya to quai des Etats-Unis. The king ordered the soldiers to remove all the remnants of the wall 200 meters away to ensure that a rebuild would never happen. And it didn't.
 

The Gustave got a kick out of Tyler. He kept asking him everytime we saw a statue or anything of history, what it was. Ty knew the answer. Gustave thinks he should be a history. We didn't tell him that all his knowledge came from love a computer games. I guess not all of them are worthless. Tan Man plugging through the final hill. This was the longest and most difficult bike tour. We didn't know we were going to scale Castle Hill.

The cemetary atop Castle Hill. The one-upsmanship carried over into the afterlife.

Many are familiar with Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera. Our kids have seen it so this was kind of neat. In the Castle Hill Cemetary lies the original author of The Phantom of The Opera novel. Most frenchman know Gaston Leroux, but have never heard of Andrew Lloyd Weber. Here he lies.

Where would we be without a protest. In the park on Castle Hill, the French Communist party and leftist front were protesting. Didn't know France had a communist party, but here they are. We circled around and headed down the hill.

At the top overlooking Nice and the Cote D'Azur. The bay is called Baie des Anges, or Bay of Angels. We have heard the religious rendering of the name. Another idea came from the many angel sharks found in the bay. They are harmless and mostly bottom feeders, but the tourist commission opts not to mention this in thier guidebooks. The mention of any sharks is not good for business. We have seen quite a few jellyfish though.