l'Orage

Walking home last night from work, I took a breather in the driving rain and looked down from Mont Boron at the port. Was shocked to see waves slamming into and over the port mole, washing across the mammoth yachts!

Looking farther west, the waves where jumping up to the roadside that is at least 30 feet high. And then farther west, off in the distance, I could see the the waves slamming against the ocean wall in Nice - which is a good 50 feet back from the ocean generally, and another 20 feet up from sea level.

Well, that was all very impressive. But it wasn't until I took a stroll down to the beach at lunch today, that I realized that these waves were unheard of in Nice. Every single cafe built into the ocean wall was destroyed. Smashed furniture strewn up and down the beach for miles - store owners shlepping their soggy binders up from the flooded restaurants. Poor tourists barred from going down onto the beach, gawking at the wreckage.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me yesterday or today - but the following video indicates how massive these waves were:



Note that the edge of the concrete visible from the camera angle is the top of the sea wall. The beach is at least 10 feet below that at this point, and those +ten feet house cafes and terraces. Note also that the waves would generally be twenty feet down from that edge, and fifty feet back.