Chemin de Nietzsche
The Chemin de Nietzsche or the Nietzsche Path in English, is a 2.1km trail that links the perched village of Eze to the train station and Mediterranean sea below.
At the top of the mountain the path starts just outside of the town and winds its way through forest, rocks and ciffs that look out over the water.
A wooden sign just outside of town points you in the right direction.
We bought sandwiches at a small bakery at the top and ate lunch on a wall before heading down the mountain.
If you happened to read my previous post on Eze you'll know that it's a perched village located in the Southwestern part of France along the French Riviera.
Just a short distance along the path is a lookout point with views of the water and the old town above.
From there you back track just a little and head down the rest of the way towards the water.
The walk is considered to be a medium difficulty hike, but of course that will depend on your own physical condition. The path is rocky though and has some sloped stone steps, some of which are relatively large and steep.
The friend I was traveling with actually injured a tendon in his leg only a few days before while skiing in Austria. He did the entire hike in an ankle brace and arm crutches.
It was quite impressive really and many people we saw along the way stopped to take a photo of him, offer their encouragement or just generally stare like he was a bit crazy.
I don't think he even complained once about doing it either, which was equally impressive.
The trail takes you to an elevation of around 400 meters and is estimated to take about a 45 minutes if you're going down the mountain and about an hour and a half if your going up.
We were going down to catch the train back to the city of Nice. We were going a little bit slower than usual but for obvious reasons.
There were a few things to see along the way aside from the stunning views. Wild flowers and houses built into the mountain just to name a few.
Friedrich Nietzsche
As it's name suggests the trail is named after the writer, poet and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche arrived in Nice and the Cote Azure region in 1883 and stayed there for about one year.
At the time he was ill and his morale was low, having recently separated from his partner Lou Andreas-Salomé.
To add insult to injury his friend had recently passed away and sales of his books were also doing poorly. There was a lot going on all at once it seemed.
All in all though, his spirits were low and he was suffering from a bout of writers block because of it.
Nietzsche began to walk the mountains in the area, which he said lifted his spirits as well as his creativity.
He said that some days he would spend 7-8 hours in the mountains, which brought vigor back into his life and helped him sleep and laugh and write once again.
It was while walking in the mountains that he came up with the third part of his book So Spoke Zarathustra. In it he wrote:
Everything dies, everything blossoms, the cycle of existence goes on forever.
There are several signs along the trail with facts about Nietzsche, his work and different things that he had said about the region and area lifestyle. Sometimes it's nice to have a pause and read a little tidbit of history.
When we started our walk there were quite a few clouds in the sky giving everything that grey hazy sort of look. The air was a little cold up there as well, but it was still February after all.
As we moved down the mountain the clouds parted a bit and the sun came out and I was able to take off my light jacket. It ended up being a really nice day actually.
Eventually the path comes out of the forest and winds around the front of the cliffs along the waterside.
Here you are greeted with nice views of the cliffs on one side and the Mediterranean on the other.
I didn't time the walk for us or anything but I would guess that it took between an hour and an hour and a half. Once we made it to the bottom of the hill we took a much needed break.
The landscape down by the water had a very tropical feel about it, kind of like what you would expect along the Mediterranean.
From there we bought tickets for the train and headed back to the city of Nice where we would be staying for the next two nights.
That night we tried to attend Carnival in the city (which I did a post about a few days ago) and that basically concluded day one of our trip in the French Riviera.