| If you do decided to live the expat life in France in a | | | | What is most interesting is how the pebble beach gets |
| coastal town, you will find there is not only the weather | | | | moved around so much from the action of the tides. |
| to report back home, but the daily changes that | | | | Sometimes the sea will hide the beach altogether and |
| happen to the beach. | | | | create a white froth that reaches the sea wall, moving |
| As January comes to an end, the beach of Nice is on | | | | the pebbles with it. By December the beach can get |
| the move! Throughout winter there have been a | | | | so high, the showers stick out the top as though they |
| couple of storms, a week of wild seas over Xmas, | | | | are just for children! |
| and many tranquil days that brings out the | | | | With Nice carnival only 12 days away, the beaches are |
| beachcombers. | | | | coming alive again. Its the time of year that diggers are |
| The beach cafes start closing down during October. | | | | brought out in force and excavate all the cafes from |
| Everyday there are workmen taking down the | | | | under the winter debris and literally push the beach |
| parasols, sun loungers and dining tables and storing | | | | back down to the tide level. Then all the focus is on |
| them in the vast caverns under the Prom, then battling | | | | the maintenance, with painters and carpenters out in |
| down the hatches ready for the winter seas. One | | | | force; and finally, out go the menus, and the beach is |
| famous beach restaurant, Castel, lifts its whole facade | | | | back in business for another 9 months. |
| with a crane then moves it to storage in a warehouse. | | | | Living in Nice is a wonderful year round treat, each |
| We know spring has arrived when the crane returns | | | | season there is something to look forward to, and |
| and the cafe is reassembled. Throughout the sunny | | | | there is always something exciting to write home |
| winter days the local sun worshippers gather under its | | | | about - not just the weather! |
| sign as it is a great suntrap. | | | | |