A Quick Look; Cannes And The Cote D'Azur One Week After The Flood

From the Golden Corniche, and Cannes in the distance.

The region including the French Riviera and the Cote D'Azur gets about 300 days of sunshine a year.
However, whenever it rains, it pours. That is why such lush vegetation exists here.

But a little over a week ago the region, in one night, suffered roughly 7-10% worth of its annual rain.

It was a terrible scene here a week ago.  Cannes was the hardest hit in the Riviera.  The streets turned into running rivers, things as heavy as cars were swept out to sea, and almost two dozen people died trying to escape the swift, powerful flash flooding.  Some drowned in underground parking structures and tunnels that went quickly underwater.  The train station became immersed in it, too.  A link to a BBC article is here:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34437228


Here's another article with more detail:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/deaths-after-medicane-storm-hits-cannes-ahead-of-mipcom-tv-event-20151004-gk0xqs.html

From the tour bus in Livorno, that same Sunday.

Oddly, but maybe not surprisingly, my ship was caught in a similar storm system on October 4th, on the next morning after that French Riviera drenching.  We docked in Livorno, Italy.  That day I was on a tour going to Pisa and Florence.  At 7:25am a major thunderstorm went above the ship and into the Tuscan countryside.  It is good to note that Livorno and the French Riviera aren't too far away from each other.  By sea it takes a little over 100 km to get from one to the other.  

Therefore, I do believe a portion of the same system had hit Livorno....

We drove through some torrential rain before arriving in Pisa, and two more times rain hit us hard before arriving in Florence.  But as unusual as it was for Tuscany to have weather this strong at this time of year, apparently the storm wasn't nearly as bad as the one that hit the French Riviera....

The Piazza de Miracoli underneath a calm gloom.

I was in Cannes this last Sunday.  It was strange to think that only a week ago the area was slammed by nature, and inundated in water.  I certainly felt that strangeness as I walked around, because from the looks of things, you'd never think that Cannes had had rivers coursing through its streets.

The Sunday flea market near Hotel Splendid.

On our way to St. Raphael, our tour guide told us that the authorities responded extraordinarily well as the torrents of rain continued through the night.  Things may have ended up much worse if not for that exemplary action.

St. Raphael looked just as immaculate, and unharmed, as Cannes.

On our way back to Cannes, we drove on the Golden Corniche, know for the golden-red rock formations jutting into the sky.  It felt like Arizona by the sea, and looked even more beautiful than that.  

During that road trip, I thought about how much water must have been rushing down those mountains, into the sea.  I thought about the mudslides, and those homes on the cliffs.  Utter chaos must have reigned here, yet today was picture-perfect....

I couldn't quite imagine torrential rain pounding away at all of this scenery.  Each time I tried to imprint that image upon what I was seeing, it did not form completely.  Perhaps something was telling me that a storm that immense is indeed a rare thing.  That the French Riviera is truly one of the world's gems, and not defined by the rare occurrence of monstrous weather.  

But it is scary to think about the future of the globe as a whole when considering global warming. With another strong hurricane season and a forecast for the strongest El Nino in recent history to hit the West Coast of The United States and other areas of the Pacific Ocean, one comes to the conclusion that areas like the French Riviera may indeed experience increasingly brutal weather. 

Experts say global warming will generally increase the intensity of weather patterns.  What happened here a week ago is therefore an example of that statement.  

A shot of Cannes from a distance from the Golden Corniche.

I can only hope that this part of the world doesn't suffer so much in our lifetime.  Ultimately, though, who knows what will really happen.  And, in how much time it will happen.  

Two shots of Nice from October 2013

Monaco, August 2015.

Shot of Cannes from the harbor as I walked back to the ship.

This region is something spectacular, after all, and I think people will have opportunities to see this part of the world for many lifetimes to come!  

Disclaimer: 

I do not intend to speak on behalf of Azamara Club Cruises.  As an employee of Azamara Club Cruises, I hereby state that all views and expressions of opinion I hold are solely my own, and do not reflect or represent the views, values, beliefs, opinions, or company policies of ether Azamara Club Cruises or Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Additionally I neither own nor claim any legal rights to the links provided in this post.