A return to Nice is in the offing and I have turned back to books by Jose Banaudo.
Jose Banaudo published a two volume set of books about the historic trams of Nice, “Nice au fil du Tram.”
This is the first of a series of articles based on the second volume. (Jose Banaudo; Nice au fil du Tram, Volume No. 2: Les Hommes, Les Techniques; Les Editions de Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya, France, 2005). The books were published as French language texts, quotations directly from the books have been translated with the assistance of ‘Google Lens’ and ‘Google Translate’.
The next article in a series following through the second volume of Jose Banaudo's two volume set of books about the historic trams of Nice, "Nice au fil du Tram."
Jose Banaudo writes, "As an extension of the Cannes Tramway route which linked Mandelieu, Cannes and Antibes, the TNL coastal line extended from Cap-d’Antibes to the Menton district of Garavan via Cagnes, Nice, Villefranche, Beaulieu , Monaco, Cap-Martin and Menton. These juxtaposed sections formed a continuous axis of 76 km of interurban tramway which served almost the entire coastline of the Alpes-Maritimes, from the Emite of the Var department to the Italian border.”
The linked article is the first looking at this coastal (littoral) route and looks at the length between Nice and Cap d'Antibes.
La Ligne du Littoral et ses Antennes, First Generation Electric Tramways – Nice-Monte Carlo (Chemins de Fer de Provence/Alpes-Maritimes No. 91) …
The line between Nice and Monte Carlo opened in a series of stages. First from Monaco to Place d’Armes in Monte Carlo on 14th May 1898; then from Place Massena in Nice to Villefranche, on 1st February 1900; Villefranche to Beaulieu on 3rd November 1900; TNL trams were permitted to run on Monaco’s tramways from 28th May 1903; and the remaining length, Beaulieu to Monaco Place d’Armes opened on 7th November 1903. Over the next few years some single track lengths were doubled.
Future articles will focus on two branch-lines which left the Nice to Monte Carlo line and on the extension beyond Monte Carlo to Menton.
Posted by Roger Farnworth (Member # 197595) on :
Between Nice and Monte Carlo the TNL had two branch lines. The first ran from Pont St. Jean to St. Jean Cap Ferrat, the second ran up onto the rock in Monaco from the railway station. This article looks at those two lines:
2. The Menton to Sospel branch tramway which was very different in character to the rest of the TNL network. Given that much of the line was on its own formation, it was more akin to a mountain railway than the remainder of the network. It was similar in many ways to the Tramways des Alpes Maritimes (TAM) lines which served the hinterland behind the Cote d'Azur. ...
This line will feature in a future article which looks at two of the TNL lines in the hills behind the Mediterranean coast. ...
Posted by Roger Farnworth (Member # 197595) on :
This next article about Nice's trams jumps forward to the 21st century and the modern trams that are now running so successfully in the city. ...
Reverend, I haven't been in Nice since May '71, and owing to health @82yo, not likely to be so again.
However on that trip, I managed to get myself hopelessly lost on the streets near the Gare returning from a walk to the beaches (beaches "not my thing" in this life, but my takeaway was how can people sit on that "sand" with pebbles the size of marbles). Somehow, but just barely, I made the overnight train to Rome (retrospectively, wished I'd stayed overnight so as to ride a day train to view that spectacular scenery along the coast; I was in Portofino during '60 on "the family trip to Europe").
Now regarding the present day Tram, it's too bad it's not more convenient to the Gare. It's close (Mr. Google says 10min walk), but I'll bet a set of wheeled luggage (funny how I don't have any of such as "if you can't carry it, don't bring it" is my travel motto") most arriving will be looking for a taxicab (I'm also of the "what's an Uber" mindset).
Posted by Roger Farnworth (Member # 197595) on :
Dear Gilbert
Thank you for your response. ... Interesting memories! Having walked between the tramstop and the station on a few occasions, the distance is very short. More of the order of 1 or 2 minutes.
As an indicator of this, the trams run up Avenue Jean Medecin which was previously called Avenue de la Gare.
Greetings to you this Christmas time.
Best wishes
Roger
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Reverend, earlier, I must have loaded Mr. Google's map incorrectly. A second look shows Gare Ville-Gare Thiers to be 350m, or a 5min walk.
Posted by Roger Farnworth (Member # 197595) on :
Best wishes of the season, once again.
Posted by Roger Farnworth (Member # 197595) on :
The TNL (Tramways de Nice et du Littoral) had four lines which ran some distance inland from the coast. Three ran out from Nice, serving: Levens, Bendejun, and La-Grave-de-Peille. All followed valleys of the Paillon and its tributaries. As well as the line to La-Grave-de-Peille, the line to Contes and Bendejun was to have had another Branch to l'Escarene. Major work was undertaken on that line but it was never brought into use.
A fourth line ran inland from Menton to Sospel.
Two lines are covered in the linked article - that to Levens and that to Sospel. .....