April 2026: Orange trees and blackcaps
Nice in April is redolent of orange trees in flower. The trees are found on every street corner, in municipal plantings or private gardens in front of buildings. Like the ones in this picture (below), they bear a dense green foliage studded with small white flowers which you can smell long before you see them. Check carefully and you will find a few oranges as well.
The weather in April is changeable: very warm if the sun makes an appearance and always cool at night. It’s a pleasant change from the moist heat of the summers. The sea, for those who like it cool like I do, is just over 18 degrees Celsius.
On the markets, the produce in season includes fennel bulbs, early tomatoes, young garlic, fresh broad beans and oranges – these, ironically, mainly from Portugal or Italy. At least there is enough to make our refreshing orange, fennel and broad bean salad to enjoy with mediterranean-fished bonite.
Today, in a fit of distraction, I drifted across the Boulevard Gambetta without even realising it.
The boulevard was once choked with traffic but now it is restricted to buses and cycles only, making it unexpectedly quiet and peaceful. The air so much sweeter that birds have come back to nest in the city. Among the thickening tree and bush plantings, my Merlin app picked up collared doves, blackbirds, house sparrows and some very garrulous blackcaps.
This and other transformations in green spaces and transport (described here) was the work of the previous mayor, Christian Estrosi. Estrosi was voted out in the recent elections in favour of Eric Ciotti, who likes to describe himself as “hard right” and “pro-car”.
Despite his rhetoric of placing the car in “its rightful place” at the heart in Nice again, it is unlikely Ciotti will be able to undo the work of his predecessor. Let’s hope his talk is, like that of the jolly blackcap, simply noise.