  espite
its pleasurable habit of reflecting the riviera's glorious
sunsets, this is the bluest of all the European seas.
It is a deep cobalt blue - according to the painters
who have lived hereabouts - arising from the unusual
clarity of the water. Tourists notice very quickly that
this colour is not constant. The state of the sky, the
ambient light, the nature and the depth to the bottom,
all affect it. It is liable to change from a pale opal
to a silvery-grey. There are no waves in the Mediterranean
such as exist in other oceans because there is not the
immense space required to form them. One finds very
small waves only when the Mistral, the famous wind of
Southern France, has passed. The tide is very very feeble
- less than a quarter of a metre, although the change
in water level caused by strong winds can be four times
greater than this. Compare this, for example, with the
north of France where the tides can be 1 to 15 metres.
Because of this absence of tides the Mediterranean is
taken to be the base level for all altitudes in France. |
|
The water temperature of the Cote
d'Azur varies on the surface with the amount
of sunshine it receives, from 16C in winter to 22C in
summer, but below 2000 metres down to 4000 metres the
temperature remains a more or less constant 13 C compared
with the North Atlantic where the temperature would
pass from 14 C down to as low as 2 C. This has an important
effect on the climate for this enormous mass of temperate
water cools the land in summer and warms it in winter,
while the Alpes form a barrier against northern extremes.
Thus the combination of the Mediterrean and the Alpes
creates the special micro-climate for which the Riviera
is famous. |
