Point de vue de Castagniers

The toponym Castagniers comes from the Latin word Castanea, meaning chestnut tree. Indeed, the primitive settlement was supplied with water by a spring that sprang up near a centuries-old chestnut tree, under which it was customary for itinerant merchants to set up shop. Landscape interpretation : The vast panorama in the foreground reveals alternating olive groves and pine forests. In the background, the Var river bed and its meandering channels stand out, framed by the roads at the site of the dikes that surround it. The railroad line also stands out, as does the avenue of plane trees bordering the metropolitan road on the left bank in Nice. The Var is crossed by the Pont de la Manda, a road bridge linking the two banks of the river between Colomars and Carros. On either side, the plain reclaimed from the Var riverbed is home to a thriving agricultural industry: market greenhouses and cultivated land are clearly visible on both banks, interspersed with other economic activities. On the left bank, the hillsides are covered with pine forests, and the rock so typical of the Var plain - poudingue, pebbles set in sandy cement, known in Niçois as malàussena - is clearly visible on the hills alternating with deep, well-defined valleys. This landscape was formed over a period of several million years. This rock functions like a gigantic water sponge, several hundred meters thick.