Miniwark, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cascade de Gairaut
The Gairaut waterfall, in the Alpes-Maritimes, is unusual among French waterfalls, as it owes nothing to nature but to 19th-century hydraulic engineering, when the city of Nice built the Vésubie canal to supply drinking water.
The canal's terminal structure, designed to dissipate the water's energy before distribution, takes the form of a wide fan-shaped fall down an artificial rock, topped by a 19th-century Savoyard-style villa that once housed the network's control equipment. High in the Gairaut district, the site also offers a fine view over the Baie des Anges and the Nice conurbation below.
Over time it has become a popular walking spot for local people, showing how a purely practical structure can become a tourist curiosity in its own right.
