Sometimes it just creeps up on you.  You wander out after a miserable, rainy day, and halfway down the street you realise there’s something wrong.  Weird.  Unusual.

The light.  The sun finally peeks through the clouds and the most amazing, spectacular and hard-to-believe light fills the sky.  It feels like you’re trapped in an alternate universe because surely these colours aren’t real in this world.

sunset in Nice

This happened to me after a miserable day indoors with the ‘flu in Nice.  My friends persuaded me to venture outdoors and at the last minute I grabbed my camera, but sadly, no tripod.  The next 30 minutes were possibly the most unusually lit of my life.

Is this real? Sunset in Nice

Rainbows, sunsets, purple and magenta clouds – I kept looking for a unicorn to come trotting around the corner!

Looking for unicorns near the Hotel Negresco on the Promenade des Anglais.

I guess my lesson is to always be prepared.  After years of coma-inducing and barely-there sunsets, I finally had my deliverance but I was sadly unprepared.

purple clouds over the Hotel Negresco, Nice

My kingdom for a tripod!