He is there and waiting for her. They had a rendezvous and she came, punctual like a lover the day after the first thrill, impatient for their first moments together. He will give himself completely to her. With a breath, he has dispelled the clouds of uncertainty. She has done the same. Their union will be merging and mesmerizing. They start to touch and brush against each other at exactly 11:29. Under the barely concealed eyes of onlookers behind glasses, the moon has cozied up to the solar star for two hours.
On the Promenade des Anglais, the passersby are unaware of this partial solar eclipse. “I wasn’t aware,” apologizes Paola, a tourist from Rome spending a few days on the Côte d’Azur. She quickly glances at the sky after putting on her sunglasses: “I see nothing… well maybe, but the sun is barely obscured by the moon.” And indeed, it was 11:35, the eclipse had just begun. Down below, on the pebbles, some, scantily clad, indulge in the fantasy of tanning in March under an eclipse. Phil, a Londoner, comments: “I’ll tell my children about this, he jokes, but between us, if I hadn’t read the newspaper this morning, I wouldn’t have known an eclipse was happening.”
A bit further down on Quai Lunel, Olga Morin is found. She teaches CM1 and CM2 at École du Port, located just a few meters below. As part of a class project themed ‘Sky and Earth,’ she has improvised a makeshift observatory to watch the eclipse.
She invited the students from the primary school even though the moon chose to meet the sun outside school hours. About twenty blond and brunette heads watched this rare phenomenon. Olga also invites passersby. A teacher is a teacher 24/7 and even though she is not within the school premises, she explains to the children, their parents, and strollers what a partial solar eclipse is. This Wednesday in Nice, at the eclipse’s peak, the moon covers 48% of the celestial body. It reaches its maximum at 12:32 PM, when the mini observatory at Quai Lunel welcomes the most people.
Olga lends them “special” eclipse glasses. An Italian couple is delighted: “It’s fascinating. It’s a scientific phenomenon where everything is calculated to the second, but it still seems so mysterious.” The universe is a constant miracle that it’s revitalizing to observe. Having one’s head in the stars or in the sky helps forget everyday worries.
The sun had a date with the moon. He gave himself to her and she to him. In perfect harmony, an agreement without a hitch, this dazzling eclipse over the Baie des Anges enchanted all the curious, lovers of the earth and sky who deigned to partake in the observation of the union between these two celestial bodies. The next partial eclipse will be in autumn, and a total eclipse in 80 years.
