(empty Rue)
...then proceeded to go back to sleep for awhile. Eventually arose and picked up the bus to go to Nice. Buses around here are cool -- every ride is 1 Euro, and your ticket is good for 74 minutes in one direction. Very uncomplicated and non-intimidating, which is a must for me when it comes to public transportation in strange lands.
First stop was the Matisse Museum:
which is way up the hill from town (good thing I had my one-euro-bus-ticket-good-for-74-minutes), set in a lovely park filled with olive trees. The museum had a great collection of Matisse paintings and sculptures, a good temporary exhibit of Rodin sculptures, really cool studies for the chapel Matisse designed in Vence, and some of his furniture and other stuff that appeared in his paintings, sometimes displayed alongside the painting itself. Awesome.
Next I walked halfway down the hill to the Chagall museum, which is in a kind of ugly contemporary building but with a charming landscaped front yard. And they let you take pictures inside:
the main hall:
Moses receiving the 10 Commandments:
(or, as Rick Steves describes, "Moses is tractor-beamed toward heaven")
from the Song of Songs room:
Charlie Chaplin:
The auditorium:
(I hope they have concerts here...not sure if they do).
Then I wanted to rest my dogs, so headed to the cute little outdoor cafe at the museum. I really just wanted a beverage, but I felt like I should order something to warrant taking up a table, so I ordered the least expensive thing on the menu -- a 4-Euro ham sandwich. Turned out that it was an entire baguette simply laden with a little butter and ham. It was freakin' delicious.
Next I hopped the bus back to town and hit the Modern Art Museum. I had low expectations for this place but ended up absolutely loving it. A really neat building and lots of cool art.
Calder out front:
from the special exhibit of Robert Longo:
lots of stuff by Niki de Saint Phalle:
wish this pic had come out better -- dress made of plastic bottles:
I think this one was called "le Chambre", by Ben. It was really cool.
a Warhol I don't think I've seen before:
up on the rooftop terrace:
tropical plants with blue glass mulch:
self-portrait at the rooftop garden (how nice of them to put a mirror there for me):
I seriously considered buying this toaster at the museum shop:
Then I walked all around Nice, along the greenbelt in the middle of town, which apparently covers the river Paillon:
...and of course along the beach. The human zoo of the beach:
...and then all over old Nice, of which I really didn't take any pictures. It's a cool neighborhood of mostly-pedestrian narrow streets with old buildings and tons of shops. Probably hard to capture on e-film anyway. Then it was time for a rest and a rose:
More walking, up Castle Hill:
Apparently (unless Rick Steves is a liar, which surely he is not) Nice was founded on the hill, and until the 12th century residents found it too risky to life in the flatlands below, so everyone lived up top.
And the views from up there are pretty good:
Then back down through Old Nice and to the bus station, back to Villefranche, where M. le Chat was napping in a planter under a parasol:
Determined to have a better dinner than the night before, I headed to one of the waterfront restaurants recommended by Shelley -- Trastavere, which was excellent. Great food, nice service, enough light to read my book (which I consider essential for solo dining), and a good selection of half bottles of vino. I chose a Bandol rose, which tipped the scales of my addition, but was definitely worth it.
Salade Mixte:
brochette of prawns and scallops, with a little salsa stuff and delicious rice:
Enjoyed the lively scene on the waterfront rue, where there were drummers and acrobats doing insane tumbling right there on the rue:
And thus ended a splendid day.
0 comments:
Post a Comment