July 15 - Musée Matisse

Immediately when the festivities ended last night the clean-up crews were out in force and today you’d never know anything happened.  First on our agenda this morning is to purchase our train tickets to Paris for Wednesday.  The station is only a ten minute walk from the apartment so this shouldn’t take too long.  The best laid plans etc. etc...

We figure out which line to queue up in & select a mid-morning departure.  We hand over our credit card and...DECLINED!  I had called the company before we left & gave them our travel dates and I know the balance is paid so I can’t imagine what the problem is.  We use the cell phone to call the international # on the back of the card for assistance.  (and by-the-way, we neglected to get an international plan befor leaving so no telling what this is going to cost :(  )  Apparently there has been a lot of fraud in this area & they were just making sure it was us using the card.  I am assured that now there will be no problem.  So we get back in the (now longer) line & inch our way up to the window and...DECLINED AGAIN! 

Now don’t get me wrong, we brought cash but you get a better exchange rate with the card.  The unfavorable Dollar-Euro conversion combined with the cost of things here cuts you dollars by about a third in my estimation.  For example: a Coke in a restaurant is about 3.50-4.00 Euro and one Euro is about $1.30 so...CRAZY RIGHT?  Anyway we decide to cash in some dollars to pay for the tix.  Just for shits & giggles we make one last attempt with the card first, no-go, before plunking down 220 Euro.  I am now concerned.  If we are operating on cash from here on out this vacation is now on an austerity plan.  We call the credit card company once more from the apartment & again they assure us there is no problem?!  So we decide to go out for an inexpensive lunch to see if it works.  It does, yay!!  Now I’m wondering if it was some issue with the train station rather than the card.

Now that that's settled we decide to head to the Musée Matisse and we hop on the appropriate bus.  It’s pretty crowded and each time we stop more people cram on & none seem to get off.  The locals start howling at the driver every time he opens the door.  And still people squish themselves in.  Each time we take on more passengers we get pushed further & further back.  I am getting real irritated until I hit a spot where the a/c is blowing.  Finally we reach our destination & the bus belches us out on the sidewalk.

The Musée Matisse is in an area with many museums and a large shady park filled with men & women playing what we call Bocce & the French call Petanque.  We stop for a moment to watch a group of men play who clearly are old buddies.  

We make our way to the museum entrance & purchase our tickets (card still working, yay). The price covers admission to ten museums with in a week’s time but I don’t think we will have the chance to see others, unfortunately. 

 The small museum has a wonderful permanent collection built on donations from the artist & his family.  We have seen many posters around town celebrating L’Ete Matisse.  I love some of the costumes for ballet & garments designed for the clergy.  Also there is a recreation in tile of a painting Mssr. Matisse had done in his apartment.  It is a swimming pool done in blue in his inimitable style.  It surrounds the entire room just above eye level.  He painted it to combat the winter blues so he would always have a summer scene to cheer him up.

We decide to walk back home rather than take the bus and we wind our way through beautiful neighborhoods.  Before we get back we stop for a treat at a place specializing in Italian gellato creations on the pedestrian boulevard. 

 Once back in the apartment we discuss what we’d like to do tomorrow, our last day in Nice.  Nathalie has provided a little book with brochures for different attractions. We opt for a guided tour of Monaco, Monte Carlo & Eze.  Monaco Is just a little further down the beach than Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, technically not to far to reach by bicycle but we’d be a sweaty mess once we got there.  So a guided tour from an air-conditioned Mercedes van sound like just the thing, merci beaucoup!

July 14 - Bastille Day!

*NOTE Today's post will contain links to youtube videos.  I hope you'll take time to check them out!!!

Today is the French Independence Day.  It is an annual blow-out (a la our 4th of July) commemorating events of 1789 that began the French Revolution.  We lazily rouse ourselves with coffee & tune in the parade that’s happening live in Paris.  Outside we can hear the testing of a giant PA system that has appeared overnight along with barriers along the Promenade Anglaise.   When I was making arrangements for this apartment I asked if we would have a view of fireworks for today & Nathalie assured me that, “Mais oui, it will happen right in front of your window.” The preparations underway seem to confirm this & I am getting excited for tonight!  

We are spending another day on the beach so we grab all our gear & head down.  First stop is to one of the million stands selling souvenirs to pick up a raft & some “Jellys”, hard plastic shoes to navigate the rocks.  The raft allows me to paddle way out near the boats & let the surf push me back in which I do endlessly.  We settle back onto our chaises for the afternoon.  Again we have lunch on the beach, I select pasta with seafood while Ernessto tackles a bucket o' mussels.  So far I’m batting 100 as far as seafood for meals here.  In this part of the world, pourquoi pas?  

In the early afternoon the sky begins to cloud up so we head indoors to watch Le Tour.  Once upstairs we can see activity in the streets, something is about to happen.  Ernesto points up & I look just in time to see a formation of jets do a fly over signifying the start of the full military parade, thrilling!  Every conceivable branch of the armed forces is represented, even police on Segways, 

 As the “official” parade winds down we hear drums off in the distance.  We look to the West & a drum group is making its way toward  us.  They stop right under us & perform & we dance on the balcony.  As they continue to the East they get just out of view behind a palm tree but I can hear roaring & smoke coming from that direction.  I jokingly say to Ernesto, “Maybe it’s a dragon.”  SWEAR TO GOD 5 minutes later I am proved correct as a two-story animatronic, smoke belching, illuminated DRAGON slowly creeps up from that direction.  As it pulls to a stop (once again RIGHT UNDER OUR WINDOW!!!) a girl runs up, attaches a ring to the dragon’s jaw  and begins a brief Cirque du Soliel style acrobatic performance dangling 15 feet in the air!! 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CFztg3sfQkw

THEN as that winds down the drummers (ANFORA BUTACADA, they are on Facebook) make their way back.  Well, this is more than I can stand & I race downstairs .  My mom says I’m like a cobra in a basket when I catch a rhythm & today is no exception!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g3FIhBpQIvU

By now the sun is beginning to set & stages are being wheeled out into the streets all along the Promenade.  We are treated to an excellent Latin group in front of our apartment.  Now we are back on our balcony & we dance & enjoy from above as do our neighbors.  The entire building is in the groove.  As they finish their set a driver pops up from under the stage to drive them a little further down the beach and another band takes their place.  As 10:00 rolls around the lights dim & music stops as the big show is about to commence.  Subtly, unobtrusively two sturdy boats have appeared in the harbor.  The beginning strains of Ravel’s Bolero, one of my FAVORITE pieces of classical music, drift from the speakers and an EPIC fireworks display begins.  The whole thing is choreographed to the music & we move from Bolero to some Cirque du Soliel techno to the Gotan Project & back to a big crescendo finish of Bolero.  All I can say is WOW!!!  This is some of the most beautiful pyrotechnics I’ve ever seen.  The reflection in the ocean is a huge plus & I love how the little boats are illuminated every time there’s a big bright display.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VRFnCgFRDOI&feature=relmfu

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=skupOcq6Xc0&feature=relmfu

When it is all over we go downstairs to enjoy late dinner & watch the revelers make their way to all of the parties happening in Nice tonight.  What a night!  If we had to go home tomorrow I would feel like we have had an action packed trip.  But we still have a full week to go & we aren’t even in Paris Yet!!!

July 13 - Pride of the Cote D'Azur

Again we have slept past 10:00!  Today we decide to rent bicycles & we head over to one of the Velo Bleu stations that dot the city.  It turns out to be a pretty complicated system requiring several phone calls & ultimately we have to have a local help us.   But once we get everything registered we are good to go.  Originally we thought we might ride to the Musée Matisse but I just want to follow the coast & see where it takes us.  Nathalie recommended we visit the Villa Ephrussi de Rothchild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, about 10 kilometers away.  That seems pretty close so we start pedaling until we are on the Princess Grace Highway.  It is pretty warm today & we stop often to cool off & take photos.  Soon we arrive at the Villa, purchase tickets & enter into another world.

 The villa was designed by the French architect Aaron Messiah, and constructed between 1905 and 1912 by Baroness Beatrice de Rothschild (1864-1934). A member of the Rothschild banking family and the  wife of the banker Baron Maurice de Ephrussi, Beatrice de Rothschild built her rose-colored villa on a promontory on the isthmus of Cap Ferrat overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  The Baroness filled the mansion with antique furniture, Old Master paintings, sculptures, objets d’art, and assembled an extensive collection of rare porcelain.  The gardens are classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notable Gardens of France.

The Villa is surrounded by nine gardens, each on a different theme: Florentine, Spanish, Garden a la française, exotic, a stone garden, a Japanese garden, a rose garden, Provençal and a garden de Sèvres.  The garden was conceived in the form of a ship, to be viewed from the loggia of the house, which was like the bridge of a vessel, with the sea visible on all sides.  It was inspired by a voyage she made on the liner Île de France, and the villa was given that name.  The thirty gardeners who maintained it were dressed as sailors with berets with red pom poms.

We spend a good hour & a half touring both the villa and the extensive grounds.  This is a delightful surprise.  Although we plan to tour the ultimate chateau, Versailles, next week, I have a feeling I will prefer this one for its intimacy and the lack of crowds I’m sure we will encounter there.  We stop for a cold drink in the Tea Garden before heading back to Nice.

Just as we enter town and get on our street I see and hear something  familiar.  Rainbow balloons, pumping disco music, floats, drag queens.  This can only mean one thing.  We have stumbled on to the Nice Pride Parade.  We inch our bicycles into the fray & march with the revelers all the way home.  What a fantastic day of surprises!

July 12 - La Plage!

All I want to do today is hit the beach!  We sleep until the decadent hour of 10:30.  How's that for jet-lag?  I woke up once around 11:00 & was afraid I’d never get back to sleep but I read for about an hour & drifted back off.  Ernesto wasn’t so lucky.  He was up a lot during the night.  At some point we drew the curtain across the solid glass sliding door that opens onto our balcony and the street below.  It is a little noisier here than what we are used to with traffic and people going all night long.  We enjoy coffee, croissants and pain au chocolate before lathering up with sunscreen & heading to Ruhl Plage where we rented chaises, umbrellas and towels. 

The “beach” here is pure rocks due to an underground river that continually pushes them up on the shore.  Walking barefoot is an excruciating form of self-reflexology.  I keep my flip-flops on until the last minute before plunging in.  The water is refreshing and I stay in long enough to cool down then flop on my chaise to read & people watch.  We are next to a lovely Italian couple and their young daughter.  Lots of languages floating around; German, Spanish, English, Asian languages and of course, French.  I was terrible in French in High School but amazingly I’m able to get by here.  This has more to do with The French’s command of English than mine of French.  I often hear people say that French people are rude & they won’t speak English even if they know how.  I have NEVER experienced this.  Once they hear me butcher their language they are more than happy to speak mine, LOL!  

Waiters are mingling through the crowd and we can order food & drink.  I opt for a genuine Nicoise Salad and a virgin mojito.  We spend most of the day dipping in & out of the water.  Ernesto really likes to get out and SWIM while I am more of a floater.  I make a mental note to pick up a raft next time we are out.  There are all kinds of boats from ocean kayaks on up to cruise ships in the harbor.  I am really enthralled by the luxury yachts & sailboats we see gathered out in the distance.  That looks like a really fun way to see the world!!

We call it a day around 6:00 & go in to try to see the results for today’s Tour de France stage.  We are not able to figure out how the TV works so I write the owners & we pull up what information we can on our tablets.  Chris Froome seems to have the yellow jersey all locked up.  We are fans of Alberto Contador who is more than 3 minutes behind at this point.  Each day Froome is bombarded by reporters with questions about doping.  The fact that he so easily dominates his competitors, yet still seems so fresh at the end of the day doesn't exactly help his case.

The Nice Jazz Festival is happening & George Benson is playing tonight.  We purchase tickets & stroll around looking for a place to eat before the concert.  Every place has seafood & I have a kilo of mussels, delicious!  George puts on a great show closing with “On Broadway” and we walk home after midnight  hoping for a good night’s sleep.  Meanwhile the city shows no signs of shutting down anytime soon.