After my Bonjour Madame workshop & retreat in Paris, Dale and I flew to the south of France. I literally chose our destination by zooming in on the location with Google maps. Dale and I were married outdoors on the seashore and more often than not find ourselves gravitating back to coastal waters, and that is how we found ourselves on la Côte d'Azur." Incroyable, Sensationnel, Magnifique!
We arrived early on a Monday morning craving a little rest and relaxation, but as our room was a few hours from being ready, we immediately found ourselves wandering. We wandered down the Promenade des Anglais in the direction of vieux ville (old town). We had no itinerary whatsoever, just a wish list. On that wish list was a visit to the flower market in vieux ville along the Cours Saleya. As it turns out, however, Monday is flea market day, the only day when there is not a flower market. Unlike the dark back street where the Marche aux Puces de Porte de Vanves is held in Paris each weekend, the Course Saleya, is a capacious pedestrian avenue positioned amid ochre buildings illuminated by the Provencal sun, lined with beautiful boutiques, cafes and galleries. The booths artfully presented, the sellers friendly and the prices fair. After a couple of hours of exploring the market, we were hungry and found ourselves seated outdoors in front of Restaurant La Cambuse. The menu was a reminder that we were not in Paris anymore, and I selected a seafood risotto that was delicious and brimming with prawns, crayfish, mussels and tentacles. One of the really wonderful things about eating in a cozy cafe setting, is that you meet the nicest people and we had the pleasure of dining alfresco with a lovely Australian couple. In fact, we met quite a few Australians in Nice. The Australian economy is booming, their dollar strong, and viola there were many vacationers from down under in Nice!
Restaurant La Cambuse in the Cours Saleya
We found it so easy to get around in NIce. For a single Euro you can take the bus to all the neighboring cities along la Côte d'Azure, Monaco, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Ville-Franche-Sur-Mer, Beaulieu-sur-Mer. So, on day two we decided to explore the medieval hilltop village of Èze. Èze is situated on a cliff 1,401 feet above the Mediterranean sea, and is surely one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited. We wandered the serpentine cobbled passage through the village all the way to the top, and found ourselves in the clouds at the Restaurant Chateau Eza. Chateau Eza was once the winter getaway of the Swedish royal family from 1923 until 1953; today it's a hotel. We had lunch on the terrace perched on a cliff overlooking the Riviera and azure sea below, literally among the clouds. And the meal was equally breathtaking in every way, and I cannot recall ever having had better service. For dessert we tried a local specialty, a Provencal dessert that incorporated strawberries, figs, rosemary and olive oil, and it was luscious. I will apologize in advance for overuse of the word luscious, it's unavoidable.
Lunch in the clouds at Chateau Eza
Dale's salad at Chateau Eza with edible flowers
My pumpkin soup and flower garnish
We also dedicated an entire day to visiting a few of the many museums in Nice. Admission to all but one, Musee Chagall, is free. We caught the 22 bus just a half block from our hotel which took us directly to both to the Musee Chagall, and later to the Musee Matissee and the Archaeological museum which are on the same site. At the Chagall museum we saw the painting Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel (Marriage at the Eiffel Tower), which a few years ago inspired a painting I did to commemorate our 25th wedding anniversary. Lovers and weddings were frequent subjects of Chagall, and I am an ardent fan of this bright Chagall color palette. We didn't see so many paintings at the Matisse museum but there were a number of collages and a series of ten or so whimsical mermaid sketches. The archeological museum is actually on the site of the ruins of the ancient city of Cemenelum and just behind the Musee Matisse.
Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel, by Marc Chagall
As I was arranging these photos it struck me as odd to juxtapose these images of carrousels, ruins and museums in this quaint neighborhood setting. I suppose this is one of the reasons that we enjoy visiting Europe, the layers upon layers of history that are a part of everyday life. This park was full of neighborhood people with their children enjoying the day.
My favorite of the many quaint carrousels we saw throughout our visit to France. This one is circa 1900. The rose colored building in the background is the Musee Matisse.
Musee Matisse, all of the architectural details were trompe-l'œil. The patina was real, however, and quite beautiful.
One in a series of whimsical mermaid drawings by Matisse.
Ruins of the ancient city of Cemenelum.
View of Matisse Museum in the background of ancient ruins of Cemenelum.
Dale could have spent the entire day wandering the ruins of this ancient city, but we did eventually travel on to the MAMAC, the modern art museum.
"Foire aux Puces" 1984 by Daniel Spoerri
At MAMAC we discovered a retrospective of the work of Niki de Saint-Phalle, a self taught painter and sculptor, who used unconventional objects in her work. Early in her artistic life she was not entirely appreciated nor respected, but that would not have been the case today. There was also this fabulous assemblage by Daniel Spoerri entitled Foire aux puces (1984) which captured the magic of the flea market in objects that I particularly like. Another favorite sculptural piece was Vestito Blu (2005) by Italian artist Enrcia Borchi, a blue dress elegantly sculpted from recycled plastic water bottles.
Vestito Blu (2005) by Enrica Borghi
Dale on the roof of the MAMAC, a great spot for getting photos of Nice! I took this photo from inside the museum.
View from the roof of the MAMAC.
Exterior view of MAMAC.
We enjoyed one glorious sunny morning after another, so we decided a picnic was in order and walked over to the marche on Cours Saleya to see the flower show and to gather fresh foods for a feast. We selected salami, pate, chevre, Roquefort, olives, cherry tomatoes, bread, palmiers and strawberries. Then we caught the 82 bus and were on our way to Cap-Ferrat. There we spent the first couple of hours touring the Ephrussi de Rothschild Villa and Gardens. This rose colored seaside villa was built by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild in 1905 and was constructed in the style of a Venetian Palazzo. We were enchanted by the villa and its nine perfectly manicured gardens. The gardens were conceived in the form of a ship, designed to be viewed from the loggia, with the sea visible on all sides. Rockers have been strategically placed on the loggia so that you can sit and enjoy the effect of floating upon the sea. We shared an all too brief glimpse into the private world and whimsy of the wealthy baroness. I want to know more, but could find no biographical reading material on the baroness.
Entrance to Villa.
Inside the villa, looking through to loggia.
I fell in love with this wood carved figure on the loggia.
After our tour of the villa, we walked in the direction of the village to find our picnic spot. Unfortunately we took a wrong turn and ended up in a residential area. It would have taken us hours and hours to find our way into town from there, had it not been for the kindness of a stranger who discovered us wandering through her neighborhood and offered a ride into the village. She dropped us off right in front of L'epicurien wine shop. You just have to marvel at serendipity sometimes because this outing could have gone seriously wrong. We discovered another amiable local at L'epicurien. DJ helped us select a bottle of wine for our picnic and we enjoyed the wine along with our picnic in DJ's dockside cabana. Cap Ferrat is well known for the many celebrities who have homes there, such as members of U2, Tina Turner and others. DJ said that he had met all the members of U2 and described them as "gentle." We found DJ to also be a gentle soul. After a relaxed picnic among the yachts of Cap-Ferrat, we said our farewells to DJ and off we went to find the 82 bus back to Nice.
Picnic on Cap-Ferrat
On the way to our hotel that evening, we stopped along Rue Massena, a pedestrian avenue that we traversed during our daily outings, for a simple dinner at La Pizza Cresci. We had the most heavenly, beautifully presented meals throughout our journey, and the pizza that emerged from the oven at La Pizza was no exception, due in large part, I think, to the cheeses. A simple green salad, freshly baked pizza and a bottle of Orvieto Classico, were all that we needed to embrace a little joie de vivre! And, once again, we had the good fortune to be seated next to a friendly couple, from Northern Ireland. They told us that Northern Irelanders are known for being friendly, and they were indeed very nice and we passed the time pleasantly with them over pizza.
The next day we decided to visit the Le Château (or "the castle" as it was commonly referred to). The castle is actually a high rock bluff overlooking old town and the Mediterranean. The castle that was once there was blown up in 1706, but it is a dazzling plateau from which to view la Côte d'Azur, and the adjoining parc du château was peaceful. Here we found lots of locals enjoying the parc, reading, relaxing, and picnicking in the beautiful Provencal sunshine. We could also see people swimming below in the crystal clear azure sea. There was a spectacular cascade (waterfall) in the park and more ruins to explore. We wandered and relaxed and spent a pleasant few hours here.
la Côte d'Azur with old town on the right
The cascade at the parc du château
mosaic on a wall in the parc du château near ruins
Architectural detail on building near ruins.
Our location in Nice was perfect. We were a mere two short blocks from the Promenade des Anglais and the pebbly Nice seashore, and central to everything else. There was an abundance of little markets and restaurants. I had my first moules et pomme frites at Brasserie Le Jockey right on Meyerbeer a block from our hotel, as well as my first marmite de poissons en bouillabaisse. It was a simple earthy little brasserie. The service was friendly and the food was decent, and they seemed to get a kick out of me sampling the local specialties while Dale watched. We had everything we needed to get our day off to a good start, cafe creme and pan au chocolat, and luscious Nutella croissants that were worth every buttery morsel! Our neighborhood boulangerie was the Artisan Boulangerie Dalpozzo, named after the street it resides on. Each morning Dale would make his rounds, first to the bakery, then off to LouLou on Meyerbeer to get our cafe cremes from the twin brother owners. The friendliness of everyone in our neighborhood made us instantly feel at home and welcome. By the end of the week, we were starting to feel a little homesick but we were sad when we had to say our goodbyes.
Villa Massena is a beautiful neoclassical Italianate villa built in 1898 that we visited on the Promenade des Anglais just a short walk from our hotel. It once belonged to the Massena family. André Masséna was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Place Massena, an expansive square that we fell in love with.
Those figures at the tops of the posts were lit at night.
Merci au revoir! We I hope you have enjoyed a little slice of Nice vicariously through our eyes.
