Nice

Sunday 18 August

Nice

Had breakfast and said our farewells to J, R and family, then we set out to catch the 10.00am 'Red Bus' from the station (number 10 stop) to take us around the city centre and surrounds, the hop-on-hop-off bus.  We were there in good time, only thing was that the train station has the whole of its front access blocked with renovation work and is totally fenced off so there is no way the bus can stop at its scheduled pick up point.  

Which end of the station???  No obvious signs of course, so we walked quickly to check out each end of the wire fence, no one obviously waiting for the bus too, so we were on alert to wave frantically the moment we saw it, it was a double decker painted brightly so it was hard to miss!  Mmmm ten minutes later and no sign, 20 mins later and we were walking up and down, then made a decision to walk down to the 'Promenade des Anglais' (the beach front and number 1 stop) if it didn't come in 5 mins.  Then David checked the promo information and we were waiting at the wrong stop for a 10 o'clock start, that was number 8.........  how could that happen?

 

 So it came soon after that and we flagged it down and climbed on board, went upstairs for a good view, and put the earphones on.  The next stop, number 11, was the same as number 1 stop on the Promenade, and we had to wait for the scheduled time for it to start - 11.00am.  Our day was not starting too well!

However we did have a lovely informative ride to the accompaniment of Vivaldi, around the Port du Nice listening to the history which starts way before Roman times.   

The city is called Nice la Belle, which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, it is the second biggest city of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille.

We had decided to 'hop-off' at stop 7 so that we could go through the Musée Matisse, this had been his home for many years and on his death he had bequeathed to the city many items of his work, including paintings, sketches, paper cut-out collages, and sculptures.  It is quite an imposing building, and in every room were examples in some historical form of the variety of work he did.  I like his work because it was quite 'outside the square' for that time, I didn't realise that he had many commissions including designing the sets and clothing for an opera, designing vestments for the clergy, designing the interior, the glass windows and the decorations of the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, often referred to as the Matisse Chapel.  This project took him 4 years after his close friendship with Sister Jacques-Marie, despite him being an atheist.  So we learned a lot about Matisse and he is greatly revered as a leader in modern art.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside.

The house is situated at the end of a long drive overlooking an olive grove, and when we arrived there was a jazz exercise class going on amongst the olive trees, which seemed a bit incongruous at the time.  

However they had gone by the time we came out of the museum and there were many picnickers under the olive trees which was a much better look, and could have been the setting for one of his paintings!  

We had a nice lunch at a little cafe on the edge of the grove, and then decided to wander through the Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire.  The museum had many interesting showcases of what they had found in their diggings which makes me wonder why we think we are so smart these days, its only technology that makes us a step head of where they were.  Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.

 

 The dig had several current sites marked out and it had obviously been a good vantage point on top of the hill.

We then wanted to go and look at the Marc Chagall museum, we had seen some of his work in the church windows in Zurich and we wanted to see some more.  As it was just down the road, and I had seen a signpost with his name on, we followed the road down, .....and down, .......and down some more, how could we go wrong?  

This was the route the bus took wasn't it, we had our maps and if we screwed up our eyes tight enough we could just make out the small print on the map. (Where's Ken when you need him?)  There were no signs at all of the special bus stops, (we learned later that there weren't any!) but we did see a young lady heading downhill who obviously knew where she was going , so we followed her through a few short cuts.  

By this time, and not understanding the directions we had been given by a very helpful French lady, we had given up on Marc Chagall and felt that as long as we headed downhill we would eventually come to some recognisable landmark.

 

 Which we did, stop number 4, and just as we were thinking that we had had a very expensive half trip, the bus came into view so we waved and he stopped and we climbed on.  Went inside this time to cool down and completed our journey back up to the station.  So I guess we know Nice quite well!

This is a picture I took of a chihuahua puppy sitting on his owners lap adjacent to us on the bus, she had some biscuits in her bag which she was feeding him!  It's almost like a fashion statement!

We got back to our hotel about 3.00pm and sorted ourselves out.  We decided to go out into the town for dinner, there had been so many restaurants along Rue Massena and it would be fun to watch the populace stroll by, so at 7pm we set off.  It was so delightful to be out at night in this exciting city in the warm night air.  Nice is very much a mixed race city and the area we were in was part of the 'Nigerian'  sector, their meeting place seemed to be in a particular cafe some way down the street into town, we had passed there the previous night, weaving through their tables, and they seemed to be having some great discussions, the hi-pitched loud voice from the kitchen speaking French with a Nigerian accent was very prominent.  

 

 

It was quite light when we started out, but by the time we had looked through some shops and checked out some menus it was getting dark, so we settled on dinner at 'Le Maori'.  

We were shown to a nice table with a good view of the foot traffic and had a lovely meal, Caesar salad, crispy skin salmon, and the best tiramisu ever, all washed down with a nice bottle of wine.  We asked the waiter about the word 'Maori' and he told us it was a New Zealand word, but spoke little English so no further explanation as to why the restaurant was called this.  I am still a little disturbed by all these toddlers and babies being wheeled or dragged around by their parents at 10.00pm, but I have to take a big breath and move on!

Just one more photo of a very small dog I missed, he's sitting on the lap of the pillion passenger, the one up by the green light, and has its own Harley Davidson hard hat and jacket!  

Wikipedia tells us:  "The natural beauty of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the  notice of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winter there. The city's main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais (‘the Walkway of the English') owes its name to the earliest visitors to the resort. For decades now, the picturesque Nicean surroundings have attracted not only those in search of relaxation, but also those seeking inspiration. The clear air and soft light has been of particular appeal to some of Western culture's most outstanding painters, such as Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Niki de Saint Phalle and Arman. Their work is commemorated in many of the city's museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse and Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret. Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and it is one of its most visited cities, receiving 4 million tourists every year. It also has the third busiest airport in France after the two main Parisian ones.  It is the historical capital city of the County of Nice (Comté de Nice)."