A Day in Italy, Renoir's Home/Museum, and On to Paris!

Wednesday December 18^th

Well, I am now on the TGV, the “fast” train bound for Gare de Lyon to see Paris at Christmas. It will be fast once we have stopped at Aix en Provence. But I don’t care! I love trains and will be fine arriving in Paris at 17:11! I’ve a list of places to visit and will have dinner with friends Thursday and Friday nights. I will return to Nice on Monday.

Saturday December  14th

Joanna, Lana, Graziella after our Italian coffee to start the day!

Ventimiglia, Italy is a 45 minute train trip from

Nice. Luckily for us, Graziella has a car and was up for the field trip to Italy! Our first stop was the train station as we had found some tickets, but the one for two to go to Milan was for December 3rd, so it was no longer good. There are two tickets to go Nice-Ventimiglia round trip, to be used in the future well, specifically December 28th!). Graziella, whose mother is Italian, grew up in Monaco, was married to a Brit, and now lives in Nice. (She did the talking at the train station!) We walked through the busy market and the flea market, held the second and fourth Saturdays.
Graziella suggested we go visit the delightful town of Dolceacqua, several towns away. after lunch, we went up to the chateau.

The old chateau dominates the landscape.

We had to walk through the old town to get to the chateau.

We had a wonderful tour in English after a short video also in English (subtitles). The guide was very informative and helpful, as we asked a variety of questions. We stopped for a glass of wine overlooking the sea, even though it was dark. The lights back into Nice were fun to see, as we could see the variety of efforts which each town put into the season!

 On Monday, Joanna (Cornwall) and Mary (London) and I took a field trip to Cagnes sur Mer and Biot. Our first stop was Cagnes sur Mer, where Renoir lived the end of his life up on the hill overlooking the sea.  

This was on the property and is being renovated.

The Chateau from Renoir's home

Luckily the Renoir museum had just reopened at the end of July, so we got to see the whole house, including his ateliers (two studios at opposite sides of the house to catch the light). He was very crippled with arthritis, so when he started sculpting, Richard Guino actually did most of the actual work. Someone had had the wisdom to do a short, silent movie of him,

You can see how crippled his hands were.

Primary studio

so we got to see him paint a few strokes, stop to talk with the men with him, puff on his cigarette, and continue this cycle. We walked back down the hill, to catch Bus 44, a free shuttle up to the Chateau Grimaldi. We had purchased a combo ticket and had been warned that the two visits had to be made on the same day. Regrettably we were not reminded-perhaps we should have assumed-that the Chateau would be closed from 12-2. We arrived at 11:55, and it was closed! So we had to return after 2!

Two busses later, we arrived in Biot, which used to be famous for glass blowing: many of the artists have moved away. Luckily there are a few vestiges left, and we saw one of them. We got off at a studio which has been open since 1956, where a father and son now make the glass.

They did lovely work, but fortunately I was NOT tempted!

Back on the train...I paused writing as we went through Antibes; it is still great fun to see the different aspects of life here! Now the train is parallel to the beaches! We stop at the Antibes train stop, where lots of people get on. Farther along, we pass an area where they are farm fishing. Scenery is wonderful with lovely cliffs somewhat like the calanques I saw in Marseille. I even saw someone in a bathing suit, who looked to have been swimming! Eventually we pass Saint Rapheal and Frejus. I am glad I have an upper window seat to see so much as it will be dark when I return on Monday!

By now I was seriously starving! We took the bus into the little town of Biot and had a pleasant lunch at Le Piccolo. Two busses later we were back in Cagnes sur Mer to revisit the Chateau Grimaldi. Joanna left to get back for her pilates class; Mary and I found the chateau

Looking out from the chateau

Loved this singing frog!

A better look....

very interesting and worth visiting! There were several exhibits, one was pictures of a famous singer of the '20's, Suzy Solidor, and the other were photos by Andree Derdet. They also had a collection of wheels and equipment used to produce olive oil. (I forgot to describe the little olive oil production we happened upon in Dolceacqua last Saturday, as we watched them press the olives!) We were all very happy with our day visiting Cagnes sur Mer and Biot!

Yesterday was my day to EAT OUT!! (Getting ready for PARIS, perhaps?) I met Mike for lunch, and we walked to Nicoletti, a delightful little Italian restaurant which was nearly full when we arrived at 12:30. Mike had the osso bucco plat du jour; I had a VERY good pesto and tomato sauce pizza. Mike commented that it looked like the Italian flag, as half of the pizza had each of the toppings-they were not mixed.

Last night Joanna, Lana, and I went to the Lebanese restaurant called Beuyreth. We shared six dishes including tabbouleh, salad, falafel, eggplant, fried cauliflower, and rice vermicelli. It was good, but I think it was better for lunch, when I had been there before.

On our way home we stopped at the nightclub JAM which was having an open mike night. In addition, one of the musicians was celebrating his 29^th birthday. He arrived wheeling his double bass and carrying his small dog, who was fun to watch as he ran around the club and chased some balloons! Once again it felt like I was dropped onto a movie set and had to figure out what the plot was and who were the characters. (For example,when the birthday guy called on his father, who was alone, to say something, the father said something about the mother who must have died not being there.)

Next post I will fill you in on what I found to do in Paris! Thanks for traveling!!!!