Guests from Normandy Come to Nice!!

Wednesday January 22nd

I met Nicole and Jacques at the train station after their long train trip from Caen to Paris to Nice. It was great to see them after our last visit when I stayed at their home on the Normandy coast. Nicole was the second Weston-Rombas Association exchange student from a little town in France to a little town in the USA. She reminded me of how she happened to come. The school sent her parents a letter saying she was invited to participate in this program. As she described, and I can only imagine, she was a shy girl from a small town coming to a very different place for a year without family or friends-except for her new friends! She is still in touch with some of her classmates. We would be having  a busy three days! They had only been to Nice once long ago....

Thursday January 23rd

Jacques, Nicole, Joanna

On Thursday we went to Vence with Joanna and Lana to see the still and always wonderful Rosaire Chapel which Matisse designed and painted. I had read that the January morning light was very special, but regrettably there was no sun. Nonetheless, Nicole and Jacques were as captivated as I! It closes right at 11:30 (the nuns have to have lunch!). So we found a place for lunch, and then we walked all around the walled city.

10 minute walk to chapel-Nicole and Lana

No pictures inside....

Simplicity rules this chapel

The (7) nuns live just next door

We were lucky that there was a Matisse exhibit in the Chateau in the center of old Vence, where we saw different pictures than we would be seeing in Nice. As Jacques put it, he learned not only about Matisse the artist, but also Matisse the man!

Jacques was great guide!

...waited patiently for us to catch up!

Vence is a delightful town to visit!

A view of the Chapel we could only see from the Old Town!

Dinner that night was Provencale daube, and Tim and Mike joined us for a lively and fun dinner. Nicole had found some lovely pastries to compliment the cheese course! (This differed from the Marseille daube I had served in the fall, as it had less red wine.)

Mike and Nicole

Jacques and MIke

Nicole and Tim

Friday January 24th

This was our Nice day….We were up at Cimiez by 10, and the Monastery was our first stop. It is now only a church, but the gardens are lovely. Nicole told me that the paintings were by Brea, a famous French painter, but they are all covered (by something that looks a bit like waxed paper), so what you see in not that lovely.  The archeological museum with the dig outside the museum which we could walk through was our next stop. This time,  I noticed the explanations in English as we walked out into the dig! REALLY interesting! Jacques may have had his “fill” of Matisse, as he was not too keen to visit the Matisse Musee. But Nicole did, and Jacques came along; both were glad they did! There are different works here, and you can see how Matisse's style changed.
Lunch was at Chez Pepo, where they had their first socca! (It was also my last socca, as 1/31 was rapidly approaching!)

Caroline(the German teacher) joined us for dinner that night where we had pesto pasta and lentil soup. She also gave them some info about the walk we would do the next day!

Saturday January 25

Mike had told us about his walk along the coast to Villeneuve, so that is what we did on this glorious sunny day!   

Closer to our destination!

We had lunch outside on the water, which is one of my favorite things to do! We took the bus back and got ready to go have dinner at le Bistro d‘Antoine. Luckily they both liked my restaurant choice! We stopped at Shapko's for some jazz before we went back to the flat.

Sunday January 26

Well, all good things…and it was time to Nicole and Jacques to return to Caen. I thoroughly enjoyed their visit, and they hopefully will return to Boston next spring to visit Boston, Maine, perhaps Martha’s Vineyard!  I went to the train station with them, as I wanted buy a ticket to return to Nice for the Saint Patrick’s Day gala which Bernard is planning!
Thank you again for coming to visit, Nicole and Jacques! Hope to see you spring 2015 in the US!!