Day 16: Nice

I was very excited to go to Nice this morning! That's prounouned 'neice,' by the way. I went there on my first (whirlwind) trip of Europe back in 1997, but outside of the Chagall Museum, and the beach, I hardly remembered it. Patrick, our guide, took us on a short walking tour of the old town area and we landed at a prolific antique market near the beachfront. Amy and I shopped through the market for a bit and I must report, even with people who don't speak English, I drive a hard bargain! Amy and another couple on our tour, George & Candace, were both interested in buying an original vintage poster from the same vendor. I talked him down almost 200 Euros for each of them! In French! I was quite pleased with myself, and needless to say, they were all quite thrilled with me. It was good fun! I managed not to spend a boatload of money, but did pick up two very cool vintage french perfume cards which I'll likely frame (and I got those down from 10 to 7 euros :)

We had lunch - good Napoli-style pizza (thin crust) for Amy (and the leavings for Jenn to pick at :) and I had a tomato/mozzerella salad. The thing about Nice is that it is only a stone's throw from Italy - it looks Italian, feels Italian and the food has a huge Italian influence. It wasn't even a part of France until 1860 - that is not that long ago! It was refreshing, however, to be able to get pizza, pasta (not me though - lap-band just says 'no' to pasta, usually), gelato (amazing Italian ice cream - and since ice cream is Amy's favorite food, we fit it in).

The tour picked up after lunch and we had a local guide take us through the Chagall Museum and the Matisse Museum. The Chagall museum, along with the Rodin in Paris, are probably my two top museums that focus on a single artist - what a treat to get to see them both in one trip! The Chagall museum in Nice is focused on the Bible - the Old Testament, as he was Jewish - and he created all the works specifically for this museum back in the early 70s. It is fascinating, the canvases are enormous and just amazing to look at. He also has a room full of red paintings that he dedicated to his wife. They are all very sweet, beautiful pieces.

Now, I won't lie here - the two museums were a bit much after lunch and with the detail of our particular guide. She was very versed in art history and quite passionate...and we were all fading fast. However, it was good - from there, I broke off from the group and stayed back in Nice while the headed back to the hotel in Villefranche. Mostly I just walked around old town - now much more lively since it was evening - took photos, ate more mussels (moules! yum! two days in a row...). The pisser is that it was a bank holiday and the last bus back left about 5 minutes before I arrived to catch it - so my for my frugal 5 euro dinner, since the taxi was 35eeuros to get myself back 'home.' Alas, if that's the worst thing that happens when you're traveling (and it wasn't, btw, my London illness takes that prize), then you're doing ok! I ended the day with a nice bath, taking a night off from drinking with the folks on the tour (yes, I think we can all call ourselves drinking buddies at this point...there's been a lot of that!).

Tomorrow is the last day of the trip - I'm happy to be heading home, but I have to admit, it took me a bit to really get in the groove of traveling, and now that I'm in it, I don't want it to end! More tomorrow!

Photos: Lots of shots in Nice - the beach, market, cafe life. Matisse (blue lady) and Chagall too!