Bonjour Everyone!
This morning started out with coffee and flattened, but warm croissants at Sarl Les Armoiries Cafe in Place des Arcades right outside our apartment. The waitress was delightful, but she couldn't help it if the croissants weren't quite ready. The square is quiet in the morning except for the cafe staff bustling around setting up tables for the lunch crowd. Occasionally a small truck putters in to deliver supplies to the cafes, as well as drop off armloads of baguettes.
You kind of feel like running around banging on a pan of some sort, and politely calling out, "Bonjour everyone! Time to get up!" But alas, most of them are in deep slumber after the revelry the night before (when we were trying to sleep). As we look up we can see the shutters to the windows all tightly closed.
When our sad croissants were finished, we drove to the hilltop village of Mougins, which was not far from Valbonne. Mougins is a medieval village in a circular shape. We found it very interesting. There were lots of galleries, would-be artists and ateliers (workshops). We went to the MACM Musee D'Art Classique De Mougin. This museum has a large and diverse collection of antiquities from the Roman, Greek, and Egyptian world. It has the world's largest collection of ancient arms and armour. What I found so interesting about this museum, was that there were paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Cezanne, Rodin, Warhol, and others - but these works were interspersed amongst the antiquities.
Anyone who loved the movie 'The Gladiator', would be happy to know the silver, shining helmet used by the Spaniard in the movie, lies behind glass here at the MACM. You can see two autographs on it: one from Russell Crowe, and the other from Joaquin Phoenix.
At one point I looked over to see Ron busy taking a picture of a cross-eyed man with curly hair on the wall. I saw that the print was called 'A Bearded Man Crowned With Vine Leaves' by Pablo Picasso, in 1962. To each, his own...So we enjoyed our visit to this museum and when we left we walked along a street and happened to notice an exquisite, winding travertine (a form of limestone) bench with a large water fountain attached to the end of it. Inscribed into the travertine were the words 'Yes More Than Earth' and signed Carla Lavatelli. I had never heard of her, but now have started reading about her, and her fascinating life.
Just before leaving Mougin we went to the tourism office to ask where Pablo Picasso's home had been for the eight years while he had lived in Moulin. We were told that we could drive to the area, but would not be really able to see the home. We did just that, and behind a rusted out gate, could see the it hidden in a clump of trees. Everything appeared to be rather unkempt around the home, which did seem surprising. We drove off talking about the bizarre life of Pablo.
We decided to drive to Grasse. We had been to Grasse a few years ago, to the Musee International de la Parfumerie, but I don't remember paying much attention to the city. This time I was captivated by its lush beauty, and fascinating little streets which are so common to these ancient, cities and villages. The air felt humid, but not overpowering, and it was slightly hazy. Apparently the microclimate of Grasse is what enables thousands of delicate flowers to grow here. A few times when we mentioned going to Grasse, people would say,"Oh Grasse, there's nothing to see in Grasse - just the parfumeries!" Well, Grasse IS the perfume capital of the world. Suffice it to say, when you are in Grasse, you can't drive by Parfumerie Fragonard without stopping in.
Everytime I experience the magic of these hilltop villages and gorgeous places, I think the same thing...who couldn't be happy here for the rest of their days? Everything is so green, lush and healthy. There are massive palms, and giant agave plants growing here and there at the sides of the roads. I have noticed that the plants here don't look like they've been chewed up by some nasty insect. In fact, you hardly ever see bugs. I don't think they have them in the Côte d'Azur.
When we left Grasse, we continued on to another village called Gourdon. This was the narrowest road with hair-raising twists and turns. I kept hoping we could just make it to the top without bashing the mirrors off either side of the car on the way up. We climbed so high, my ears were popping. It was a bit hazy, and there was mist which billowed across the road. It seemed to take forever to reach the top. We drove through two tunnels from which water seeped and dripped on the car as we continued up. People highly recommended that we drive to Gourdon for the best views of the Riviera and the Mediterranean, but we were wondering if we had brain damage, because we obviously weren't going to have any view today, (if we ever did reach the top, that was.)
Well fortunately, we made it and decided to have lunch since we had burned so many calories from our terrorizing ride up. We stopped at a place called Auberge de Gourdon. We walked in and I was sure I was in the Alps where people might yodel and wear suede shorts. It felt like a Bavarian truck stop. However, everyone spoke French, so we knew we were still in France. A lady walked by our table with her dress on inside out. As we sat there we felt tired of having to maneuver the French menu, and even when the waitress explained it all in French, we still didn't understand. Therefore, I ended up with a Croquet Monsieur, which is basically a ham and grilled cheese sandwich. Ron recognized the word 'Italian' and ordered an Italian salad. No rose wine though, as we didn't want to fly over the cliff like Thelma and Louise on the way down.
After lunch, we walked out into the fog, and up the hill to the historic area where the castle was. Unfortunately, the castle is closed now, but used to have furniture from Versailles Palace, and works of art from Edgar Degas, and some sculptures. At one point, a little old man wanted us to come in and try his home-made nougat. We tried to tell him we didn't really want to, but went in anyway so as not to hurt his feelings. He gave us little bites to sample. We said, "Delicieux!" he said, "Okay, if you no buy, you leave now!" Well alright then...
So, we returned to the car and drove back down the hair raising turns a little sad that it was just too hazy to see the view that Gourdon is so famous for. You normally can see from Cannes to Nice and the Mediterranean and apparently, on a really clear day, you can see the island of Corsica.
Pretty soon we arrived in Vence, another medieval, walled village. We had fun walking around here again. It's a beautiful village and has a small cathedral called Notre Dame de la Nativite de Vence, which was built in the 4th century on the site of a Roman temple. There is a famous tiled mosaic on one wall by Marc Chagall called 'Moses Saved From The Waters' and is dated 1911. Marc Chagall, a Russian born artist, was known primarily for his paintings and stained glass. He died in 1985 in nearby Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
After touring the cathedral we walked through a square called Place Godeau, where two boys around age nine, sat at a small table engrossed in a game of chess. A little girl stood watching, with a skipping rope in one hand.
On our way out of Vence, we stopped at Le Troquet cafe on Place Du Grand Jard for Provençal rose wine. As well as the wine we also had cold, sparkling Perrier water. We didn't realize Vence was famous for its spring water until after we had finished our Perrier.
So we left Vence and started back to our apartment in Valbonne.
It was time to get back and start packing up because tomorrow, we return our trusty, little Renault car to the agency at the airport in Nice. We fly Air France to Paris, and look forward to new adventures in the City Of Light...
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