Along the Cote D'Azur

Annamaria on Monday

I have spent the last week with friends of a life time in their beautiful home in Nice.  They wined and dined and showed me their city and took me into the centre the of the contemporary art scene in a vibrant and gorgeous part of France.  WiFi was spotty where I was and now I have just arrived back in Florence past my bedtime.  So I will give you a photo essay of what I have been doing.  If it gives you 5% of the enjoyment it gave me, you are going to like this:

The first thing you see when entering Jean-Claude and
Francoise's building is an elevator the likes of which I have
only otherwise seen in movies.

My room: Like the rest of this delightful apartment, it is a
splendid combination of elegant antique French furniture and
edgy, intellectually stimulating contemporary art.

 I took a lot of pictures of the view from my room.  This one,
at dawn on a cloudy morning, is intentionally surrealistic!

Red sky in the morning.  That bright light right of center is the lighthouse at
Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat.  It took a few tries to catch it when the light was
flashing my way.  It shines faintly on the wall of that bedroom in the night.

During a dinner party in honour of Moussa Saar's one-man show, set to open
the following night.  JeanClaude gave a tour of his and Francoise's collection for
Moussa, his Gallerists, and the curator of a show at the Nice Museum of
Contemporary Art. 

We took many walks along the seaside.  I won't brag about the weather.  It
was not my doing, but it was my delight.

A typical seafront building

Flags blowing in the sea breeze

One of my favourite works in the current show--The Precious
Power of Stones, now at Musee d'Art Moderne e d'Art Contemporain

While taking in the view from the roof terrace of the museum

Selfie of three life-long friends

Jean-Claude collects the evidence that I had the nerve to order a cheeseburger
for my lunch al fresco after seeing the museum exhibit.

Sights in the old town

The fort at Villefranche sur-Mer

A harbour view from the town 

A view of an underground street.

Within the fort, there is a museum of the works of sculptor Voltigerno
 Antoniucci, called Volti

We had a private tour of Santo Sospir, a house where Jean Cocteau come for
visit and stayed for twelve years.  In the meanwhile, he painted the walls!

I took a ton of pictures, and give you just a few.  The place
marvelous.

The ceiling of the staircase leading down to the bedrooms

A drawing left behind by a visitor

The garden outside the bedrooms

View from the garden terrace 

That lighthouse at St.-Jean Cap Ferrat, whose light reaches
across the kilometres to the bedroom where I slept.

We heard a marvellous concert at the 18th century Palais Lascaris played on period
instruments from the museum's collection and sung marvellously by young musicians

We visited Menton, where they were setting up for this years'
celebration of the orange and lemon harvest.  Yes, that church
is made from citrus fruit.

Sunset from Ste.-Agnes

An old bunker along the Maginot Line, overlooking the sea from Ste.-Agnes

The view from up there!

Nice has turned an old slaughterhouse into free studios for artists.
We visited an exhibition of some of the works they are creating.  I am
including a couple of favorites.

As soon as I got close to this one hanging, I smelled what it is covered with.  I had to look at
 the list of works to confirm that my nose was right--it is covered with Nutella!

With up-and-coming young French artist Moussa Sarr after the opening of his show

Matisse's Villa

And his grave

And the view from his grave at dusk.

At the Picasso Museum in Antibes

We went to an open house at the Windsor Hotel, where the rooms are decorated by
artists.  Here is a shot of the ceiling of the bar.  This one's for you, Stan!