Happy Nice Day!

Day Four: A Nice Final Day in Nice

We started our day by heading down to Antibes, which we had passed on our travels to and from Nice. We had noticed there is a Picasso museum there so we wanted to check it out. Today was the day that we learned that we should be mapping our journeys to parking lots and not the destinations themselves.

Our GPS took us directly to the museum, which, it turns out, is in the old fort that stands on edge of the sea. Not a problem except that we found ourselves on the very narrow one-way road that wraps around the area, which is a very popular spot for pedestrians and cyclists. We slowly navigated our way around and eventually found parking.

The museum itself (the building) was quite interesting. Like I said, it’s housed inside the old stone fort, so the layout, windows, doorways, etc. were all incredible to look at/be around. As for the art, there were some pieces that were beautiful but many of the Picassos were pencil drawings and sketches he had done while in residence there. It feels like an odd thing to me that the only works I really liked of his were his tapestries and sculptures they had on display. There were some incredible works of sculpture outside on the terrace overlooking the sea by a few different artists. Overall, an enjoyable visit.

We walked along the shore “road” for awhile and then found our way to a big open plaza in the middle of the “old town”. We found a restaurant at the edge of the plaza (there were many to choose from) and watched the flow of people and pets while we ate (there were many dog walkers in every city we’ve visited so far).

After lunch, it was time to head back down to Nice for our final visit before moving on to our next adventure. We set our gps for a parking lot we had used before and were on our way. Driving along the coast on a beautiful sunny day is a stunning way to make your way into Nice.

At 3:30pm local time we met up with the walking tour we had had to postpone from our first day. Expecting a large group, we were quite pleased to find there was only one other couple, who were from Montreal, joining us. Our guide, a lovely woman named Laura, was welcoming and so very knowledgeable about the history of the city.

Laura took us first up to the top of the nearby cliffs where, she explained, Nice used to be in it’s entirety. Atop the cliff was a castle, once upon a time, and all of Nice was the castle and the settlements immediately surrounding it. We got to the top in an ancient device known as an “elevator”. It turns out, these cramped little elevator cars were installed inside of a old well shaft that had taken over 400 years to dig!

Once we were up on Castle Hill (Colline de Chateau) we learned that castle itself (eleventh century) was built upon an old Greek settlement from the fourth century. From here we could see all of Old Nice below us as well as spectacular views of the shoreline and sea.

We walked around up top for awhile where there is an ongoing archeological dig as well as opportunities to view Nice harbour and some mosaics of Ulysses, a nod to the local ancient connection to Greek history and the sea itself.

From here, Laura took us down into Old Nice, showing us little pieces of the city that remain from various times. Many of the buildings still have roman markings on them to ward off evil and are protected buildings from the structures down to the paint colours.

While wandering through Nice, Laura pointed out some windows that, at first, appeared like all the other windows until Laura asked us to look closer. It was only then we realized there were no windows (there is no spoon) but they were, in fact, paintings of windows. It was explained that the windows, a form of art known as trompe d’oeil, was simply done for the beauty of them. (A quick bit of research online led me to a historian who explained that creating window openings was expensive so they would add real windows to the front of the building and use trompe d’oeil on the other sides of structure. There are some who point to a tax per window/door during the revolution and that some had opted to paint on fake windows to maintain an aesthetic while avoiding a tax.) We would see this again in other French cities we visited.

Laura also explained that many cities in the South of France ended up being independent for awhile before falling under French rule. A good example of this is the existence of an old language, Niçard, that has its roots in Italian and Latin. Street signs on buildings are posted in French with another placard in Niçard just below. This semi-rebellious independent spirit is found throughout the South of France and can be seen in history when places like Nice butted heads with folks like Napoleon. The symbol of Nice, seen on its flag, is a large eagle standing atop three hills (for the three hills that makeup Nice geographically). Napoleon’s symbol was an eagle. When Napoleon ruled that only he could use an eagle, Nice’s symbol was changed to a lion but it never really caught on, and the eagle returned and continues to represent Nice to this day.

We stopped at on old church or two and took in the gothic architecture. Down in the main market area we saw many protected buildings, including one that housed Matisses’s old studio, still in use today.

We ended our tour in a market square where people were passing through the stalls, eating ice cream, chatting, and shopping. It was here that I spotted an odd ceramic tile mosaic that looked like a creature from on old video game. I thought it was cool, snapped a quick pic, and we moved on. I would come to learn more about this art and the artist when we toured another city, so I will write more about it in a later post.

Rebecca and I parted from our tour and found a cafe that sold one of the local Niçoise specialties that Laura had told us about called Socca. It’s a chickpea based flat bread that was quite a tasty snack.

At the end of the day, we made our way to the beach where we watched the sunset over the horizon. Nice was the perfect host for out first three days in France and we could not have been happier with our time there.