Nice Day

Today we had some housekeeeping to do, ie get more money, do some more shopping including groceries and Lyndie bought a dress she liked. This took most of the morning and our plan of going to Le Turbie this afternoon did not eventuate as the bus we needed to catch was at 2.15pm and we were only arrived back home thinking about getting lunch at this time. We decided instead to go to the cemetry and to the beach for a swim as it turned out to be quite a hot sunny day. While we were at the cemetrie the clouds came over and it spitted a bit on our way to the beach but Lynd went in anyway and we collected some stones to bring home (useful for getting the kilos up in our bags to get our moneys-worth on the plane ticket : ) ).
We came home to cook tea and as I was turning the hotpalte on we lost electricity.So I had the tricky job of explaining our predicament to the landlady without any language. We found the word for electricity in the french book and the lady came up to check out our unit and connected us again and told us not to put both the microwave and hotplate on together. I followed her instructions and just did it one at a time but as soon as i put the hotplate on again the electrity blew so I had to trapes down to get her again. This time with the frypan in my hand, she didnt understand so I brought her up to show her that it was just the hotplate that was blowing the fuse. We agreed that I cook in the microwave and not use the hotplate anymore, so we cooked our veal in the microwave. We had a yummy dessert tonight which we bought today at the bakery to have with our cup of vanilla tea

Monaco and Menton

We headed off on the bus to Monaco . It was overcast when we left and raining when we arrived in Monaco. We walked past the casino - Lyndie walked into the gaming area (not the main building), and could have been at the Redcliffe Leagues Club. We tried to go into the main building but they said not until 2 pm . Then we walked around to the port and then up to the palace to see the changing of the guard but a sign said it was not on today probably because of the rain, however there were crowds waiting hoping they would change their mind and it fined up around the guard changing time and we did see a small number of guards changing but it wasnt a big deal so i think they cancelled most of it. There were some cute streets near the palace and we wandered through and found a place for lunch. As it was still drizzly we sat down near an American couple who we ended up having a huge yarn to. They were from New York and are practically our neighbours in Nice renting a unit in the building 2 doors down . We then went to the vintage car museum and saw lots of old cars ...funny that! Then we caught the bus to Menton and walked to the old town finding some good shopping stops along the way. We found a store where we could sample some gourmet jams, pates, liqueurs etc . On the way home in the bus a lady nearby was motion - sick into a paper shopping bag. Lyndie doesn't cope with this real well but was able to offer a serviette instead of sympathy chucking - her legs still went a bit wobbly though! Today was a good way to spend a rainy day, though the photos would have been nicer in the sun. Lyndie's worked out it rains (statistically) 1 day in 7 days (it rains 60 days out of 365), so we've now had our 2 days of rain in Nice. There's 50% chance of rain tomorrow though...We're backing the other 50%!

Contemporary Art Museum

Today I wanted to get my painting done so Lyndie went her own way to Cannes to shop and I stayed at the unit to paint. By 2 pm I was happy with my progress so I went to the Modern Art Museum.Saw sculptures by Jean Tingley,models of Chrisco's wrapped buildings and works by Leger and Matisse but was disappointed as a whole . Lyndie had a dodgy set of keys (Which opens everything but the front gate) so we had arranged for me to go down every half hour to see if she was back yet from 4.30 on ,by 7.30 i was hoping ahe was alright but it turned out the bus was in a traffic jam and she was in the bus for 2and a half hours. she went there by train this morning and it only took 25 minutes by train. we had tea at home and went for a walk. Lyndie had had a good day shopping with quite a few purchases in the shopping street, and walked through the old town again and he walked up to a church and castle, and then walked out on the port pontoons after not being able to find Johnny Depps hand-prints around the Cannes Palais .

A Taste of Provence

Today we booked a half day tour to Grasse, Gourdon ,Tourette-sur-Loup and St Paul De Vence. The main reason was we want to go to Gourdon and can't do it by bus. We havent been to the other places either except St Paul De Vence and we are happy to go back there as there is more to see. On the tour was an Australian couple from Perth and 3 chinese people - a son and his parents and the tour guide called Morgan. We were in a VW Caravelle minibus.
First stop was a perfume factory in Grasse where they gave a tour of how they used to make perfumes and how they do it today. We could try the different fragrances and we all got back in the bus smelling beautiful. Then on to Gourdon, a clifftop medievil village set above a huge gorge where they do canyoning and rockclimbing. We just wandered the very few streets in this little town. Just a photo stop outside Tourettes and then an hour in St Paul De Vence . We went down different streets to the last timeand along the fortress wall with views to the valley below.We came back for our lemon meriague gelati that was fabulous last time and this time.
Back in Nice we stopped at a restaurant for dinner and shared a nicoise menu that included a nicoise salad, a beef provential casserole with polenta and an apple pie (not at all like the apple pie we know but very nice just the same.) It was a lovely meal and plenty for both of us

Museums

We went to Museum Beautxarts and Museum Massena in the next 2 days .I really only knew about the Dufy and Sisley works, most of the rest were too old for me to know about. I did find the portraits in the Massena to be amazing with the abililty to portray velvet,lace, leather with such realism. I also enjoyed the colourful works of Cheret.

Cannes

This morning we took the bus to Musee Matisse which I found to be OK but wouldnt rave. Then next door to the musee archelogical which is an excavation site of old Roman baths and a building housing some of the finds. Lyndie found it more interesting than me probably because I have recently been to this sort of thing in Naples , Athens and Ephesus.... Seen one dug up pot seen 'em all!
We got ready to go to Cannes by bus for the art opening. The trip took longer than expected (1hr 40min!) and we arrived just a bit late after walking down a cute shopping street - checked out a cheese shop and a butchers shop which sold quails (poor cute little things) and ducks with large clawsand heads intact ...we didn't have too much time to really look at Cannes before the art opening. We had hoped to wander around for an hour or so.
The exhibition had 100 artists work and some very interesting work and some quite ordinary. Some nice nibbles and wine.
As we went to catch the bus home an artist/craft market was set up in the square and it would have been good to wander a bit more slowly through it but we are still a bit over waiting for buses after the other days, so we jumped on the one that was there. The market will have to wait for another day ....or year!!!

Cagnes-sur-mer & St Paul de Vence

We caught the bus to Cagnes-sur-mer but we didn't go to the seaside bit we walked up the hill to the Renoir Musee. This was his home(photo) for the last 11 years of his life. It is in a magic spot with a view to the old town of Haut-de-Cagnes, a hilltop fortified village in one direction as well as a 180 view of the ocean in the other direction. It is set in a very old olive grove and is quite a large home with modern facilities which means he can't have been a starving artist before he died. His studio is set up like it was before he died except for the 760 paintings that were in there which I guess have been sold by now. There was a short video of him painting showing his crippled up hands...he had very bad arthritis, and a cheeky twinkle in his eye.
We then caught a shuttle bus to the old town and walked around(photo)but the shops and art galleries were shut as it was midday . Then a bus to St Paul de Vence - the most famous little hilltop village in the region - and by the time we got there all the artisans shops were open (2pm). There were lots of lovely galleries with very good art.We took lots of photos of the cute streets, so much so that both our cameras were on their last legs by the time we went home. We had a lemon meringue gelati (photo) - YUM with real meringue on the top!!. This flavour has now taken over from my previous favorites , pistatio and fig.
At home we did a bit more grocery shopping .There has been a notice in our lift which we asked about and found out it was a notice to say the water would be cut off for some time today.The water was a lovely brown colour when we returned showing that they had been doing some work. We hope we are cleaner after our shower tonight and not dirtier!!! We had a cuppa and some little pastry biscuits and a rest before dinner at home and our evening stroll .