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Published: October 10th 2005
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View of Cannes
A view on our Tuesday walk Tuesday we were “stuck” in their house because the train and busses were on strike so we took the day to catch up on reading and went for a walk down to the beach and wandered about the area. Actually it was really nice to just take a forced breather.
The transportation issue was counterbalanced on Wednesday when we were really spoiled rotten because Cindy said she was willing to drive us some place we couldn’t get by train so we went to St. Paul de Vence to see the Foundation Maeght which is a museum that has a very small permanent collection of works but when we were there the focus was on prints, it was really interesting and some of the works were fantastic. We then walked around the perched city, which is really beautiful and much less offensive than Monaco in its touristyness.
In the afternoon, Alain offered for us to go with him to St. Tropez where he was going to meet some clients, who where in the race, for a dinner. The drive was a winding road at a fast speed but it was nice to see another part of the countryside and coast.
Streets of St. Paul de Vence
All of the streets were like this! Talk about time consuming. We arrived to see all the boats coming back in from the race, which meant we sat there for a few hours and saw a few hundred sailboats pass us like a parade. Because the weather was finally good we celebrated with an ice cream, which just added to the experience of watching the boats in the sunshine with a nice breeze. We ducked into the museum there for a minute, which was great because it was actually quite nice, it was small but had some really nice pieces. Then Winnie and I watched the sailors play boules for a while in the old square before looking for our own dinner. I actually ate lasagna with MEAT in it! It was really yummy and just what I wanted. I guess this means I am slowly going to bring meat back into my life. (My mom is most likely jumping for joy as she reads this news!) Meat is really an important part of the culture here and it also tastes really good. So that was St. Tropez and the end of a two-year meat fast!
Thursday Winnie and I headed off to Nice to meet up with their daughter
and to see the museums there. We started at the Matisse museum, which is up on a hill and in a park of olive trees and surrounded by Roman ruins. It was a cool museum, small, but interesting enough. The Chagall museum was another story-one walks into a huge white room with lots of natural light and sees twelve huge canvases of the most brilliant colors! I don’t know if you know the artist Chagall, but if you do not I encourage you to “google” him because he is something else. This first room is all biblical stories, then there is a room of I think four canvases with a love theme, and then at least one more room. I was blown away by his works the color and texture are so impressive. I bought a few postcards but they don’t do the pieces justice! Then we met their daughter who showed us a bit of Nice and then we went out with her that night to a really swanky techno bar, this is not my style but it was fun to be out in the evening and see part of Nice that I wouldn’t have seen by myself.
St. Tropez
We were able to watch the boats dock and be put to bed, who wants this guy's job?! Friday we hopped on a train to Ventimiglia, Italy early morning to go to a market we heard is fun to experience. The train was rather full and everyone got off and headed in one direction so we followed the group and found the market with ease. It was really clear that we had crossed the border, everything is different! The clothes, the faces, the language, even the landscape seemed different. It was quite annoying to be back to basics and not able to communicate at all, I couldn’t remember what the Italian word for bill/check was at our lunch and things like that so we were back to being dumb Americans who don’t bother to learn anything about the place before they go! It did make me appreciate how much French I know! Anyway, one market was a food market, which I loved walking around and seeing the huge mushrooms, persimins, and beats the size of my foot. It made me want to buy bags and bags worth and go home and cook. I bought honey from this nice older woman who tried to tell me why the honey I chose was great but I didn’t’ understand so we
St. Tropez Race
These pictures I got from dry land, the grey boat has a carbon mast and will only cost you 30 million, plus one million a meter after 20 meters....I wish I could say Merry Christmas Dad but I can't because of the exchange rate, the Euro is just too strong right now, maybe for retirement. just smiled and nodded for a few minutes. The other market was clothes, scarves, leather, crafts, and much more. It was a huge market and once we did one area it seemed like we had done it all. So we ate a great lunch and wandered around the rest of the city and then mounted the train back to Theole. That night their daughter and son drove us to Nice to go to a bar with live music in the old neighborhood of Nice, which we hadn’t gotten to in the day. It was really fun to be with locals and to understand their conversations.
Saturday we woke up and went to the gardens of a chateau by Cannes and then got on the train back to Paris. I spent about four of the five hour journey staring out the window at the countryside which was dotted with aqueducts, cows, castles, farmhouses, haystacks, and so the like. It was a great vacation, by far the most relaxing I have ever had and the best part is Winnie and I are still talking after a week of just us! Haha.
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Katie
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oh those food markets in Italy... Still amazes me that they all aren't blimps over there. Eat up! The food just doesn't quite taste the same when you get back (although you will have a new appreciation for pb and j)