Nice Underestimated

Two years ago, or even a year, if you said 'Nice' I'd probably have replied 'Cool, it's between Cannes and Monaco, perfect!' and I could probably have mentioned the theatre where Cannes Film Festival takes place, or Casino in Monaco, but I didn't really know anything about Nice, apart from that it had perfect Cannes&Monaco connections and was at the seaside. And I think many people feel the same way, Nice isn't really well known as a turist atraction, neither for its museums nor for the rest of the stuff. I've heard about Cimiez a few times before, but didn't really know 'de quoi il'sagit'(what is it about) as my French friends love to say. The most popular and recommended places to visit in Nice are Place Massena, Promenade des Anglais, Old Town, The Cathedral, The Opera, Castle Hill and Port; Cimiez is far behind them; such an understatement.

Cimiez is the name of neighborhood in Nice North, about 2-3 km from Massena. It includes Chagalls Museum, Matisse Museum, a park, Universite Valrose with beautiful Chateu d'eau. It is easily accessible from Massena (for instance busses 15,17, 20). We stopped at the very north part of Cimiez, next to Matisse Museum, very famous according to my friend (I haven't heard much about it). The museum is located in the heart of a park, just in front of the Archeologycal Museum and a few minutes walk from the Monastery. This composition all toghether looks absolutely amazing. You have the ancient stones from 1st century B.C., the park, and Matisse's house in the same frame. The building itself stands out the park, it gives the impression of magical mish-mash. 

The museum inside is however slightly disappointing, I must admit. Free entrance for students, 10 euros regular ticket. It's quite small with no significant pieces of art, no stunning paintings, no enormous sculptures, which is funny cause the museum itself adversites as one of the main museums about Matisse. They also want to 'give visitor a chance to enter Matisse's world of inspiration.' Didn't work on me. At all. Before I was instructed absolutely no photos were permitted, I managed to take two. 

Completely under-inspired we went for a walk through park in the direction of Monastery. This is were I found my true inspiration. Petanque! A traditional French game, still quite popular among elderly people in South France. This is the first time I saw people playing in Nice, I used to see them a lot more when I lived in Nimes. What is petanque? Boules game, the same family as bowling. The easiest explanation probably would be: throwing the boules as close to Jack as possible. Doesn't sound like complicated at all and looks really fun, I'll have to try it before leaving Frane for good. 

The Monastery, a bit up the hill, looks quite normal from the outside, the facade is a bit oriental for me, but the inside is really interesting. As my friend said, really dark and overwhelming. Definitely worth entering. One of the best parts of the Monastery is the garden. The orange trees with fruit look just amazing. Quite a nice place for lunch, a few benches to sit on them and breathtaking panoramas of Nice guaranted. To the right from the garden, there is the Cementary of Cimiez, where Matisse and a few notable nicoise citizens are burried. The cementary is really, really old, quite alienated with basically no turists. Thera are lots of those crazy little paths leading to another crazy little paths which for me equals getting lost a thousand times. I'm really happy I was with my friends, definitely don't recommend going there alone. The cementary reminds me a bit of the one in Glasgow, maybe because it's up the hill, but I feel also that the scupltures and style are quite similar and completely opposite to the famous cementaries in Warsaw or in Lviv. We had hard time finding Matisse's memorial, it's separated from the others, you have to follow the signs and then take the stairs down, basically almost leaving the cementary.

On our way out we stopped by the Archologycal Museum, which is just behind Musee de Matisse. IT has the same ticket prices. The exposition is no great piece of art, just a bunch of stones, one could say, but again, it is just a great place for a walk, it looks funny how ancient arenas from 1st century B.C. are juxtaposted with modern buildings or even the Matisse Museum. It looks like they're building a bridge so that it would be possible to walk over the ruins. This is such a part of history. 

Overall, Cimiez is really worth dropping by, and it's a shame it's such an underestimated part of the town. Maybe the museums are not true pices of art, but just going there for a walk or lunch would be a really nice way to spend early afternoon. I really regret not having visited it earlier. I will definitely be back, for a lazy afternoon with a book.

Museums in Nice: Beaux Artes

Le Musee des Beaux Artes is situated in Magnan, west part of the town, just a few minutes from the seaside and the law college (Campus Trotabas). Easily accessible by whole bunch of busses (bus stop: Rosa Bonheur or Grosso Cum). How is it like?
Well, as I've already mentioned, Nice isn't well known from its museums. I kind of agree with that, but then, on the other hand... The building itself is very interesting and it reminds me of Woody Allen's last film- 'Magic in Moonlight'. It has this meditteranean charm of French Riviera.

There are only two flors and the whol tour took me about 40 minutes. The museum is quite small, which doesn't make the visit too long and boring. I think about 45 minutes is perfectly enough time to accually see everything and spend time with our favourite pices, no need to rush in order to see everythin like in The British Museum, for instance.

Because the museum is so small, the amount of the information is just perfect and during the visit I found my two new favourite artists: Moise Kisling and Jules-Henri Lengrand. Some of their works that are in the museum; they obviously are more impressing live than on bad quality photos. In general, I think Le Musee des Beaux Artes is a nice way to rest from beach and sun in Nice.

One hill stand

Taking advantage of really great bus connections in Les Alpes Maritimes, I went to Saint Paul de Vence. No, seriously, I don't think I've ever been to an area with such a complex public transport. For 1,5 euro you can easily get from Nice to Cannes, Monaco, Menton, Antibes, Grasse, Cagne sur Mer and Saint Paul, among others. All the possible connections are available at Conseil General of Alpes Maritimes. Saint Paul is about 19 km kind of North-West from Nice. It takes about 45-55 min by bus number 400.
Is Saint Paul special at all? Yes, yes yes!!! It is a great example of typical provence village. The hill sticks out from far away. It really looks adorable, because down the hill the properties are rather spatious, with gardens and pools, not so close to each other, and up the hill everything is squeezed up to the maximum, you realize that walking those tiny streets.
There isn't a lot to see in Saint Paul. Marc Chagall lived there and he is burried at the local cementary, there is also a chapel, a monument and a museum. Saint Paul is more about the atmosphere and breathtaking views. It's still not high season and I guess Saint Paul isn't that well known, so there weren't many turists, in fact not many people at all, and it was just so calm and peaceful. All the beautiful streets, the views, typical rustic houses. The essence of Provance, definitely, one of those places I've been dreaming about from time to time. Tiny local population, no noise, mindblowing views, small, traditional cafees. What I didn't know about Saint Paul, and certainly what I did not expect, were numerous small art shops and art galleries, with some very nice stuff.
Places like Saint Paul make me realize how much I accually love South France and how hard it will be to move on in just a few more months. Wish I could take a part of Departement 06 with me.

My friend married a city, take 1

Two weeks ago I went to Milan. There is really good rail connection between Milan and Nice. The train is only 5 hours long and costs 15 euros. First class is twice as expencive, but I didn't really notice the difference. Because this is Italian train, you can book tickets via trenitalia, under the label 'tutti treni'. The website is available in English, but the booking information is in Italian only, which is just not nice. I left on Thursday evening, because there are only two connections a day. I was at my friends place about midnight.
We started Friday morning with coffee at one of the little cafees near to her place. Two funny things: in Italy you have to pay for a seat, so you will see many Italian people drinking coffee or having breakfast at the bar or even standing. Second thing: Italians, as well as French have this strange coffee I call coffee-vodka shots, because the coffee is served in this really tiny shot glasses. Some people would call it the real coffee, but it's a thing that a person used to Gregg's medium late will just never accept. Sorry.
First stop: Piazza Duomo. One of the top places to see according to tripadvisor and simmilar websites. From the outside, nothing special really. I mean, it looks the way you expect an old cathedral to look like. Ohh and there is this figure on the door, that if you touch his leg and make a wish, he will bring you luck. Even though the door is really big, you can't really miss the leg, it kind of sticks out as at the picture attached.

After seeing a few similar buildings, the Cathedral Duomo shouldn't be somthing new. But the great part is hidden inside. My friend asked me to go up, You can get student tickets for 7 euros and climb all the way to the top. I wasn't really convinced and decided to go just because I was cold.  And so glad I am, that we did that, the top was absolutely amazing! All the ornaments and sculptures were just on the palm of the hand. You can't really see any of them from the ground. The archtecture is just stunning, I'm not an art historian, so I can't really say a lot, but everything seems to be done with great precision, so perfectly geometricaly measured, each tiny little piece of sculpture fits the rest. I must admint, the most beautiful thing in Milan. After we climbed there, I didn't want go go back and we spent a few minutes just standing there and admiring the greatness of the Cathedral and the panorama of the city (not that great due to weather conditions).

From Piazza Duomo we went to the 'Prada Quarter' as my friend calls it- real name Via Montenapoleona (still no clue what is has to do with Napoleon). This is the neighborhood of ridiculously expensive shops, all of them being so perfectly polished and beautiful. Even if you're not planning on doing some shopping while in Milan, going through Via Montenapoleona feels so sophisticated and so wrong, leaving Milan without stopping there just won't do. 

                Did I mention I went to Milan for St. Valentines? Well that was a good choice. 

                                       Probably the best add ever. Seen at Dolce&Gabbana.

Next stop: the castle and the triumph arc. The striking thing: I didn't acknowledge Milan having a castle. I googled what to do in Milan before coming there, but the castle just somewhow didn't really pop up. Lucky me, my friend from Milan took me there. The castle is much bigger than it seems from the outside, it leads to a park with the triumph arc at the end. Looks good and must be just so much nicer when the weather is appropieate. 

Then, we rushed to Basilica of Saint Ambroggio, the oldest church in the city. After climbing up the Cathedrale Duomo, Saint Ambroggio seemed a bit overrated. Anyway, it's worth just stopping by. and it won't take a lot of time. Basically you just enter, look around and leave. A church from the 4th Century is a piece of history worth seeing. 

We spent the evening having pre-drinks at a friend's house, then we continued in the city centre. We finished the day at Armani Prive, a night club in the heart of the old town, close to the castle. Such a change after Nice, where the average age is too-young-too-even-be-there, students are just everywhere (I am a hypocrite, I know it), ladys wear converse and gentlemen... well, are no gentle at all. Milan looks so much better in terms of night life. Either that orr I just don't know Nice at all. But it seems to me Milan has more middle-class-not-old-but-not-student places, Armain was really ok, men is suits, women in heels, everybody so well behaved. Nice is just either the very low level, either super-millionare places.