We hired a car and driver for the day, and headed first to the Maeght Foundation outside St. Paul de Vence. This is a large collection of primarily Miro works, with a smattering of other modern artists. Following this, we went to the old town of St. Paul de Vence. one of the many hill towns we visited today. The town was very commercial, but with fine art galleries.
We then had lunch in another hill town, St. Jeannet, in a surprisingly modern restaurant with great food.
Following lunch, we visited the Matisse chapel in Vence. This chapel was designed by Matisse as one of his final works -- he was in his 80s. The nun that explained the meaning of everything did so in French, with a few English words thrown in -- not too illuminating.
Then it was off to Gourdon, another walled hill town, with a chateau dating to the 8th century. This was a less commercial town, and was fun to visit in spite of the steep streets.
The final stop was Grasse, the perfume capital of France. (You can imagine how excited I was about that!) We visited the Moulinard factory, which has been making purfumes since 1849. (They say they are the oldest in France.)
Dinner was back in Nice, at an Italian restaurant near our hotel.
The trip sounds amazing thus far and its only beginning, except for the Starbucks issues (I think the stock started dropping Monday).
ReplyDeleteHas your sense of smell reached new levels?
Kurt
Thanks for the wonderful blog--really great of you to put forth so much time and effort to share your experiences.Really enjoying seeing pictures of Ivan and Penny and of the Steinberg's of Indiannapolis!! Enjoy the rest of the trip ,and have a smooth trip back home!! All good wishes from Rita and Manny(Jacksonville,FL.):)
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