Trophy of the Alps, Èze, and the Nietzche Path

I'm not sure if I'm starting to lose my logistical skills or what, but today was a day of extremely poor planning on my part! We tried to take the public bus to the hilltop town of La Turbie, which would have been a 20-minute drive away if we'd only had a car. Instead we waited at a poorly marked bus stop for an hour watching many city busses (that were not our bus) pass us by. And then by chance I looked up and saw a small passenger van with the tiniest sign in the window indicating that it was our bus! I frantically waved to flag it down and we were lucky he stopped at all, since he had to cross two lanes to pull over and pick us up. Whew! After a zig-zagging ride along the sinuous Upper Corniche roadway, we reached the pretty village of La Turbie.

The village itself has cobblestone and brick-lined passages, leading you past many charming stone houses decorated with potted plants and greenery.

There are several original medieval gates that have been restored. This is one of the fortified gates from the 13th century. I love how the plants cling to life, managing to survive in the cracked mortar between the stones.

I know I keep bringing it up, but there is so much ancient Roman history in this region. Romans settled all along the Côte d'Azur. The Via Julia Augusta was the Roman road that linked this part of Gaul (aka France) to Rome. 

La Turbie is the site where Augustus based his campaign to conquer this Alpine region. Over the course of a decade, his generals defeated many alpine tribes that resisted Roman rule. To commemorate the victory, an enormous monument called the Tropaeum Alpium ("Trophy of the Alps") was built on the summit overlooking the village.

After the fall of Rome, the trophy was abandoned. Over the centuries it fell into ruin with many of its stones being used to build up the town. This model shows what it would have originally looked like.

But even though only a fraction of it remains today, it is still massively impressive. It looms over the town and can be seen for miles. Unfortunately, poor planning snag #2 had us visiting this town on a Monday -- the one day of the week when the monument is closed! It's surrounded by a high fence so not only could we not get very close, but we also missed out on the museum and park inside. Oh well! We did manage to get another good view of it from the nearby cemetery.

With the two strikes already against me, you think I would've known better for the next stage of our transit plan. But we ended up wasting over an hour waiting for the bus that should have taken us from La Turbie to the village of Èze. When bus after bus (none of which was "our" bus, of course) kept passing by the stop, we finally gave in and called an Uber for the -- I kid you not -- quick ten-minute ride along the Middle Corniche road to get to Èze! It would have taken us less time to walk, except there aren't sidewalks along the narrow twisting road. Anyway, eventually we made it to the very photogenic town of Èze.

Like Saint-Paul de Vence, Èze is a "perched" village and it's known for its botanical garden that showcases cacti and succulents from all over the world. With all the agaves and other desert-dwelling plants, the garden reminded us very much of home. The garden's plants are scattered among the hilltop ruins of the 12th century fortress that used to guard the town. Along the pathways, several sculptures representing Earth Goddesses stand watch over the views. 

After visiting the garden we had a nice lunch and took a walk through the narrow streets of this pedestrian-only town. It wasn't too crowded, but there were definitely plenty of other tourists walking around despite it being shoulder season in late October. Wikipedia claims that only about 2000 people live here; I can't imagine living in a town this pretty. Of course it might be less fun to be a resident in the summertime when the throngs of tourists are out in full force.

After seeing the sights, we decided to walk back down to the water along the famous Nietzche's Footpath. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche came to this part of France to recover from a mental and emotional breakdown. He settled in Èze during the winter of 1883 and spent a great deal of time walking this steep trail. It inspired him to write his most well-known work Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

The path is about 3 miles long and gains almost 1400 feet in elevation. Many people hike up this trail to get to Èze from the coastal town of Èze-sur-Mer below. Maybe they are gluttons for punishment or just never heard of Uber? We cleverly decided to hike it the easy way -- downhill.

Even still, it was quite steep and slow going. But at least we had beautiful scenic views all the way down. We rested a few times to give our knees a bit of a break. The landscape was dry and the air temperature was actually quite warm. If not for the huge expanse of Mediterranean sea below us we could have imagined we were hiking back in Arizona.

Whew! Sweaty and tired, we finally made it to the bottom of the trail. We could look back up the hillside and see how far we'd come -- the town of Èze is somewhere up there out of sight from below. We were so glad we could catch the bus from down here and not have to hike back up!

Daytrip to Cannes

 

The first thought that comes to mind when you hear the name Cannes is the glitz and glamour of film stars on the red carpet. We were disappointed to see that the Palais des Festivals (where they screen the films) was under construction and nearly completely blocked from view. Oh well, we managed to walk along the parts of the sidewalk that weren't blocked off, where international film stars and directors have left their handprints over the years during the Cannes Film Festival held each May.

When not hosting the film festival, the Palais is just the town's regular old convention and conference center. It can't all be glitz and glamour, I guess.

As with all the other French Riviera towns, there is an old port with fancy yachts right in the center of town. This is one of two large marinas in town.

If you aren't staying on a swanky boat, you can stay in one of the swanky historic hotels along the Boulevard de la Croisette which stretches along the waterfront. The luxurious Carlton Hotel was built in 1911 and was used as a location for the film To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.

Murals around town celebrate the international film industry. This one at the Hôtel de la Plage depicts filmmaker Jacques Tati and the painted posters are tributes to his Monsieur Hulot films of the 1950s and 60s.

From the promenade along the old port, you can see the hill of Le Suquet, the oldest quarter in Cannes. This is the site of the original Roman settlement in this area. The hill is dominated by the tall tower and crenelated rooftop of the Château de la Castre on the left, and the clock tower of the Église Notre-Dame d’Espérance on the right. The castle was built by monks in the 1200s and is now a museum. To get to the top of the hill you have to climb 109 steps.

Or you can do what we did and take the Petit Train Touristique. All aboard!

The church of Notre-Dame d’Espérance was built during a 100-year period in the late 1500s and early 1600s. It has a very simple exterior and facade.

From the side courtyard of the church there are great views of the Old Port and the Cannes promenade. 

We enjoyed visiting this beautiful walkable town very much!

A Very Rainy Week in Nice

The weather predictions for this week forecasted rain for most days, so we made the best of Monday, the sunniest day, and took the train and a bus to the perched village of Saint-Paul de Vence.

Saint-Paul is called a village perché and that term describes it very well: it's a fortified village that is quite literally "perched" atop a cliff or promontory. These medieval villages are found throughout France and typically have walled ramparts and narrow pedestrian streets. The idea was that if you made your village extremely hard to get to, then you would be less vulnerable to attacks by your enemies.

From what I understand this little town is a zoo during the summer months when it is packed with tourists. We were here on a Monday in October and it was much easier to walk the narrow cobblestone paths with fewer tourists. The village is full of art galleries of all types, so it was interesting to peek inside the little shops and see one full of pastel impressionist paintings right next to another one full of inventive modern sculpture.

Saint-Paul's reputation as an artistic haven is well-deserved. One of its most famous residents was Marc Chagall, who lived in this area in his final years. He is buried, along with his wife Vava, in the town cemetery. In the Jewish tradition, small stones have been placed on the grave as an act of remembrance by visitors.

After spending the afternoon in Saint-Paul de Vence, we made a quick stop at the nearby town of Vence (they should call it "Regular-Old-Vence" to better distinguish it from the fancy Saint-Paul). Vence was very quiet on a Monday and there wasn't much to see, although its Cathedral Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité has the claim to fame as being the smallest cathedral in France. It also has a very lovely Marc Chagall mosaic called "Moses Saved From The Waters".

The weather in Nice became even cloudier and more ominous on Tuesday, so we took a 15-minute walk to the nearby St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral.

Beginning in the 1860s, Nice became the winter home for the Russian Tsars and nobility. By the early 1900s there was a large Russian population living in Nice year-round, and Tsar Nicholas II funded the construction of this cathedral so that they would have a place to worship.

On Wednesday we started receiving weather alerts warning of "soaking rain" during the coming couple of days. Because we knew we'd be spending the next few days indoors, we decided to pick up a 4-day Museum Pass. It was a pretty good deal -- 15 Euros for access to 10 museums. We started with the Villa Massena Museum, which is housed in a Belle Epoque mansion right on the Promenade Anglaise. It was a small museum but very beautiful inside.

Then on Thursday we ambitiously visited four more museums, starting with the Musée Matisse which has one of the world's largest collections of the artist's works.

During his last decade, Matisse was very ill from cancer and no longer had the stamina to paint and sculpt. He changed his preferred medium to using brightly colored paper cutouts which could then be arranged into the compositions he had envisioned. It was a unique way for him to continue making art despite his limited mobility.

On to the next museum: the Archaeology Museum of Cimiez, which was just next door to the Musée Matisse. We had already walked around the exterior site of the former Roman Arena and Bath complex. But displayed inside the museum building were all of the smaller treasures that had been dug up from sites all around Nice, including this bronze mask of the god Silenus excavated from a ship that was wrecked off the coast of Antibes during the 1st century B.C. 

Our third museum of the day was the Palais Lascaris. This 17th century palace was once the home to an ancient noble family. It is now a musical instrument museum, but the baroque-style palace's rooms are very well-preserved, including the former family chapel.

Our fourth and final museum on Thursday was the Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre which was holding a temporary exhibit of the photography of Robert Doisneau.

Doisneau was a 20th century freelance photographer whose work appeared in Life and Vogue magazines in the 1940s and 1950s. Probably his most famous photograph is Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville ("The Kiss by the City Hall"). Although it was taken in 1950, this photograph had a second life as a very popular poster and postcard in the 1980s -- in fact, if I recall correctly my best friend had this poster hanging from her wall back in those days!

During our marathon museum day we did take a break for lunch near the Cours Saleya market -- and what a lunch! When I ordered what I thought was a slice of lasagna at La Favola, I did not realize I would be getting an entire casserole dish of it! It was delicious and there was more than enough for both of us. If you are ever in Nice and dining with a crowd, don't make the same mistake I did -- I'd recommend that you order this dish to partager ("share").

The "soaking rain" definitely came out in force on Friday! It was a true deluge, with the skies just inundating the city and surrounding countryside with sheets of rain. During a break where the rain let up a tiny bit, we put on our heavy duty raincoats and used our travel umbrellas to walk to the nearby Musée des Beaux-Arts. 

This small but interesting fine arts museum had sculptures by Auguste Rodin and many large-scale paintings including some Art Nouveau works by Jules Cheret, the "father of the modern poster". His smiling Belle Epoque ladies with colorfully draped dresses influenced other artists of his time such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Another artist that was on exhibit at the Beaux-Arts museum was Raoul Dufy, a French fauvist painter whose bright and eye-catching works included this one, called "May in Nice".

Well, goodness! After six museums in just three days we were exhausted and more than a little "museum-ed out", as I'm sure you are also after reading this post! (Aren't you glad we didn't attempt all ten museums on the Museum Pass?) Well hopefully we have some sunny weather for our next adventure, no art museums allowed!

Monaco

Yesterday we took the train to the Principality of Monaco, a city-state that is surrounded by France and the Mediterranean Sea. It's less than a mile square but it packs a big punch - there is a lot to see in this small place.

Our first stop was the world famous Casino de Monte-Carlo. This casino is what put Monaco on the modern map. After losing the towns of Menton and Roquebrun (and their olive oil and citrus tax revenues) to France as part of a referendum in the mid-1800s, the ruling Grimaldi family of Monaco needed to find a new source of revenue to avoid bankruptcy. Plans were drawn up for a resort and casino, and it took on several incarnations over a couple of decades before the palatial building designed by Charles Garnier was completed. Gaming revenues almost instantly solved the Grimaldi family's financial issues, and over the decades the famous Monte-Carlo Casino has taken on an almost mythic reputation for opulence and elegance.

The casino is only open for tours by the riff-raff (aka "tourists") from 10am until 1pm because the high-rolling gamblers arrive at 2pm when the gaming tables open. There is a strict dress code to enter: no baseball hats or flip-flops for the tourists, and if you come to gamble after 2pm you'd better be dressed to impress. Unfortunately, a passport or national ID card is required to enter at any time; we had neglected to bring ours and as a result we were only allowed into the Atrium and missed out on seeing the gambling salons. But I did discover a fun fact: the citizens of Monaco are not allowed to enter the casino gaming rooms or gamble at the casino! When the casino was built in the 1860s, the regent Princess Caroline felt that gambling was immoral and did not want her citizens to become morally degenerate (I'm guessing she didn't want them drinking absinthe, either...). Gambling revenue would thus only come from foreigners, and as a trade-off Monaco's citizens would not have to pay income taxes. Caroline's attempt at controlling the moral character of the Monégasque citizens failed in the end though; over time the tax haven advantages and emphasis on gambling turned the city into a "sunny place full of shady people" as Somerset Maugham noted in the 1930s.

Just across the port from the casino is a high promontory called the Rock of Monaco. It's a steep hike to get to the top, but when you do the view is worth it! The Rock offers views on all sides of the port, the sea, and the lower-lying coastal land behind it. This strategic area was a defensive stronghold in the Middle Ages.

It was in 1297 that Francesco Grimaldi seized Monaco's fortress from a rival Genoese faction. Using a "Trojan horse" tactic, he and his men arrived at the castle disguised as Franciscan friars and were able to get inside and take control. Francisco's cousin Ranier I founded the monarchy that has more or less kept control of Monaco since that time, making the Grimaldi dynasty Europe's longest-ruling royal family. In the 1600s Spain and France recognized Monaco as a Principality, which is why its monarchs are styled as "Princes" but not "Kings". Fittingly, a friar wielding a sword is featured prominently on Monaco's coat of arms.

Having hiked to the top of the Rock of Monaco, we were now in the Monaco-Ville district, which is the location of the Royal Palace, Cathedral, and historical village. The beautiful Cathédrale de Notre-Dame-Immaculée is where Prince Ranier III married actress Grace Kelly in 1956. And it is also their final resting place -- Grace Kelly died in a tragic car crash in 1982 and Rainier was interred beside her on his death in 2005. The cathedral faces the sea and overlooks a pretty park that is built into the steep hillside.

From the other side of the palace square, we could look down on one of the newer districts of Monaco, Fontvielle. Because Monaco is so small, the Principality has been undertaking reclamation projects to enlarge its territory. Fontvielle was constructed on artificially reclaimed land from the sea. Note the luxurious rooftop gardens and fancy yachts in the harbor. If you want to buy an apartment here in Monaco, it will cost you -- small studios and one bedroom apartments start $1.5 million and go up in price rapidly, yikes! But just think of all the money you'd save with no income taxes, right?!

Just down the street from the cathedral is Monaco's excellent aquarium -- the Musée Océanographique. 

It's more than just an aquarium, as it is also part of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco founded by Prince Albert I in 1906. The Institute is now a global organization and lobbies for marine science education, protection of the ocean and marine environments, and preservation of marine species.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the director of the museum from 1957-1988. Here is one of the mini-subs he used in his research expeditions, the Anorep 1. It can only fit two people so despite the color there's no way we could "all" live in it. And now that catchy earworm of a song will be in your head all day. You're welcome.

The part of town just below the palace and beside the port is called La Condamine. Here in this district we walked through the Place des Armes and one of the prettiest open-air markets we've seen on the Cote d'Azur. Monaco is so posh even the market stalls are color-coordinated. You can see the stone walls of the old city up on the hill to the left.

Monaco's main harbor is called Port Hercule. This is where all the flashy yachts dock during the Formula One Grand Prix race that is held here every year. The port was also a location for the James Bond film Golden Eye.

If you are a Formula 1 fan but can't be here for the annual race in May, there are F1-related things to see all over the Principality. Like this statue dedicated to William Grover, the winner of the very first Monaco Grand Prix race in 1929.

I think this guy must've been channeling grand prix drivers of the 1930s. We saw him rambling around in this old racecar in front of the Hotel de Paris next to the casino. We couldn't figure out if this was a rental, a promotional stunt, or what. It was just one of the many interesting cars/supercars we saw today driving around the regular roads of Monaco.

Speaking of the roads in Monaco, here is the famous Fairmont Hairpin, part of Monaco's grand prix course. The F1 cars have to take this corner at about 30mph, which is quite a challenge when they can get up to speeds of 180mph elsewhere on the track. Due to its layout as a street course in a compact city, the race course at Monaco is the slowest race on the calendar -- on other tracks the cars exceed 200mph but here they have to drive more slowly because of all the curves. I like that the curbs are always left painted red and white even after the race.

We visited the Car Collection of the late Prince Rainier III to see some classic and recent F1 cars. Since Kevin was wearing his Mercedes Hat, I had to take this photo of him with the "Silver Arrow".

The Prince's car collection was amazing -- so many cars from different eras. I liked that he deliberately searched out this 1954 Sunbeam Alpine roadster.

Although it wasn't the exact car used in the film, the Prince restored it to match the one driven by Grace Kelly in the movie To Catch a Thief.

This interesting little corner of Europe seems to have it all: sun, sea, glitz, glamour, royalty, and flashy cars. We really enjoyed our short visit to this fairytale place where the motto seems to be "the sky's the limit"!