What a wonderful third week we just experienced! Visiting friends, super art, Roman ruins, ancient cities, good food & wine daily. It's so much fun to share it all with friends. We did so many things, that I had to do 4 picture albums for this incredible week!

Album 1: Friends, Romans, & Charlestonians:

Our Charleston friends arrived by TGV in Nimes, the big city a half hour away from our house. After a quick lunch, we headed to the "Maison Carree", a former Roman temple, now used as a place to show a very informative film relating to Nice's Volcae & Roman history. From there, we went on to "Le Jardin de la Fontaine", the place where the pre-Roman Gaulish tribe, the Volcae, worshipped their god, Nemos (after which Nimes is named). If you'd like more information on Nimes' fascinating history, check out our album titled "The Roman History of Nimes" (Aug 17, 2016).

From Nimes, we went on to "Le Pont du Gard", the beautiful center for the Roman acqueduct (1 BC) that suppied Nimes with fresh water, piped 30 kilometers to Nimes to provide the "Nimois" with fresh water.

The next day we headed to Narbonne, the capital of the Roman province "Narbonnais". Near the sea at the time, Narbonne was a huge shipping port, specifically for huge amounts of wine shipped all over the Roman Empire. There we saw a remnant of the crossroads of the Via Domitia (the route that linked Italy to Spain) & the Roman road leading from the port to Narbonne. We visited the museum housed in the Palace of the Archbishop to see everything Roman: floors, walls, amphorae (storage jars), etc, then went on to the "Horreum", an underground laybyrinth of storage chambers.

From Narbonne, we went on to "Amphoralis", a museum that explains the shipping part of the huge Roman wine trade, but more specifically the making of amphorae & tiles from clay. In 1-6 AD, the Gallo-Romains were making roof tiles exactly like those on our roof, here in Villevieille. The amphorae were so numerous, & cheap, that, arrived at their final destination & emptied, they were simply thrown away. Ashes to ashes, & dust to dust, I guess.

En route home, we stopped for a drink in Meze, our favorite "real" fishing village, then on to Bouzigues for a meal on the Meditteranean.

Album 2: Thumbs up for the Colombe d'Or

Our very favorite restaurant is in St. Paul de Vence, a small village above Nice. Three months ago, we reserved a table for a mid-day meal for our third day together. The food was super, as always, but it's so much more than the food: the winding roads up to the village, the beautiful terrace full of sun umbrellas, flora & fauna, the cheerful & informative waiters, the super view, & the ART! My first time there was in 1968 as a student, & it's still the same, even better. At the time, it was known as Winston Churchill's favorite restaurant. Now it's ours!

It started out as a small simple family operation--a sort of B&B for painters who had come to the area for the southern light. Sometimes, instead of paying, the painters would leave a painting. And these painters were the BIG painters: Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, etc.

It's still sort of a B&B, with only 3 rooms ($$$), but the art has grown. Because I did an album in June of 2016, I didn't repeat the "art tour" in this year's album, limiting myself to the food & the terrace. But if you are interested in the art, check out our blog "La Colombe d'Or (June 26, 2016) showing our visit there with our Swiss friends a year ago.

Album 3: Chagall, Leger & Dali:

All 3 artists took art to a new level. All 3 artists experimented with multiple mediums in their own particular style. All 3 either knew each other or were exposed to their art. All 3 lived & worked for a while in Paris, then went south. And all 3 created museums of their own, that reflect their style, their idiosyncracies, & their theories about life. This week, we shared all 3 museums with our Charleston friends.

Chagall

After our lovely lunch, we headed down the hill to Nice, to visit the Musee Marc Chagall. I was happily surprised to see that they rotate their collection, & their current exhibit featured some things we hadn't seen last year. (See Album "The Universe of Marck Chagall", June 28, 2016.)

This museum visit started our 3 museum adventure. Chagall is a big favorite of mine, but I was happy to see his work in other mediums, as in ceramic & sculpture. He grew up in a Jewish shetyl, went to Paris to expand his horizons, & returned to marry his wife Bella. Then he got trapped during the Russian revolution. Eventually, he & Bella & their daughter returned to Paris, where he flourished along with his art friends in the period between WW1 & WW2. But with the rise of the Nazis, he had to flee to NYC, which he never really loved. His beloved Bella died of a viral infection just before their scheduled return to France, a tragedy for him. He managed to start a new life in the south of France, & married again, this time to "Viva". He thrived in the south, & eventually ended up in St. Paul de Vence (the town we visited for "La Colombe d'Or).

Towards the end of his life, he offered an important part of his collection (his Old Testament paintings) to the city of Nice, & funded a museum on a hill not far from our hotel. He was a "syncretic" (someone who combines more than one religious belief system into a new one) man, & believed that the spirit of man lies in all religions. His hope was that people of all walks would come to Nice to experience his art, & that would give them hope. In Chagall's words, the museum should be a house where "the young & the less young will come...to seek an ideal of fraternity & love such as it has been dreamed by my colors & my lines."

Leger:

Fernand Leger, 1881-1955, "artist of contrasting forms & urban modernity, of colored walls & industrial objects" (brochure, Musee Fernand Leger, Biot, France), started life in Normandy, & ended life in Biot, France, a lovely village not far from Nice. There, we discovered a very interesting museum devoted to his works, all pictured in our picture album Chagall, Leger, & Dali. His work reminds me a bit of Diego Rivera's, but it's a bit more industrial. I loved his portrayal of modern life in France, especially the new-found leisure experienced by the working class when France inaugurated "vacances payes" (paid vacations) in 1936 under Leon Blum's government. Workers revelled in bicycle, beach, & mountain trips.

Dali: En route to Barcelona, south of the French/Spanish border, Salvador Dali's museum, in Figueres, is neither hard to find, nor easy to forget. Here's an artist who knew how to sell himself! The stranger the better! I've often used his images with children, who love exploring the absurdities & cleverness of his surrealistic mind. The museum itself is surrealistic--you are never sure exactly where you are, or what he is trying to tell you, but it's thought-provoking & fun, all the same.

Album 4. Three Artists in a Quarry:

La Carriere des Lumieres, in Les Baux-de-Provence, is a must-see for us every summer. Somebody quite clever took an old limestone quarry, & made it into an experience unlike any other art form I've ever seen. To leave the blinding light of Les Baux (white rock everywhere used for bauxite collection), & enter this magical "theater" is a shock to the senses. And you do use your senses here: You SEE images projected on the walls, the floors, the ceilings, all around you in an immense space. You HEAR music, varying from classical (this time part of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons") to rock ("Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin). You FEEL cool, energized, & relaxed. You drink it all up, & you want more.

Every year they change the theme. One year it was Venice, another was Michelangeo, Raphael & DaVinci, another was Klimt. Last year it was Chagall. Each year it gets better. There are many themes explored in this year's edition (Bosche, the Breughels, & Arcimboldo), but my take-away was that these 3 artists reflect the joys, hopes & fears of the Medieval world: heaven & hell, salvation & damnation, greed & lust, piety & sin, & the inevitable 4 seasons.

New this year-- the images MOVED! At one point in time, one of the Breughels' medieval town paintings came to life with peasants dansing AROUND the room in a "farandole" (circle dance). At another time, a Bosche painting had people unhapply descending into hell. But the most incredible was near the end, when those lucky enough to go UP instead of DOWN, ascended into heaven (with Led Zeppelin's "Stairway" playing) in bubbles. We stayed for 2 sessions, & we are going back this weekend with our Swiss friends. I can't wait! And Les & I are reserving a "redo session" where they feature 3 of their earlier seasons in one session.

Album 4: Repairs & Changes, quick update on our "bac".

Les & I decided to create a large planter on our driveway, to screen the house from the road. It's impossible to plant anything in the ground there, because our 15' gate slides open & shut, & the tiles beneath it are "set in stone". So we asked Eduardo to help, & he, over the last 2 weeks, has finished his part of the project. Yesterday, I went to a nearby "jardiniere" & after a 15 minute discussion with Dominique, have a plan. The stones (drainage) for the bottom, as well as some kind of stuff we have to mix with dirt, as well as the 4 "lauriers" (we call them oleanders in the States) I chose, just arrived today. I have to call the "dirt man" for a delivery of the huge amount of dirt we will need to fill our "coffins". (See our album to see how they really DO look like 2 coffins, head to toe.) I can't wait to plant the lauriers--they do look small, but I've been promised, will grow very very fast!

"La Terre qui Chante" ("The Singing Earth"), the garden center in a nearby village, is a wonderful place! Filled to the brim with all kinds of plants, bushes, vines, trees, mostly Mediterranean, it's a welcoming place, & it indeed does make you want to burst out in song.

And as our summer theme is "cultiver notre jardin" (take care of our garden), it's a perfect place to accomplish our summer goal. We find we are spending more & more time here at home, on our terrace. We are surrounded by the birds' & the cicadas' "music", beautiful flora & fauna, & can feel the energy created by our own "garden of delights". It's a bit of our own "Carriere des Lumieres", seen from our terrace.

We hope your summer is going well, wherever you are. It's slipping away....but we still have 9 weeks to go!

Cheers,

Elise & Les