Nice, France
Our little corner of the world right now surrounds Cocoon Beach. We arrived in Nice, France yesterday and took the tram right to our hotel. Ibis Californie has a pharmacy and fruit stand to it’s right, a pizza shop to the left and a French bakery just across the street. Cross just one more street and Mediterranean Sea beckons you to walk it’s shores. The beach is composed of fist sized, but smooth and colorful rocks. As you walk closer to the water, the rocks get smaller until it’s a mix of sizes, and mostly pebbles. Fierce and I both put our feet in and got the bottoms of our jeans wet. It felt so good. We sat on the beach later taking in the views and skipped a few rocks into the sea. Afterwards, we ended the evening with pizza and bakery treats.
If you quote Fierce for today, “We walked and walked and walked.” He isn’t wrong, but we also saw the palm trees that line the entire promenade. The sounds of the waves crashing against the rocks is soothing. I even enjoyed looking up at the architecture of the new and old hotels.
Old Nice is a bustling town of cafés, shopping galore, and restaurants. The Fontaine du Soleil welcomes you and just beyond that, there was a temporary exhibit of WWII military vehicles and men in French and American uniforms. I looked up the significance later and found out that Aug 28, 1944 is Nice, France’s liberation day!
Here’s where the real “walking bit” comes into play. I wanted to see the Marc Chagall Museum and it ended up being way to far away, but we did make it only to find out that it would be another half hour before the museum opened for the afternoon. It gave us an excuse to sit at the adorable garden café and have ice cream and lemon méringue pie. Our rested feet found their way to the art museum and I immediately liked Marc Chagall’s work. He paints, turns those paintings into gorgeous mosaics and even did some stained glass work for a church. He does test work in black and white, but the finished pieces are vibrant. Deep blues, lively reds, yellow…my favorites were his Old Testament paintings. I especially liked how he portrayed the Garden of Eden like a woman’s form covered in beautiful flowers like a symbol standing next to Adam and Eve being kicked out. I also appreciated the way he painted God speaking to Moses in the burning bush. It has a vision quality to it and I suppose a part of me hoped God would speak to me as well. Take a taxi, but don’t miss this museum.
Our last adventure for the day was to grab our suits and go jump some waves. They basically knock you over, so it’s just as fun to sit on the rocky shore and let the waves tumble over you. White foam engulfs you and it turns your whole body sideways. Fierce tried to make a rock castle, but the waves laughed at his efforts and the pile was pulled down after only two leveling sweeps. We also discovered that not only can you skip rocks on the water, but also on the wet rocks themselves. I am not sure what I had expected, but it was a lot of fun.
Until next time… :)
