Coastal touring

Nice
We took the train into Nice one bright, sunny Saturday a couple of weeks ago to pay a visit to the Russian Orthodox cathedral and the Matisse Museum. The cathedral was only a 10-minute walk away from the train station, and it was such a gorgeous place. It was built back in the mid 19th century.

The Russian Cathedral

From there, we walked up one of the main roads and crossed over to another main road which took us to the neighborhood called Cimiez. The road up to Cimiez was a gradual climb up, and the views from up there were really nice. It's also a rather upscale neighborhood, so there were lots of really gorgeous buildings to look at. There was a huge Victorian apartment building called Le Regina, which was built when Queen Victoria reigned (go figure!). It is really spectacular with lots of curlicue iron railings and massive windows.

The Matisse Museum is fairly small, but really well done. It's in this big, old house which sits in the middle of a lovely little park that is filled with olive trees. It was really quiet when we were there, but you could imagine how full it might get in the summer with people having picnics and hanging out under the trees. After we toured the museum, we had a coffee at a little outdoor cafe in the park and soaked up some sun.

The Matisse Museum

The park also had a ruined Roman town just next to the Matisse Musuem. The old amphitheatre was on one side and on the other were the foundations of all these ancient buildings.

Roman ruins in Cimiez

Cap d'Antibes
This is a spit of land that juts out just south of the town of Antibes. It's mainly trees, and the massive homes there are hidden among them. Many of the rich and famous apparently live there. We were able to take a bus from the middle of Antibes out to the end of the Cap where there is a small Napoleon Musuem. When Napoleon returned from exile, he landed near the Cap, where he then began his march to Paris along what is now the Route de Napoleon.

The museum is housed in an old tower right at the end of the Cap. It was small, but there were some interesting exhibits, and even one of his old hats! We were able to walk up to the top of the tower, and the views across the sea were really nice. Luckily, we had a nice sunny day for it.

A view from the top of the tower at the Napoleon Museum

There was also a park at the back of the museum that went down a hill and ended right at the water. The shoreline in this area is quite rocky, and there were lots of little tide pools that we could see from the fence in the park. The stone is a bleached white color, and with the turquoise water, it was really pretty.

Menton
We took the train last weekend to Menton, which is the last major town before the Italian border. It was a little over an hour on the train, and then we walked from the train station towards the water. Just outside the train station were some red clay tennis courts, like the ones you see if you watch the French Open. They are very popular here in Southern France, but you can't play on them if it rains (obviously) and also not for a few days after the rain. Otherwise, the courts get destroyed. We watched the tennis for a few minutes and carried on.

The promenade along the beach was really lovely, with lots of streetside cafes and even tables across the street right on the promenade. It was funny to watch the waiters balancing trays of food and trying not to get run over as they crossed the street. We followed the promenade up towards the old town, and then wandered our way through the old town (after stopping for a quick ice cream!). The old town is very colorful, with most of the buildings painted in sherbert colors. Apparently this is the Italian influence on the town. Some of the other towns we've visited have buildings painted lighter colors. Menton was a bit more colorful than most we've seen.

Views of Menton

We found a road that took us up into the hills behind the town, where we climbed the longest staircase I've ever seen! It was a switchback all the way up the hill and it took us near 1/2 an hour to climb. Although the views over the old town and towards the sea were really lovely. After about another 15 minutes, we found the road that took us back into the town.

As we headed back to the train station, we saw a bunch of displays where workers were putting real lemons and oranges into these metal racks. Turns out, they were setting up for the Fete du Citron (Lemon Festival) which starts this weekend, I think. The displays were massive. I've heard from some of my coworkers that you have to pay to get into the area of the town they've blocked off, and it's only fun for kids and really old people. But, they do hand out the lemons and oranges after the Fete is over, although I'm sure they're not really good to eat after being in a display for a week! Blech.

The citrus displays at Menton