Nice, A Nice Place for Art

Continuing our visit in Nice (pronounced "niece"),  we started day two out at a corner brasserie that served a variety of breakfast specials.  Ham and egg omelets were too much to resist.  To our amazement, the bus we needed to catch to the art museums of Chagall and Matisse was right down the block.  The Chagall Museum is the world's largest collection of Marc Chagall's works.  In fact, he helped design the museum and painted many of the pictures specifically for display there.  You will notice that he took many of his themes from the Old Testament, or as he would refer to it "the Torah".
The artist grew up in a Russian folk village and was of Jewish heritage. 

Before heading to our next museum, we took a little refreshment break at the museum's garden café.  A very beautiful spot to have a cold Orangina or draft of beer.  Just outside the museum we caught the #15 bus to take us just a little further to the Matisse Museum.  This museum is not as charming as the Chagall Museum.  It is in the Mediterranean Mansion that Henri Matisse last lived in set in an olive grove amid the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Cemenelum. 

 The Museum of Henri Matisse.

Sorry, no Matisse paintings to show you.  Photos in the museum were not allowed.

 Walls of the ancient Roman city of Cemenelum.

We came, we saw, and we kept going.

The park that included both the Roman ruins and the Matisse Museum also had a popular Boules field.  Boules is a game invented in France in the 1900's and is played with heavy metal balls that players throw at a wooden target ball.  Like the game of horseshoes, close does count.

 Throwing the boules balls.

Boules, much more of a social game than an athletic one.

While walking through the park and olive tree orchard, we notice a sign for a monastery, 

Monastere de Cimiez.  We had to stop and see it.  The church of the monastery was called Notre-Dame (of course).  And the monastery was really a Franciscan Museum from the 17th century. And beside the monastery was a beautiful public garden.  We visited all these sites and were awed by the views of the Nice city-scape we had from the garden.

Eglise Notre-Dame de Cimiez

Franciscan Monastery Museum

Inside the church of the Monastery

Notre-Dame de Cimiez

Monastery courtyard

Monastery courtyard well (not active)

Monastery Gardens

 Monastery Garden walk.

 Some impressive views of the Cimiez area of Nice.

 Looking down to the sea from the Monastery garden.

Back to the bus stop.  While we are waiting for the #17 to arrive, I get a text message from my fiancée (not a pirate), Sylvia.  She is back in Wisconsin and just noticed that there was a Franciscan museum close to where we were visiting today.  She didn't want me to miss it.  Mmmm, how's that for spiritual connection.

We grabbed the bus and started back towards downtown Nice.  There was one more church I just had to see and that was the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.  I must say it was beautiful.  Czar Nicholas I's widow provided the land for the church and Czar Nicholas II built the cathedral in 1912.  Before the Revolution in Russia, many Russians enjoyed the French Riviera as a break from cold Moscow winters. 

The Russian Orthodox Cathedral

We returned to the seaside from here  to see more of the ocean scenery.  Stay tuned for the next blog.