Sally Mara Art

Excursions

#1

Antibes

miles of walking

April 8, 2016
8.36 miles

Marché Provençal  Salt

 Vallauris was boring, I needed a break from working, and I was desperate to have my hair blown out (guilty pleasure) so I took off for Antibes, to visit the Picasso Museum, the Provencal Market, and to wander around

Antibes is just too beautiful for (too many) words

First of the season

Musée Picasso: "Nature Morte aux deux oursins, murène, sole, poulpe, seiche et un citron" 1946

Olive oil and salted anchovies

A Different Kind of Color: Antibes

Luna à côté de la mer

Port Vauban with Fort Carre in the distance, you can moor your super yacht here for a lot of euros....

Musée Picasso: "Nature Morte aux volets noirs avec citron, murène, rougets, seiche et trois oursins" 1946

Plage de la Salis Antibes

Antibes in the distance

Excursion

#2

 Vence

Saturday April 16

5.75 miles

A week later I headed to Vence, a bus a train and another bus
looking for more adventure

Maybe it was the gypsy woman, toddler in tow, who accosted me with her bus pass vs euro scam, while waiting for bus 2 who put me in a mood....

 it was too early for there to be much going on at the market, the lilacs a bright spot, as well as the wisteria blooming all over

 I liked the famous Tree of Vence, an ancient frêne (ash) supposedly planted in 1538
just outside the Porte du Peyra, one of five gates leading into the old town

"Tree of Vence" Chaim Soutine 1929

and roaming the maze of tiny streets 

that suddenly opened up to sunny squares

I liked that it was pretty empty

 but after circling around 5 times or so, I had seen enough and was done, feeling like those thick stone walls were closing in on me

I think I expected more

 I walked to the Chapelle du Rosaire des Dominicaines de Vence

also known as the Matisse Chapel about a kilometer away

Artist Henri Matisse sitting in the interior of chapel he designed. Vence, France, 1951 photo by
Dmitri Kessel

But it was closed....

still cranky I went back to have lunch at Le Pigeonnier, 

an ironic necessity considering the roosting villains back in Vallauris

Isn't it always good to sit down, enjoy the food and sun?

Lunch: Salad with artichokes, warm chevre and duck (not pigeon pie)

And it was super, mood lifted, I got back on bus 1 wondering if I should have visited St Paul de Vence, its more famous neighbor down the road instead

But when, the bus stopped for several minutes outside St Paul de Vence, allowing hoards of turistas to cross the road I was glad I hadn't