Day 27 - vendredi

Matisse museum day

25 fevrier 2011

The morning class gave me an opportunity to spend the afternoon out and about. The weather was lovely, so it was a good opportunity to go to the Matisse Museum and Greek/Roman ruins! For this, I was very excited. This area has been inhabited for a very long time.

Marina decided to come along. Our first stop was the Catholic bookstore – I found a mass guide and a small prayer book so that now I can participate more fully – both for less than 7 Euros.

Next we went looking for bus number 17.  There it was across the street. But by the time we crossed traffic and the two sets of tram tracks, it had pulled away from the curb. No big deal, we decided to get a soda (Coke for me and Fanta Orange for Marina) and wait for the next bus, which came later than expected.

However, the ride to the museum was only 15 minutes. We arrived at the museum stop at 4:45. The museum stays open until 6:00 so we had a reasonable amount of time to look around. The building sits in the middle of an archeological site surrounded by a park filled with olive trees. There is a Franciscan monastery next to this – the church there is from the 17^th century.

Pictures were not allowed in the museum, so all I have are from the outside surroundings. The Matisse collection gives one a real sense of his development from his school days through his life. A good deal of space is given to his design plans for the Dominican chapel in Vence, France (about 2 hours from Nice by bus, along the coast). Included in the museum is an interesting collection of “souvenirs” that Matisse collected during his travels around the world.  One gains a great appreciation for the artistic process with such a concentrated view of one’s work.

The park was filled with people of all ages and their dogs. In a section of the park, in front of the museum, is a lowered field defined by a rock wall. The field is filled with olive trees. I doubt that the trees are all that old, but it may be that the field has been an olive garden for many, many years.

Next we visited the chapel of the Franciscan monastery. The church was not large, but of fairly good size. The statues all seemed to be carved and painted.  Every inch of the church was painted in dark colors. It had a warm and welcoming feeling. We did not stay long as it was already 6:20 and we had to catch the bus back downtown.

Outside the museum, the ruins include foundations of buildings and a circular theater. There seemed to be an archeological dig in progress – there was a canvas awning over a small portion of this area. All was behind a fence. The theater was slightly more accessible. We were able to climb onto one of the arched openings. It looks like this area is being prepared for future use. The theater is not large, just two levels, it seems. I am amazed that I could touch bricks that were cut and laid over a thousand years ago.  It’s good that the city continues to conserve this area.

We got on the number 22 bus but not in the right direction. This meant that we had to get off the bus while it waited to start the route downtown.  This bus took us to Place Massena. From here we walked to an Indian restaurant. The food was very good and slightly more reasonable than most of what I have encountered here.

The apertif seemed to be a red wine diluted with rose water - a delightful taste and scent. The dinner was very good, too. I’m glad we had a little distance to walk to get home.

So it was a big day here. I expect to sleep well tonight. I hope you do, too, Dear Reader.