Day 7: Au Revoir to the French Riviera

On our last day in beautiful Nice, Lindsey and I decided to go it alone, and we took a walk back down the mountain (we swore we'd never walk back UP as early as Monday, but down was not too bad), and I want to take a brief departure from anything relevant to mention the picture below, which appears to be one of the ghosts from Pac-Man. I guessed it was Blinky, but I don't know their names for sure.


Anyhow, this was right at the top of the hill before going around the corner to our villa, so when we were walking up (or riding in a cab), ol' Blinky was the sign that we were almost there. I grew quite fond of the little guy, so I figured I'd mention him here.

After getting back down to Vieux-Nice, it was time to jump on a bus toward the Museé Marc Chagall. Not knowing anything of his work, I was excited to see what he had to offer, since both the people of Nice and most of the travel books we had read had many good things to say about him. They were not incorrect. Luckily, non-flash photography was allowed inside, so here's a picture of one of the two main halls:


Directly up my alley, Chagall uses a lot of Biblical imagery in his paintings, and the main thing that impressed me was how much activity is occurring in each of them. For example, here is my favorite, which is entitled "The Creation of Man."


The picture itself is extraordinarily colorful (as most of Chagall's paintings are), which is a huge selling point for me, but surrounding the sun are several mini-paintings that drew my focus. I'm not an art critic, but I know what I like, and I find this painting profoundly moving.

Chagall's museum was incredibly soothing, which is how I identify a good art display. So, after we had enjoyed ourselves thoroughly for an hour or so in the gallery, Lindsey and I hopped on a bus back in the direction of Monaco, to the hilltop village of Éze. The unique part about this ride is that beforehand when we traveled eastward we would ride along the coast, whereas this particular route drove up the mountain and along the cliffs, which provided a spectacular vantage point of Nice, Villefranche and St. Jean Cap Ferrat, all of which I have mentioned previously.

The rest of Lindsey's family had made their way to Éze on Monday when we were visiting the Museé Matisse, and for those of you from Georgia, they described it as the Helen of the French Riviera. Beautiful, but touristy. For those of you that have been to Helen, I felt that comparison went a little far even though the streets were relatively crowded. Aesthetically, though, the town was not unlike those of St. Paul de Vence and Tourrettes-sur-Loup, and here's a picture of the main hotel near the precipice.


Just past this, there is an exotic garden that leads to the top of the city (there's a great overhead shot of it on the Wikipedia link), but it costs 5 Euro to enter, and we didn't really feel like doing that, especially since it was ridiculously crowded. Luckily, there was a nice view from the church cemetery, shown below:


We only spent about 45 minutes in Éze, mostly because we were tired, and the plans for dinner were to head to the classiest hotel in Nice, just because we wanted to have a touch of the overabundant ritz we hadn't sampled the rest of the week.

As it was, then, we got all dolled up and arrived at the Hotel Negresco at 7:30, only to find that we were the first people there. (an exterior picture is followed by an interior one, the latter of which shows the 2-ton chandelier)




Feeling a little uncomfortable, we delayed our reservation until 8 and went to drink in the bar, where a guy was playing American jazz tunes on his electric piano. Loosening up a little bit, we went back to the dining room where we had quite the unique experience.

I must set a disclaimer and say that the food at Chantecler, the hotel restaurant, was phenomenal. However, as we discovered through the four-hour, seven-course meal, it was a little exhausting. Situated at the center table in a room that seated about 40 people, 4 out of our party of 6 ordered the fixed price menu thinking that would be the best bet. It certainly was, as the chef did not disappoint, but we were not prepared for what followed. By the end of the meal, we were all exhausted and delirious (it was close to midnight at this point, and my legs were cramping from sitting down for so long), and we ended up those asshole Americans in the bar, giggling every time they brought out a new set of silverware. There were only five courses listed on the menu, but two EXTRA desserts came out as well. It was a pretty awesome display.

Like I said, we were all happy we went, but it was pretty overwhelming in the moment. Afterward, we came back and passed out in quick order, set to arise at 7 the next morning to catch our flight.

I'm not much of one for goodbyes, and hopefully I'll be back someday, so I'll end as abruptly as I started. I hope y'all enjoyed my travels as much as a vicarious reader can, meaning I hope I conveyed well at least some of the grandeur and beauty of the wonder that is Nice and southern France. Until we go somewhere else, goodbye from The Pasty Quail travel blog.