April 10 - Nice France

We have Andres again today for our small group tour that again ended up being a private tour.

We drove by the Regina Hotel, so named because Queen Victoria stayed here.  We drove too close to get good pictures of the very large hotel but they did have a statue out front of Queen Victoria.

We headed off to some viewpoints, this time a bit further south of where we were yesterday.  The drive gave us lots of views, including a marina.

We also saw Elton John’s Estate high on a hilltop but it was too far to get pictures. 

And we also saw a mansion formerly owned by an Englishman who spent a fair amount of time in India so the architecture definitely had an Indian flare.  The building is now apartments.

Next we were back on Castle Hill to see the Catholic Cemetery…good thing we didn’t stop here yesterday.  

The one tomb he pointed out to us was for the former developer of Mercedes Benz.

The cemetery is high on a hill with great views and the cemetery is itself quite interesting.

Because it gets so hot here many people put ceramic flowers on graves so that they will last.  

After more driving through the city we ended up parking at a monastery...

and walking down through a park of olive trees (originally brought by the Greeks and Romans) and by some Roman ruins.

We spent about an hour at the Matisse Museum.  

Henri Matisse spent a number of years in Nice and the surrounding area and the city gave him a lovely home where he lived some of the time.  It is now the museum and contains a lot of his artwork.

Figure with Umbrella 

Jeanette I

Large Head

Sleeping Figure

Tahiti I

The Dance

There were also showing a lot of artwork by Frederique Lucien.

Forme F -  Frederique Lucien

Simple Temps - Frederique Lucien

We ended our morning tour at the Hotel Negresco.  The hotel is right on the promenade facing the bay.  It was built in the Bell Époque style in 1912.  Access is supposedly limited to guests but we are there for an aperitif in the lounge, as part of the tour.  Since we don’t drink we ordered what turned out to be a pretty good hot chocolate.

The hotel is the ultimate in luxury and a major jet-set destination with a 2 star Michelin Restaurant and a massive, world renowned art collection.  We also visited the Royal Lounge with its massive crystal chandelier with over 16,000 Baccarat crystals.  

We also stopped for a bathroom break in the pretty amazingly decorated main floor bathrooms.  Nice stop and a change of pace.

Bathroom Doors

Men's Bathroom

Women's Bathroom

They also had a display of dresses by the late owner, Jeanne Augier.

Andres dropped us off in old town where we found a lovely restaurant with simple but tasty food...  

and upside down Christmas trees as chandeliers.

The photo with the oil and vinegar bottles and the bread...after eyeing it while we ate (there was a bread on almost every table except ours) Mary finally decided to investigate. The bread is actually a rock that looks ever so much like a real loaf of bread.

On the way back to the hotel we saw this interesting sign at the public toilets.  It translates to "I piss, therefore I am", a take-off on Descartes "I think, therefore I am."

We spent the afternoon working on photos and other items…then it was back into town for dinner. The most interesting aspect of dinner was the lift in the middle of the dining room floor.  Just as we were finishing dinner the lift rose right out of the middle of the floor.  One of the staff members pulled out a large garbage can and took it out to the curb while the lift retracted back into the floor.  They brought up 11 trash cans before we finally left…no idea how many more they had.