In May, we took a relatively long (2 week trip) to France, spending a few days in Paris and then visiting friends in Provence. We decided to take this journey by a combination of driving and rail travel.
Please find the first four parts of this multi-part post here, here, here, and here.
To the SOUTH
Bandol and Toulon
After we left Paris, we took the “high-speed” train back to Aix-en-Provence. About midway through the trip, the power on the high speed lines was interrupted, and the train was re-routed onto the traditional train lines, resulting in our arriving about an hour and a half late (hence the quote marks around “high speed”). The journey was nevertheless a pleasant one, and because we were more than an hour late the SNCF, the French national rail line, provided a partial refund on our fare.
From Aix, we drove a couple of hours to stay with some friends in La Cadière d’Azur, located in a relatively less well known part of Provence which has somehow escaped the overtourism of the rest of the area – perhaps because it’s not that close to the main train line.
The town is in the middle of the Bandol wine region, and many local wineries had small shops offering wine for tasting or purchase, which we took full advantage of. And of course the restaurants all offered wonderful local food and wines.
I also took the opportunity to share a cigar with my friend Mary Lou.
We spent an afternoon in Toulon, about half an hour away. Toulon is on a lovely stretch of Mediterranean coastline (it’s a major French naval base). On our last visit, nearly 30 years ago, it seemed a grim and uninviting place, and we had never been tempted to return.
Over the last 20 years, though, under the direction of a forward-looking mayor, the entire port area has been revitalized, and it’s quite attractive now.
villefranche-sur-Mer
We wanted to return to Nice, a place we have not been for many years. After looking at the prices in Nice, though, we decided to stay in Villefranche-sur-Mer, a pleasant little town just up the coast from Nice.
This turned out to be an excellent decision. With only about 5,000 permanent residents, Villefranche has the feel of a small town, even though it is only a short distance from Nice — only 20 minutes by bus or train, with frequent service. We parked our car in a moderately-priced commercial parking lot, and didn’t need it again until we were ready to leave.
Here we are with our friends in the patio of our small hotel, and here is a view from our hotel room of the harbor at night.
nice
One morning during our stay, we took the train from Villefranche-sur-Mer to Nice, whose train station was only a short walk to our destination, the Marc Chagall Museum.
Chagall, a Jewish artist born in what is today Belarus, was living in France at the beginning of World War II. As a Jew, he was in grave danger, but fortunately he was able to escape to New York with the help of American Varian Fry. Chagall didn’t much like New York, though, and after the war he returned to southern France, where he lived for the rest of his very long life (he died in 1985, at the age of 98).
in 1973, 50 years ago, the French government’s ministry of culture opened a museum of Chagall’s work in Nice. Known as the Museum of the Bible, it features 17 paintings done by Chagall between 1966 and 1973, all on Old Testament themes. The number of paintings may seem small, but the size of the works are enormous, the colors are brilliant, and the overall artistic impression is overwhelming.
We wandered into this museum almost by accident more than 20 yeas ago, and became lifelong Chagall fans. We have been back to this museum several times, and never tire of it.
With much of Chagall’s work, there is often as much going on in the background as in the foreground of his paintings. The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise illustrates a familiar theme – but the birds and animals flying around are not in the traditional depictions.
The museum also includes some magnificent stained glass windows – Chagall did a lot of stained glass in the latter half of his life. Most of the larger windows in the museum are currently undergoing restoration and unfortunately were not available for viewing during our visit. Just another reason to go back!
After our visit to the Chagall Museum, we took a walk on the Promenade des Anglais, a beach walk so-called because it originally built for the aristocratic English tourists who first popularized Nice as a winter resort in the 19th Century. Today, it is enjoyed by everyone, and it’s also where I got to enjoy soupe de poissons, the local fish soup.
The Promenade includes some interesting monuments, including a replica of a very familiar statue. Further down the Promenade was memorial to the victims of a terrorist attack in July 2016, where a member of Islamic State deliberately drove a cargo truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day, killing 86 and injuring over 400 others.
The Hotel Negresco, with its distinctive pink and turquoise exterior, has been a landmark along the Promenade since it opened in 1913. It’s wildly expensive to stay there, of course, but you can go in and admire their magnificent lobby for free.
st. jean-cap-ferrat
A 15 minute bus ride from Villefranche-sur-Mer, in the other direction from Nice, brings you to St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat, one of the prettiest spots on the French Riviera.
The public bus took us right to the door of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.
Beatrice de Rothschild was a member of the famous banking family. In 1883, the 19-year old Beatrice married Maurice Ephrussi, a French banker 15 years her senior. The marriage was not a success, and the couple had no children. Beatrice divorced her husband in 1904, primarily to protect her vast fortune from her husband’s massive gambling debts.
Beatrice then created for herself a villa on this lovely site. Construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1912. Beatrice lived in the villa for most of the rest of her life, and upon her death in 1934 bequeathed it to the French government.
The villa was designed to show off Beatrice’s art collection, especially her lovely sculptures and porcelains.
Beatrice lived alone, but she had a lot of pets. Several rooms had special furniture for her canine companions.
But the real glory of this villa lies in the magnificent gardens.
Leaving the Villa, we took a beach path that went around the cape, leading up to a small lighthouse. Given how pricey this area it is, it is remarkable that this path even exists. The grand houses are hidden behind large fences. But this section of the beach is open to all.
We had also hoped to visit the Greek-style Villa Kerylos, located in nearby Beaulieu and built in the same era as the Villa Ephrussi-Rothschild by Theodore Reinach, a Greek scholar and a cousin of Beatrice’s husband. Alas, the Villa Kerylos is undergoing a major restoration and was not available during the time of our visit – just another reason to go back!
Until next time….
Linda's Trip Tips 