Matisse in Nice

We awoke to church bells at 7, and a cloudy day.

OK, so it's raining, right?  And hundreds of tourists in Nice are looking for something to do inside, right?  And the Matisse Museum and Roman ruins are free, right?  So almost everyone decides to hop on bus #22 to head out there with us!  This I know how to say in French -  it's déjà vu! (see Clouds over Rue Cler post on Sept. 11.)

On the bus it was a mash of people - a crush of humanity.  Most of us were standing up and holding on for dear life, so as not to become too intimate with the riders around us as the bus sped around the corners. 

The Matisse Museum was a disappointment.  This is supposed to be the largest collection of his paintings anywhere.  It didn't seem like very many paintings, but lots of cutouts of designs glued onto white backgrounds, which represented his later works.  At least it was bright and colorful on this dreary day.
 
The museum is housed in a mansion set amid the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Cemenelum.  The ruins weren't very extensive, but at one time this was a military camp that had 20,000 inhabitants.

The Matisse Museum

Ruins of the city of Cemenelum in Nice

Rick in the ruins

We rode the bus back toward our neighborhood, luckily without the crush of other people.  We transferred to the great tram that would take us closer to home.

The tram, buses and trains in Nice and along the coast are great.  They're frequent and affordable.  That's why we thought we could get along easily without a car.  We would have had to pay to park the car in this neighborhood, and then consider the rental cost of the car, and the gas.  It was a better deal (for us) without the car. 

We had lunch at another good pizza restaurant in our neighborhood.  It was also cooked in a wood-fired oven.  I wonder if the neighbors have soot on their rooftop terrace too!

We did some shopping at the Monoprix, one of the big supermarché chains in France, on our way back to the apartment.

Dinner was a marinated pork tenderloin, fork-tender according to Linda's notes.  Potatoes Anna and a salad completed the meal.  If Rick wasn't so skilled at this, maybe he wouldn't have to cook all the time and we'd go out a bit more.  I guess he hasn't thought of that!