Leger Bronze Wall Relief

To Biot we did go by bus and after getting dropped off at the appropriate stop, hitched the remaining 1.5 kilometers to the village with a young local, who had never heard of the museum or artist we had made this particular pilgrimage to see. How odd, queer but not peculiar for us to know of this space and place before parting on our voyage of discovery and this bright young indigenous type had no clew.

A great part of the Leger Museum is covered with mosaics of his design, executed after his death. Huge, fabulous mosaics! The grounds contain some monumental sculpture in concrete, tile and bronze. Upon entering the museum you are confronted by a 2 story high stained glass piece juxtaposed against a life size wire sculpted head of Leger by Alexander Calder. Along with many paintings, arranged in chronological order, wonderful work, we are surprised and delighted to find relief ceramic tile pieces, which I personally enjoyed more than his paintings, which I greatly admire. Very inspiring to see, to contemplate, to relish. From line drawings of Leger emerge the raised line in black and depressions painted in primary colors, to form figures that are amazingly similar to his painted work but yet they are ceramic tiles. Great stuff. Included in this collection is a maquette for a large bronze that is in the courtyard. Near it is another abstract ceramic piece. They strike Rosemary and I as a direct influence on the Sun God Sculpture by Nickie de St. Phalle at U.C.S.D. in La Jolla, CA. Yes folks, we can let it be known, that after seeing much work by Miro and Leger, that Ms. St. Phalle was majorly influenced by these art heroes. Oh ma gosh!

Antibes - Art More Than A Mans Name

Traverse the village once again and it’s the Picasso museum..... I wonder just how many Picasso museums there are in Europe? This is our third and it contains work that is different than the others..... Our favorite was a small oil of a villa in Antibes at night. Also here is work by others among them a 10 foot tall representation of the bleached bones of a periwinkle shell in bronze - fun..... Also 2 large, perhaps 1 meter across, marble eyes, in a pile of rubble..... Ray K. liked it.

Mentone

I enjoy the Cocteau, am stressed by how R is feeling and we exit to breath the salt air and recover our center..... We lunch in a fab modern square on pizza, this day only a few slices and wander about and discover the Cocteau Wedding Room in the Hotel de Ville..... the apparent city hall is closed..... R wanders in and returns beckoning..... She has discovered a side door open..... We enter, it is illuminated, we sit and contemplate and enjoy this small room decorated with the simple murals of, also film director, Jean Cocteau..... Rosemary’s angles have returned and we are cheered.....

We trudge up the steep streets and pathways of the old part of the city on Mentone and enjoy the plaza over looking the yacht basin, the sea beyond and the 2 pastel churches before us with tall tile steeples. Further wandering up the narrow alleyways of this hillside part of town we come upon the cemetery at the peak of the hill and enter. Inventive entombments present themselves..... All souls day just having past, most of the graves are decorated with flowers, fresh, as well as plastic and ceramic rose encrusted crosses. I photograph one particularly intriguing tomb..... On top is a life size coffin with the lid raised and the figure of a woman reaching heaven ward..... Rising from the dead to meet her lord in all her serenity with a gown of pure white marble. Further searching through the yard of graves I discover a bit of broken off funerary art, marble, green with moss, it fits snugly into my pocket and is smuggled off the hill..... Am I a grave robber? No I am a cheerful robber and am content to have this memento of Mentone to weight papers. I will admit, in my defense, that I did look about to see if this piece of the past did fit any of the monuments nearby, it did not, and this assuaged my guilt.

How does a spot of land, 2 kilometers square, become an independent country?

One of R’s dead heroines is princess Grace, so off to the cathedral we go..... A lovely one it is and all the past prince’s of Monaco are entombed here, as is the former Grace Kelly, in a simple grave with one golden daffodil, behind the alter..... we see..... we have sadness enter out hearts..... we go off to buy a blue T-shirt..... we go home.

The rain had stopped when we left the shrine of Mossa and we stopped in the daily market long enough to sample the socca..... a thin egg/garbonzo (ground) affair which was herbed and cooked on the lid of a steel drum, which had a fire smoldering within. Local color, interesting..... not much more.

Across from us was a cafe/bar..... We entered..... Cognac and suzze was imbibed..... Rosemary had the menu, veggie pate, grilled lamb chops, salad. I had the moules a la creme..... WOWIE ZOWIE & COWABUNGA BUFFALO BOB..... Steamed mussels in broth, saturated with hot cream and butter. A huge casserole full, maybe a whole kilo of mussels..... With these I had fritts and stuffed tomatoes. They were GREAT!!!, Fantastic, Wonderful..... I gorged and ate, like at the Union Hotel in Occidental, California, the whole thing. We then had a chocolate mouse. Stuffed we were indeed.

Which brings up a small point of interest. Whilst chatting with a gent in Spanish one day, I mentioned that I was stuffed, after a meal. He laughed and told me that the word I had used was just for animals, like in taxidermy. Gotta be careful what ya say when you look it up in the dictionary. ;-)

Greek Orthodox Church in Nice

We retired to our hotel to pack and rest up for our long days journey into night..... the overnight train to Amsterdam.

Train we did, took a cab to the gare and boarded, found our reserved compartment w/couchet and entered at 6:30 PM or 18:30..... We were joyed to discover that we were to be alone till Avignon at about 10:30..... An almost private ride..... we dined on pick nick fair and cognac..... tucked ourselves in and waited for our companion for the night..... she, as it turned out, arrived on time and after the usual pleasantries we all retired for the night. At the break of day our accidental room mate arose and disembarked the train. We arose soon afterwards to train along, again, alone.....