Nice and the French Riviera

 

They say timing is everything. We are leaving the rain that greeted us this morning and we are heading to the French Riviera!  Here’s the view that greeted our arrival … the Cote d’Azur!  Nice is known for its pebbled beach and water that is a beautiful turquoise blue. Can you say wow???

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With only so much time on our hands, we had to chose from the many museums there are in Nice. We decided to visit the Henri Matisse Museum. It DSC_0565 (Medium)was an interesting drive to get to the museum as we happened upon this building called Regina which we think is a hotel.  It was a pretty impressive looking place!

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Henri Matisse lived in Nice and he incorporated the magnificent Riviera shoreline many of his works. Here’s our best picture of the museum. As you can tell we’re outside the doors as it was closed for the day!

That said, the museum is in a nice park area DSC_0583 (Medium)which we strolled through and watched people playing bocce ball. The museum is situated next to some Roman baths,  which covered an area the size of Mosaic Stadium! The pigeons took up residence In some of the holes of this wall. 

 

One of our other stops was a visit to the Russian DSC_0544 (Medium)Cathedral.  This was quite an impressive building tucked away in a nice park area. Apparently the Russian aristocracy used Nice as their own winter escape! Who knew?  With its familiar domes and copulas crowning the Cathedral and palm trees swaying in the foreground, the Russians have left their mark on the city.

What we didn’t know when we booked our stay in Nice is that the DSC_0482 (Medium)Carnivale Mardi Gras starts this weekend! We passed by floats for the upcoming parade. Although the festivities were still days away, we experienced our share of traffic snarls, tour buses and tourists wearing colourful hats!

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