Matisse museum and Roman archeology in Nice

On a hill above the old and new cities of Nice is the site of a 3rd century Roman town called Cemenelum.  At this site now are the archeological digs, a Franciscan monastery and church, a museum for the artist Henri Matisse and a public park.  We spent much of the day in this area, basking in the sunshine and absorbing history.

Monastery rose garden in Nice

The Matisse museum was really great, with lots of his drawings, paintings, paper cutout assemblies, prints and weavings.  He was an incredibly prolific artist who progressed through amazing stages of creativity from fairly conventional dark paintings in 1895, to evocative drawings using black ink and brush (like chinese artists making perfect circles) to create a face with two or three strokes, to colorful and playful figures and patterns made of paper or linen.

Walking the grounds

After Matisse we had our lunch in the rose garden of the monastery and dozed on the grass in the sun before trudging back down the hill to the Musee de Archeologie and the site of Roman baths from the 3rd century.  They had some beautiful pieces pulled from the city like coins, sculpture, buttons and hair pins, sarcophogae and restored murals.  There were also large amphorae pulled from wrecks in the sea and Grecian pottery from the 5th century BC.  The site itself was quite deteriorated, with most buildings just a foundation and a few low walls.  But we could see the pools from the baths and the water channels that brought hot water from the center.  We also saw pieces of the original stone-paved Roman roads and homes (tiny!).

Monastery cemettary

We walked through the park, which was filled with ancient olive trees, and watched men and women playing bocce ball (at least we thought that was what it was) and boys playing soccer.  We stopped briefly in the monastery where they had a nice free exhibit with piped in Gregorian chant.  I thought the "reconstructed" monks' cell was probably a bit romanticized (more like the Four Seasons than the Motel 6 they probably really lived in).

We drove down to old Nice to see the Palais Lascaris.  From the outside it looked like all the rest of the old buildings on the narrow street, but inside it was 3 floors of Venetian elegance, complete with mythological scenes painted on the high ceilings, gilt baroque carvings and dark tapestries.  They had the beginnings of an antique musical instrument museum and the instruments were unusual and beautiful, including a small piano-like think with the soundboard vertical against the keyboard so the whole thing was about a foot deep and six feet high, a violin with a small brass horn coming out the neck and "violin de pochette" pocket violins about ten inches long.

Roman ruins

We had a nice dinner on Place Saleya at the Safari Cafe.  Mixed grill local fish and baked red peppers...and of course vin blanc and cappoccino!

After lunch siesta

Soccer among the olive trees

Lynnae eating a Kumquat

Roman ruin with Matisse Museum behind

Roman family

Roman family

Nicoise dinner before...

...and after

roman house

Roman family

Roman dinner

Roman beer