Monday, July 1
Last full day of this vacation, here's to making it count! I started with breakfast: a chocolatine (yuck, I had to say pain au chocolat 😜) and coffee. I took them to go and enjoyed them in the nearby park that I think once was a canal. It was a nice park: plenty of places to sit, flowers galore, and a mix of green space & playground.
Off to a good start this morning! The park runs parallel to the old town, so it was a very short walk with my breakfast finds.
I didn't get a close look but I wonder if there's a baleine-ce beam in this playground.
I continued along the park, past Place Maseena and found myself back on the promenade des anglais. There was a tourist office not too far away so I popped in for recommendations, and I'm glad I did because I wouldn't necessarily have thought to go to the Cimiez neighborhood otherwise. I didn't snap a picture but I'll add that the lady that helped me in the tourist office was wearing a fabulously orange outfit: both a solid orange shirt and striped pants.
The view to the sea sure is something: the sea is just so blue...
Better to be stuck cheval-ing horse dung than behind a desk on a day like this.
Before grabbing the bus to Cimiez, I continued my walk along the promenade a bit more to see a few more of the Belle Époque hôtels and buildings, like the Negresco. The surrounding area in from the promenade is a massive maze of shops and was noire du monde. It took a bit of finagling but I eventually found the right bus stop and was on my merry way to the Cimiez neighborhood.
Une pissaladiere, part of this complete brunch! A little earlier than I'd intended to eat it, but the moisture was soaking through the paper bag so it was now or boast a nice anchovy/onion juice stain.
A hotel dating back to La Belle Epoque. Depending on who you ask, the times may or may not have been beautiful but you can't argue that they made some nice buildings back then.
When the height adjusting lever on your chair goes the extra step...
The Three Brewers, I'd first found this franchise during a visit to Montréal. I suppose it makes sense they'd proliferate to francophone places...
Cimiez is up atop a hill and features an archaeological site where the Roman city of Cemelum once stood. The first thing to greet you coming off the bus is a modest amphitheater, I think it's seen better days but it still gets use today. There's also two museums located in the park that I visited: Musée Matisse and an archaeological museum.
If I really wanted to, I could come back to the humble amphitheater for some theater; but I doubt I'll make the trek back up.
They weren't kidding, it really is a rather small theater. Still, neat that they're breathing new life into the place.
I started with Matisse. I'd heard of him and recall him being something like an Impressionist, but I wouldn't be able to name one of his chefs d'oeuvre. The museum is dedicated to Matisse and it has a permanent collection walking through the progression of his life and style but the vast majority of the museum was showing an exhibition about the link between Henri Matisse and Joan Miro: the similarities of their subjects, thèmes, mediums, and how their ~lifelong interaction at arm's length influenced both artists. Overall it was an interesting museum. I wouldn't say I particularly cared for Matisse's sculptures nor his Fauvism, mais à chacun son truc.
It took a while for me to realize that "Nature Morte" meant "Still Life"
Matisse spent a quite a few years in Nice so I suppose it makes sense that they'd have a dedicated museum for him.
Part of me wonders if classic style paintings like these from famous artists are like homework assignments and midterms from my university days: the point is to learn the theory and basics, you can then apply (or subvert) them later in your career.
See, from nature mortes and dead messiahs to something a bit more one's own style.
The archaeological museum had three parts: a small permanent collection, an outdoor section, and an exhibition in the lower level. The permanent collection was mostly about Greek and Roman lifestyles and various artifacts, some recovered from Cimiez but some from elsewhere to complete the picture. This collection did reveal a bit of the ancient history for me: Cemelum was the Roman city situated on the hill but Nikäia was the Greek city settled along the shore. For a period after the pacification of the Gauls, Cemelum was the Roman capital of this province but things change and the city was eventually abandoned. Thus, from Nikäia we get Nice. Oh, and there was a section about death rituals: how bodies were cremated or interred and the processions that accompanied such occasions.
Nice placement of the model to look out on the ruins!
"Nikaia and Cemenelum: This area shows the two ancient sites on a model. The objects are arranged similar to the surrounding strata / rock layers. Nikaia, a Greek colony associated with Massalia (modern Marseille) and Cemenelum, a Roman one, coexisted up til the 6th century. Nikaia's position by the sea eventually supplanted Cemenelum, which would slowly be abandoned."
Cimiez takes it's name from the Greek word Kemenelon (Cemenelum), with the Celt-Ligure root word "kem" signifying "mountain" and helps explain the name of the nearby mountain range of the Cévennes. Human activity here could range as far back as the Neolithic but Cimiez had its heyday within the bronze and iron ages. Situated at 107m of elevation on limestone slopes, the town controlled access to several neighboring valleys and overlooked routes connecting the sea to the Alps.
Having conquered Gaul (modern day Franc), 45 Celto-Ligure tribes in the area continued to disrupt trade between Greek merchants and the Alps. So Caesar Augusta started a pacification campaign taht finished with the construction of the Trophy of the Alps and the Via Julia Augusta road. Cemenelum was built at the foot of the sacred woods of the Vediantii tribe and became the capital of the Alps Maritime prefecture. Run by a prefect, the city was primarily lived in by Roman soldiers; later, Romanisation of surrounding peoples (by extending rights previously only for true Roman citizens) started the region on the path of integration into the Empire. Finally, under Nero's rule, the Alps Maritime became a Roman province.
The outdoor exhibition was pretty neat and spoke more directly about Cemelum's layout. The foundations and ruins of the city have been excavated to reveal several bathhouses, a few streets, and what they propose to be stores. I was surprised at how many bathhouses the small area had, maybe this was just the bath quarter? Also, I can't imagine yearning for a steam bath on a day like today, I was happy to return to the air conditioned museum interior afterwards despite today being cloudy.
I suppose the cat's got the right idea: one should relax at the bath houses, not walk around reading plaques about how a bath house might've been converted to a crude, early Christian church...
The steamy crawlspace is a pretty cool idea but I don't envy the slave that got saddled with the task of working down there. Hopefully they had good LOTO practices back in the day.
Per Google Lens: bougainvillea
Some new learning for me: the bathhouse was a complex of sorts with hot rooms (calderium), cold rooms (frigidarium), and juuuuuust right rooms (tepidarium).
These cypresses more or less marked the boundary of the original tribe's sacred forest; for the Romans, it just made a nice border. The town of Nice has done a good job of restoring these Roman streets and here's where they hypothesized a few merchant shops to have been located.
The Matisse museum looms over archaeological site, there were very clear stairs connecting the two but sturdy iron gates to block access.
The decline of Cemenelum: Near the end of the 3rd century, Cemenelum lost the title of provincial capital to Embrun. Despite the presence of a Christian bishop (un évêque), the town's population began to dwindle (a guess based on no newer graveyards and ceramics). Finally, in the 8th century, an invasion by Charles Martel forced the bishop to abandon Cemenelum and the city faded into ruins and memory.
The temporary exhibit was about fire. Prometheus' gift to man has come a long way and this exhibit particularly focused on how our relationship with starting fires has changed over the millennia. It talked about wood friction, contacting stones together, then the use of the amadoum mushroom as tinder, and finally our mastery over the chemical energy needed to quickly and easily start a flame.
The fact that modern matches are mundane is frankly a testament to the power of science and the human spirit. I'm just glad that we don't hear too much about phossy jaw anymore.
It's weird to think about how common (and even passé now) matches are,
yet they'd be the equivalent of Dr. Octavius' memeable quote for a
neanderthal.
But before phosphor and sulfur, there was 🍄. The flesh (la chair) of the amadouvier mushroom was used for lighting fires: the flesh could smoulder after exposure to flint (silex) sparks and then be used to light the kindling. The profession of amadoueur existed for a while given the need for fiery champignons.
This was a neat display talking about other methods of lighting fires that never quite caught on, like the pneumatic lighter. Rapid, adiabatic compression of air would result in super hot air that could be used for lighting fires. Requiring regular maintenance and tight tolerances, this proved impractical for a field tool; however, the concept would eventually be incorporated into compression engines.
Were lighters once the "tech" of the industrial world? Perhaps Lavosier came out on stage in a turtle neck (col roulé) and jeans to unveil the chemical lighter and then the rest of the world took the concept and ran with it.
Then in the 20th century we settle on chic, fun shapes for lighters using liquified hydrocarbon gas. But who knows, perhaps the next innovation is just around corner!
After the museum, I did a quick tour around the rest of the park. It had a lovely grove of olive trees with kids having an epic nerf gun fight and there was a quaint cathedral with gardens overseeing the eastern side of Nice.
Not too much to say about this little cathedral, the cloister was rather small but featured some newer art pieces; however, the gardens were pretty big and a dove right in.
Sleeping on the job... I wonder if the cats sometimes strike in France to protest mouse hunting conditions 🤔
I'm guessing this is the canal that I'd seen mentioned in a sign or two earlier in this visit. It looks pretty dry now but helps illustrate the strategic position ye olde Roman town once held atop this hill.
The bus back put me right in the shopping area, so I perused a bit. I was also peckish from skipping lunch and snagged a bite from a pâtisserie to be enjoyed on the waterfront and in a park respectively. I took my time but I eventually returned to the hotel room to swap out my gear and hit the beach.
"A Cup of LiberTea" features a lot in my mind lately as it's the name of the theme song from the Hell Divers 2 video game I started playing in late 2023 🤣. And interestingly, they opted for "tea" rather than the French "té", which makes for exactly the same pun in both languages.
Now this one... It's just too low of a hanging fruit.
The area around les Galeries Lafayette were bustling with people and shops. I made a quick visit to a store for a few souvenirs to take home. Everything was prim and proper around here, I feel like someone visiting might only need to add a mime and an accordion busker before returning home saying it was "all so French!"
My little afternoon snack. The sandwich filling was so-so but the rolled, layered bun was pretty sublime. The patisserie was surprising: sweet, slightly salty with hazelnuts, caramel, chocolate, and just a bit of pastry underneath it all 😋
I rented a Lime bike to go the length of the Promenade des Anglais; they're all E-bikes so it took a minute to get used to the pedal assist but overall it was a pleasant and quick ride. Though once I reached the far end, I realized the beach here had a lot of fishermen and I didn't want to contend with hooks so I snapped a few pictures, grabbed another bike, and made my way to the midpoint for my swim.
It's been a minute since last I'd been on a bike. The bike path narrowed in a few areas and I was white-knuckle gripping my handlebars and holding my breath to avoid veering into the obstacles or wobbling too much 🤣
Ahh, la mer. Rather, here's the western edge of Nice's beaches. The shore starts to become more sandy and less rocks as you work your way from here to the airport.
I found my little bit of beach to myself. Who's ready for a dip??
Aside from the obligatory ginger stepping on all the stones for entering, I really enjoyed being in the water. With my goggles I was able to dive down and spot a few sea urchins, some weird looking tube thing with friends, and only a few fish. I'm not sure what the people are fishing for, the shore looked pretty barren based on my dives.
The one sandy part of les Promenades: the volleyball courts!
That's nice that they made the beach accessible, also there was a little lagoon here. It reminded me of the lagoon in Oak Harbor but this one was even more shallow that I don't think people really consider it for swimming/wading.
After the swim, I relaxed and let myself sun/overcast dry off. A few other people came by to take dips in the water but it didn't seem a popular time/place/weather for the beach this evening. Another bike ride later and I was having dinner in the market.
Time to cool off with un verre from the air drying. Those Brazilian acrobats were doing their thing just across the way so it was like I had dinner, a sunset, and a show in one place!
Dinner was a plate of seafood and vegetables steamed together (apparently it's a thing in niçois cuisine) served with mayo/aoili and mayo/potato. It may not sound like the most appetizing or gourmet item but it perfectly satisfied me and helped focus the attention on the flavor of the ingredients rather than a masking sauce.
A last look at the market square of old Nice, this might be the quietest I've seen it with the sun down...
I had hoped to use the last of my monnaie to buy a gelato but it turns out I was about 0,11 euros short of a scoop so I paid with card. Worth every penny
I think I'm going to miss the warm air and blue sea, it made for a great finish to one heck of a journey. I'm very content with how the past three months have gone and find myself at ease with moving about in France. I suppose the question is: when will I make it back to the francophone world?
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