Friday Bonnard
I have known about the Bonnard Museum for quite a long time, but never visited the place. Today the opportunity arose and se set off after sorting out ourselves and the house. The museum situated in a residential area of Le Cannet and adjacent to the magnificent 19th Century town hall.
The museum has had a refit. The core of the building looks like a rich 19th Century villa but then a 20th century frontage has been added along with a very modern lift extension on the side of the building.
At one point it seemed like the museum had more employees than visitors. The receptionist directed us to take the lift to the 5th floor to begin the tour. I expected the museum to be dominated by the works of Pierre Bonnard, but instead we found ourselves visiting the Sidarta Collection under the title “Un Certain Regard”.
The museum contained works by Monet, Matisse, Degas, Seurat, Cezanne and more. I felt disappointed as I had expected to see all Bonnard’s works, but his art just happened to be scattered here and there on the four floors of the museum. But after reading a blog post which talks of the underwhelming display of pure Bonnard then perhaps we had a lucky break with the chance to see some other major artists.
Friday – Picasso
Just down the road from Le Cannet in Vallauris we found The Picasso National Museum. The last time I visited Vallauris I had found it quite grotty and told Maggi about my thoughts.
We parked near the Picasso museum. I suddenly had a different impression of Vallauris. Here we saw some large elegant houses, an attractive school, gardens and quaint streets.
We spotted the sign for Picasso and descended a few steps into a cellar. The room consisted of Picasso’s ceramics. Here they had plenty of plates with the typical Picasso motifs, bulls, harlequins, satyrs and young girls. Most of this work took place near his Mougin home in his later years.
After we had made a quick tour of the room the attendant told us that the Museum closed in a few minutes and that we should have bought tickets to enter the ceramic part of the museum.
The rest of the museum also closed for lunch and would not open for 2 hours. We decided to drive back home and have our picnic on the way at Fort Carreé. We sat in the shade by the side of the road and then returned home.
Saturday Nice and Dali
We shopped at Grand Frais in the morning and around 3 pm drove into Nice and parked at Port Lympia. We left the car park and just as we arrived at the surface beside the large yachts Maggi declared that she had left her phone in the car.
I waited about 20 minutes and then decided to return to the car park. I found her walking away from the car and saying she couldn’t find the phone but that we had left the car open. I pointed out that the car wasn’t locked because Maggi’s phone remained in the car. As soon as I told her this she found the phone.
The free Salvador Dali exhibition at the Lympia Cultural Centre must have been funded by the local authority because the place had more than its fair share of staff. You entered the exhibition space which resembled an old storage space perhaps associated with the port. It had stone flooring and a curved brickwork ceiling. The air conditioning made it pleasant when entering from the hot sun outside.
Most of the artwork on show came from his post World War II period when he had left the art on which his greatest reputation rested. Conceptual Ideas, from his wild imagination seemed to dominate the show. However you could see in the many drawings that he had all the artistic skills necessary and could conjure up so many outstanding images.
Nice L’Uzine
We exited the exhibition at 5 pm when it closed. Maggi showed her annoyance because I didn’t accompany her around the show as we walked. I kept asking her if she wanted to stop for a drink but she walked on not answering my question. At the top end of the port we did stop and I had a beer while Maggi drank a peach Kit. Eventually the atmosphere relaxed.
We walked over to the restaurant L’Uzine that Maggi had found online which had good reviews. We looked at the menu and decided to book a table for the earliest they would accept, 7:15 pm. We had just over an hour to kill an we mooched off down the road towards the port and stopped at a cocktail bar, called Vibes. The very friendly staff brought us a vodka martini and a pisco sour. My martini lasted me 40 minutes while Maggi had finished her drink 15 minutes earlier.
We didn’t want to have another drink so we wandered off found a seat and I had a chance to read my book, the autobiography of David Grohl.
We returned to L’Uzine and had a very nice meal. We shared an artichoke salad starter and to follow I chose the cod option, while Maggi picked the veal. One glass of wine each and we didn’t even have a dessert to share.
Home to bed.