A Stormy Day in Nice

Even a stormy day is pretty nice here.  I probalby haven't talked enough in this blog about how beautiful and lush it is here - despite getting little to no rain in the summer.  It is quite tropical with lush palm trees.  There are loads of flowers everywhere - bougainvillea, oleander, hibiscus and many I do not know the name for. 

I devoted yesterday morning to trying once again to get a pedicure.  I found many possible places but they were closed, on vacation, completely booked up or very expensive.  I finally abandoned the idea and went to the supermarket for nail polish remover and nail polish.  I gave myself a $6 pedicure instead.

Yesterday, we took the bus up one of the many hills here to a section of Nice called Cimiez.  There are a number of things of interest up there - the main one I was after was the Matisse Museum.  It is housed in a magnificent eighteenth century mansion which sits on the edge of a lovely park.  Notice that the ornamention on the building is painted on.  The shutters and downpout are real but the rest is all paint. I love the economy of trompe d'oeil!

Matisse started out as a lawyer but was confined to bed for a year when we got appednicitis as a young man.  It was during the confinement he started to draw.  He later went to study in Paris and it was most interesting to see how his art changed over time as he was influenced by other significant artists.  In the end, confined to a wheel chair, no longer able to paint, he took to doing colorful cut-offs and arranging them. Fascinating!

Also up on the hill at Cimiez is an Archeological Museum (which we couldn't find) and the remains of a Roman arena.  Since it was raining, we didn't tarry too long up there.

Later in the day we donned our blue jeans and went to see the Russian Cathedral nearby. (Shorts were no allowed.)  It was just a short 10 minute walk from our apartment.  It was most magnificent.

It was built in 1903 and was designated as a cathedral prior to the Russian revolution.  It was the only cathedral outside of Russia.  Inside (where picures weren't allowed, it was very ornate with painted walls.  You could see all the way up into the top dome, which was beautifully decorated as well.  There were very few chairs in the church and it was surprising small inside.  We read that their services last 2 hours and you are expected to stand for the whole thing.  I don't think we will be attending any time soon.

Earlier in the day we spotted an interesting phenomenon which we had not seen before.  Then we saw it again on our trip to the Russian church.   Most of Nice is large apartment buildings from 5-8 stores high.  The elevators in these buidlings (if there are any) are extremely small - like the one in our building pictured in an earlier posting.  They hold at most 4 people (and only if they know each other well).  These facts make the idea of moving in or out somewhat mind boggling, but the clever French have figured out an ingenious system to solve the problem of getting those bulky items up to the 8th floor.  You can rent a Moving Elevator.  (I don't know what they actually call them...I just made that up.)  Here's how it works.  The moving van pulls up to the building along with a little truck which contains the elevator.  They extend the ladder up to the target balcony.  They load stuff on the elevator, send it up and someone up there unloads it.  Fascinating and so much easier than trekking through the building.

We are constantly amazed at the creative engineering we have seen here, but this one probably takes the cake!