Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain - Nice

Phrase of the day:
So who is my favorite artist? Alors, qui est mon artiste favorite?

One of my biggest excitements about going to the France for the summer was the great art I would be able to see. I'm at the point in my life where I'm still searching for that one artist that captures my interest and I can deem my favorite. I'm always asked "So you are an art history major, who is your favorite artist?" and I honestly can't answer it yet, so yes I'm still on the quest for my favorite artist. This trip to the Contemorary Museum of Nice was a big help in my quest.
As I walked into the museum these huge floor to ceiling drawings of guns pointing straight at me, stopped me in my tracks. Robert Longo was the current temporary exhibition at the museum and his drawings were...amazing!! Ok not only drawings, but huge sculptures too of figures in distress and panic. He is an American painter and sculptor and was first recognized for his "Men in the Cities" series (The one I was standing in front of) in the 80's.

Musée Picasso - Antibes

Phrase of the day:
No more pictures! Arret avec les photos!

Oui! Another day off! J'aime ca beaucoup! Today I decided to go to the lovely town of Antibes in the South of France. I've gotten accustomed to the daily travel routine pretty nicely by now. The town that I've been living in, Roquefort les Pins, has a bus to Nice for 1 euro where I then catch the train for 6 euro and get off in Antibes. One of the great things I've also found really helpful along the way was good old trusty Google maps. So before each trip I place the little man onto the map and I skim the town so I know where I am when I get there. Tres bien!
Stepping off the train into Antibes you'll find yourself staring at the turquoise blue ocean and tons of huge luxury boats. The town is booming with people and there are tons of tiny winding side streets with many shops and cafes.

I mainly came to visit Antibes because the Picasso Museum is located here! But before I got to that I toured the many streets and found a great petite outdoor food market. I learned the meaning of great fresh cheese and olives when I came to France. This market was called Marche Provincal, open Tuesday through Sunday in the morning through the months of June to August. Ok, I was going gaga over all of the food but I kept my eye on the prize.... Picasso!

About half a block after the market I made a left onto a small street and found myself stepping out to a windy road right on the edge of the ocean b-e-a-u!! As I looked to my right the museum was right there behind me! It is a beautiful stone building called Chateau Grimaldi where after discovering it, Picasso lived for a good period of his life. He set up painting and drawing studios inside so he could live and work right in the same space.

Let me also just say that the day I got for this excursion was fabulous and the location of the museum was just breathtaking. I've included pictures because it's just too hard to describe!

I paid my 5 euro for entering the museum and found myself diving straight into Picasso's early pencil and charcoal drawings and then finding sculptures that I had never seen. Truly epic. Wow. I ventured outside where they had a deck with amazing sculptures made out of bronze by other artists similar to Picasso. There I was snapping away pictures (with out the flash of course) when I got stopped and was told to put the camera away, darn!!!

My fabulous day!! :

Marché Provincal










Chateau de Grimaldi; Musée Picasso






























And sadly that is where my fun ends with the pictures! Haha!
A demain mes amies!

Gross Vague!!

Phrase of the day:
A day at the beach with the kids! Un jour a la plage avec les enfants!

Yesterday I took Clement and Valentin to the beach with me for the first time since I had been visiting. They had definitely been begging for me to take them for a good week now! We lathered up the sunscreen, slapped on our hats and bathing suits, and stuffed my bag with towels. As we headed out the door and made our way to the handy dandy 1euro bus, the kids were shouting "allez allez, vite! nous voulons la plage!" So instead of walking, we ran to the bus for no reason, just out of pure excitement... these kids bring me back to being 7 again!

We decided to go to Canges sur Mer for our beach day. Its a beautiful town lining the ocean about ten minutes from Nice. As we hopped off the bus, we ran again to get to the beach. I must say, it was fun and made me more excited about the beach than I was. The kids instantly threw all their stuff down and dove straight into the ocean.

I must say, it was a perfect beach day indeed. Just enough wind to make the waves ideal for body surfing and not too many people on the beach. At lunch we ate our sandwiches that I had made in the morning and we were right back in the water after that. The day was spent tanning and swimming in and out to the dock to jump off with other local kids.

Monaco, still beautiful in the rain

Phrase of the day:
Is that a yard on top of the roof?! Est-ce qu'il y'a une jardin sur le toit?!

As I was riding my bike around the housing complex a couple of weeks ago with Clement the youngest child, a car full of young adults my age kept driving by. Curious as always, Clement went up to the car and asked who they were. One of them told him that his name was Anthony and he lived next door to Clement. They asked if I was Clements sister and he laughed and told them I was the au pair. I then introduced myself and they asked me to go to the beach with them the next day. That night my host family told me that they were going on vacation for a week and taking the kids along with them, lucky me! I went to the beach with Anthony and his friends the next day. I now had a great group of local kids my age who couldn't wait to show me around!

On one of my lucky tour days by my new best friends, they called me up in the morning and told me they were taking me to Monaco to go to the beach. Monaco?! Uh you mean the place where all the fabulous rich people live and musicians make their music videos on yachts. Yeah, Monaco.

I hopped into Anthony's car and was moving around in my seat for the hour drive the entire time. Astonished by the view on the whole ride there, I was practically half way out the window with my video camera capturing everything I could. It's funny to me how the locals are so used to this magnificent lifestyle that they hardly even look out the window. There I am with 1 hour of video footage before we even get there! Ha!

We find parking in Monaco and it starts to rain. Monaco is still beautiful and breathtaking. I kind of feel like a movie star just walking around here. As we get out of the parking I spotted lots of yellow signs saying "Tour de France Armstrong". As we got closer I realized people were gathered as sponcers were preparing for the Tour de France which would start in a few days. Because it was raining we did not get to go to the beach! Instead we climbed steps and walked through an art garden which ended up having a spectacular view of Monaco's boat ports and luxury condos.

The day went by quickly and I had a great time with my friends. I will be skyping them when I return back to America!

Lifestyle

Phrase of the day:
I want this lifestyle. Je veux cette vie.

I must say, the french really know how to enjoy themselves. From the very first night I arrived here in the Cote d'Azur my host family has been taking me to lavish dinner parties with all their friends, and hosting them as well. Every night the wine is flowing and the exquisite cheese is melting in my mouth. The lifestyle of these people is very evident just through a dinner party.

Two dinner parties stood out to me the most. At the first one, I arrived finding myself soon sitting down and munching on fresh olives and cut sausage. Dinner was a huge spread of food I never heard of, but loved. And dessert was a trip down to their wine cellar and a platter of 10 different cheeses. W-O-W. I was in heaven. They were also surprised that an American was eating like this; loving the "stinky" french cheeses and sipping red wine. Yes, I've been trained.

The second dinner party my host family hosted. It was huge; 20 close couples with their kids jumping in and out of the pool. Smoked duck was an appetizer that I discovered I loved. After a great feast, we ended the night by heading to Cannes to enjoy a nice picnic on the beach and a bonfire to end the night.

I'm on a boat!

Phrase of the day:
Just jump! Allez saute!

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a bit behind on starting this blog. I arrived here in June and I guess that first month the Cote held me captive of fun, excitement, and new adventures. So, belated but well spent, I'm reminiscing into the early weeks of June when my host family took me out on their boat.

I woke up SUPER excited. Lounging in the middle of the ocean in Cannes on a boat with my host family and their close friends, enjoying a nice lunch, and jumping into the water from the boat. A whole new experience for me! Oui! I could do this every day, easily. Haha. 20 minutes in the car and we were at their wonderful boat, untying it from the dock and starting out on our wonderful day. I was in awe the whole time as the family just relaxed like they were used to doing. We drove about a half an hour out to sea to a "parking lot" where everyone anchored their boats and endulged for the rest of the day. Baguette was breaking at noon and leftovers from last nights dinner was happily eaten up. Soon after, the kids started leaping into the water, doing backflips, front flips, and dives. I joined them right away.

The day was spent flipping, eating, lounging, tanning, and soaking in this new experience.

Jungle Gym

Phrase of the day:
Why not? Pourquoi pas?

Spending countless afternoons with these kids really brought me back to my life as a young child. I always loved tearing off all the cushions from the couch, throwing them on the floor, and bouncing for hours non stop. You just love doing things that you're not supposed to do, or can't do when your older. Great example, lets climb the door frame, because we are tiny enough and want to.

It's nice in Nice

On June 14th (about 2 weeks after arriving in France) I ventured to Nice! Direct from Roquefort les Pins the bus, Ligne TAM 500 goes straight to Nice. Now thats nice!

Nice was everything I expected and more. The architecture of the buildings with their vibrant colors and intricate designs was a sight to see. I walked the entire shoreline with all it's cafe's and beach huts where you can but a chair for 10 euro and get lunch for the day. I made my way to the east end of the shoreline and found a staircase leading up to view the entire city. The staircase then led me to a path in a beautiful park where I found Monet trees and a rushing waterfall (also lots of tourists!) I climbed back down and made my way into the city, stopping in various shops and walking down windy side roads. At 3pm I had to take the bus back to Roquefort to pick the kids up from school! On the bus I met some local students my age and talked to them in French. They were very interested in knowing about America, but I was eager to know more about Nice!

This weekend i'm venturing to Nice again to visit the Musee Matisse, Fondation Marguerite et Aime Maeght, Chagall Museum & Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporarain! Yay!

It's hard to believe a month and a half has already passed here! I only have 3 and a half more weeks and its back to reality, but maybe this could be reality someday??! Yes I hope so!

Grasse

Ah ha! I have discovered the easiest and cheapest way to Nice and Grasse! So, on my first day off I took the bus (ligne TAM 500 Grasse-Nice) to Grasse, France, home of the Parfumerie Fragonard. This was my first time venturing off to another town while I was here in the South of France! I was pretty excited about this. I took the bus and made my way into the city of Grasse. This isn't a beach city, but more of a hilly confined town with winding side streets filled with shops and vendors. I had found a numbered guide online of sites to see while in Grasse, so I made my way to each one. I was most excited to visit the perfume factory Fragonard. I had a guided tour and bought the newest line of perfume. All perfume is made in the factory from fresh flowers and no chemicals. Coming out smelling like a flower, I ventured off to find lunch. I found a perfect little cafe and ordered my jambon et fromage sandwich and panache (half beer half ginger ale).

What a great day! Back to pick up the kids from school at 4!