Cannes and Antibes

We both took Wednesday off and went for a day trip to Cannes and Antibes. Cannes is a 30-minute train ride from Nice Ville. Trains run quite frequently. In Cannes, we checked out the film festival venue, which was closed to curious visitors, but there's nothing particularly remarkable in it anyway. Along the promenade, we discovered the most luxurious brands (some of which we had never even heard of) next to hotels and restaurants catering to people who seemed like a different species from us. Then we turned to the nicer part of the old city, and before heading to the train station, we had lunch in a fish shop serving scallop ceviche, fish soup, oysters, and sea urchins (!).

On the way back we stopped in Antibes. We found a much more down-to-earth promenade and a wonderful old town.

Ventimiglia and Menton

Two very old towns on the seashore. Ventimiglia is a typical quiet ancient Italian town. The buildings of the historical quarter of the old city are over 400 years old. The Roman theater (dating back to the 2nd century) was unfortunately closed, but meandering in the old city gave us a historic enough kind of feeling. Looking at the under-maintained houses we were wondering when some of them would collapse. But hey, I don't think any of the buildings constructed nowadays will hold half of their age, so respect to the builders of the 16th century. We also had lunch on the hill top facing the sea with a fantastic sunshine and live music from the cafe. The tuna burger was with a real tuna steak in the bread. What else do we need in December?

Now it's getting better. Look. Come with me to the kasbah!

On our way back to France we stopped in Menton. Menton changed hands several times between Italy (Republic of Genoa), France and the Principality of Monaco. They are famous for their lemon. Lemon is featured everywhere in every form. Similar old town to Ventimiglia's, but much better maintained.

Villa hopping

Today we decided to go out of the city to check out two famous villas. First we took to bus to Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, about half an hour ride from home. The villa was built in the early 1900s by French archaeologist Theodore Reinach. He loved everything related to the ancient Greece. Since admired the architecture, interior decoration and art of the ancient world and decided to recreate the atmosphere of a luxurious Greek house in a new building. The guy bought quite a lot of original Greek sculptures and other objects. The floor mosaics and the wall painings are in the style of ancient Greece. He also had very good taste for real estate picking the spectacular spot right at Baie des Fourmis.

After a quick lunch in a Yoga/lifestyle club's cafe we headed to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula. Villa Kerylos which we thought until this point was incredible, is now demoted to "nice". Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild is incredible. It was built between 1907 and 1912 by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild. She had a delicate taste not only in real estate, but also art. She also flew aircrafts, drove cars and sailed the sea. The lady filled the mansion with antique furniture, Old Master paintings, sculptures, objets d'art and assembled an extensive collection of rare porcelain. The gardens are classified by the Ministry of Culture as one of the Remarkable Gardens of France. The garden was conceived in the form of a ship, to be viewed from the loggia of the house, which was like the bridge of a vessel, with the sea visible on all sides. It was inspired by a voyage she made on the liner Île de France, and the villa was given that name. The thirty gardeners who maintained the garden were dressed as sailors, with berets with red pom-poms. Weird. But it made her happy.