Nice is Nice - Day 2 Part 1

February 13th

Today is parade day.  So as not to overwhelm you with parade-y-ness, I've split it into two posts.  But first, we had some non-parade adventures.

To start off with, we went to find the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

The Cathedral is the largest Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Western Europe. 

Interestingly enough, it is considered legally property of the Russian Federation, though it is also a national monument of France.  So does this count as technically having been to Russia?

There's spigot outside for you to get your holy water.

It was built in 1912 thanks to Tsar Nicholas II's generosity.  It is dedicated to St. Nicholas.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Actually it was consecrated in the name of Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia (Tsar-to-be), who died in Nice in 1865 at the age of 21.

This a bust and chapel dedicated to Nicholas Alexandrovich on the location where he died.  Construction started in 1867 and the inauguration was held in 1868.

It's a really lovely church.  The entire inside is frescoed floor to ceiling.  No photos were permitted. 

Proof we were there!

A fabulous add for the Tiger store (sort of a dollar store type place).  Look at that beard.

Ah the French Rivera.

It was definitely too cold to be in the water, but it was a nice, if not blustery, day.

There is a wide boardwalk, then a boulevard, then shops and restaurants and hotels.  

It's nice that the buildings aren't crushed up against the beach.

A fabulous mosaic trumpet player.

Our next stop is the Massena Museum (Musée Masséna).  

The Villa Masséna was transformed into a museum for local arts and history in 1919.

The upper-floors contain art galleries while the ground floor remains as a museum of the Villa itself.

Portrait of André Masséna.  He gave the property and grounds to the city of Nice with the conditions that the gardens be open to the public and that the villa be turned into a museum.  André may have owed the city money anyway, so I'm not sure he was in a place to make demands, but turns out the city didn't mind and complied. 

Portrait of General Pierre-Dominique Garnier.
I think he's supposed to look commanding, but really he looks so unsure like "We're going to charge!....over there.....maybe....."

Rendering of a parade float (Chariot of Music) from Carnival 1926.

I enjoy that it's done with giant wine bottles.  It's very appropriate for France.

An add for Carnival 1913.

It must have been Lobster themed or something.

Portrait of Alfred Borriglione .  Mayor of Nice and lost Marx Brother.    Maybe their uncle at least.

Portrait of Victor-Emmanuel II of Savoy-Carignan.  First King of Italy (a united Italy).  

I'm not sure why his portrait is here.  It's probably got something to do with wars and land rights.

His facial hair is fierce.   

Look at all these painted walls and grand chandeliers.   

I'm not sure what I would think if I walked into a modern day house that was on this level of grand.

Possibly a dining room with a small atrium and another grand chandelier.

We left the Musée Masséna and headed off to find lunch before attending the Flower Parade.

A cute little pedestrian walkway.

AND ONTO THE PARADE!

We got to the parade early, and had some time to hang out while waiting for it to start.

I don't really have a good example of what the music was like, so....here are French Military Marches.  Play it while you look through these photos.

This year's theme was King of Media so all the floats are related to some form of media.  

This one is an old movie camera.

The parade MC rolling around on his segway  in his 90's inspired jacket.

The Flower Parade was on the water (it's behind the grandstand) and as such also very near the flight path to the Nice airport.  This meant a lot of planes flew low overhead to see what was happening.

I had no idea what this is going to be, but I was intrigued.

There were several young women walking around in costume before the parade started. 

I think they were checking for bombs.  To get into the parade area we had to go through a pat down.

I don't know what this is;  it made weird noises.

There are three of them!

Red people on stilts.

More of our costumed women.  I think they each go with a float...maybe?

Very colorful drummers.

She might be a TV test signal.

Butts!

Brasil Showgirls?

Something colorful is going on over there.

A band on rollerblades.

Mounted Mary Poppinses!  At least that's what I'm calling them.

Flowers!

I think they're from Venice.

When we first got to the parade route, it was a pleasant day, but by this time the wind had really picked up.  This poor lady in her ballon skirt is actually holding onto her friend for dear life.

Okay here's where the parade actually started.  

All these previous photos were people wandering around and getting lined up for the parade.

Polynesia shaking their hips.

I think this float is Gossip Magazines.  The costumed women hand out flowers.

All of the rollerblading band.

I think this float was Radio.

This float is....TV maybe?  I think that mostly because of the lady with it.

Hello Brass Band from Kotor Montenegro!  

I'm not sure what this float is.

This float is Colored Movies.

It's the Internet!

This ridiculous band is from Italy.

Their leader had a baby that would pee on you.

The instruments were made up of nonsense.

Italy!

Oh, the weird guys go with the weird ballon!  Remember how I said it was windy?  

The poor weird balloon crew had their work cut out for them.

We found Twitter.

I was there!

More of the Twitter float.

SO many Mounted Mary Poppinses!

And their pit crew.  Someone's gotta clean up.

Queen of Carnival maybe?

These guys were nuts and made a mess.  I think they had leaf blowers with crepe paper rolls attached to them.  Paper streamers EVERYWHERE!

This float was.....Silvery.....I don't know.

More carnival queens.

This float is Photography.

It's the weird snail guys again.  

Also those yellow flowers are Mimosas and were the most common flower tossed out to the crowds.

I'm not sure what this float is, but I definitely had a camera when I was little that took film that looked like that.

Dan was here too!

Those butts from earlier have fronts.

I'm also not sure what this float is.

The Brasil girls lost their feathers.  

With the wind, a lot of costume pieces disappeared as the parade continued.

There was a random large contingency of....Korean? people.  They seemed very excited.

There was a Jules Verne float.  This guy belonged to it.

They finally got rid of balloon lady's skirt so she could participate without blowing away.

A fuller view of the Gossip Magazine float.

Up close and personal with some feathers.

And the Brasil girls.

I think she was with the Brasil girls.  I'm not sure.  Either way she was fabulous!

The parade made it around one circuit!  This camera float is Black and White Film.

There go the lost Brasil feathers.

Gotta have some saxophones.

Here's the Radio float again.

And the TV float.

Montenegro Brass Band cheerleaders.

Polynesia came through again. 

The wind caused them to lose some headpieces too.

Colored Film.  You can see how many of the flowers have been pulled off of the float.

Oh! Maybe this float is Printed News!  Or...something.  It got attacked by the leafblowing guys.  

We watched for two full circuits.  Many people left after the first circuit and most were gone by the second.  I believe the third circuit was a free for all for whatever flowers were left.  Since we couldn't really do anything with the flowers we had received and I wanted to take a nap before the evening parade, we wandered off after the second circuit.  I gave my flowers away to strangers we passed on our way back to the hotel.

This concludes our adventures for the first half of today.

You can stop the French Military March music now if you wish.

Nice is Nice - Day 1

February 12th

Today is Byron's birthday!  Happy Birthday Byron!!!

Dan had a few days off from work and Nice does Carnivale after Ash Wednesday for some reason, so we went on and adventure to Nice.  We arrived too early to check into our hotel, but left our luggage and wandered out to find some museums to visit.  It was raining, so indoor time was important.

Our first museum is the Matisse Museum (Musée Matisse).  Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was a French artist known for his fauvism, modernism, and impressionism styles.  He also had a weird paper cut-outs phase later in his life. 

 Visitors were not permitted to take any photos, so if you want to see any of Matisse's artwork that is housed here, you'll have to visit.  Or check out their website.  A small rant on this.  I try very hard to respect various museums, churches, and other exhibits when they say no photography.  It really upsets me then when other people are taking photos when they are forbidden to do so.  I bring this up because pretty much everyone else was taking photos, even though it was told to us when we purchased our tickets and signs were posted all over the museum that photography was prohibited.  I may just be frustrated because I had some fantastic snarky comments for many of the art pieces that you won't get to enjoy. Anyway....

Our next museum was the National Museum of Marc Chagall (Musée National Marc Chagall).  

I was allowed to take photos here. 

Abraham and the Three Angels (1960-1966)

"Three angels, divine messengers, have come to announce the imminent birth of a son to the elderly Abraham and Sarah.  Chagall highlights the three angels to whom Abraham extends his hospitality.  The composition is structured by the horizontal line of the bench in the foreground punctuated by a series of vertical lines.  The painting's dominant color is red, the color of life and love.  The worn gold of the icons also gives way to a layer of underlying red.  In contrast, the whiteness of the three angels' wings appears dazzling, in a nod to the icon in Andrei Rublev's Trinity.  In the upper right-hand corner, Chagall depicts the rest of the story: Abraham leading the three angels who, upon divine order, are to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah."

Noah's Ark (1961-1966)
"The Flood is a classic theme in Western painting.  Yet this is the first time an artist chooses to represent the inside of the ark rather than its construction or the ship within the context of the flood.  The destructive waters seem to have taken over this canvas creating an aquatic vaporous atmosphere.  Animals, women, and children are depicted with many stances and expressions, sheltered inside the boat.  Noah stretches out his arm so that the dove may take flight through the opening in in the middle of the painting.  The dove will later bring back an olive branch, a sigh that the waters have subsided."

CHICKEN!

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1960-1966)
This painting uses a deep purple in a continuation of the nocturnal atmosphere of Jacob's Dream.  Dawn will soon be breaking, and Jacob falls to his knees before the angel after a battle that has endured the night.  The angel appears to be blessing Jacob as it touches his forehead.  Pushed to the outer edges of the painting are various scenes from the patriarch's life: in the upper left-hand corner is his encounter with Rachel at the well, while along the right-hand side, his son Joseph appears stripped by his brothers and thrown into a well.  The sorrow of a father sobbing into the tunic of the son he believes to be gone is communicated through Jacob's stooped position and prostration.  Chagall generally uses this stance for the prophets announcing the misfortunes of the Jewish people.

Notice how they don't mention the chicken?

La Rose Bleue (1964)
This is a test piece for a stained glass window for the Metz Cathedral in Lorraine, France.

Song of Songs IV (1958)
There was a series of these.  I liked this one the best.

"In 1971, Marc Chagall designed a mosaic for his future museum.  Installed on one of the outer walls of the Biblical Message room, its elegant colors reflect in a pool.  On the wall covered with mortar - a mixture of sand and cement - the mosaic artist Lino Melano, following a model whose dimensions were provided by [Chagall], placed a set of tessarae.  This term refers to both the stone cubes used for the background and the cubes of glass paste used for patterns.  Chagall came regularly to check on the progress of the work and to ensure that the inflection of the line and the refinement of the colors were as close as possible to [his] vision. 

Chagall chose a biblical subject for his mosaic.  A character of the Old Testament is in the center of the work: the prophet Elijah taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.  Elijah reaches the heavenly world: he is surrounded by the constellations of the zodiac.  Around him, in a concentric circle, appear animals, human figures, and objects each associated with the twelve signs of the zodiac.  In antiquity, these patterns were found alongside the chariot of the Sun, Helios.  By blending references from biblical and ancient worlds, Chagall delivers a cosmic vision of the universe, bathed in Mediterranean light."

Leaving the Chagall museum I saw these iridescent blue berries.  I haven't seen anything like them outside of a Lisa Frank notebook.  Anyone know what they are?

We had dinner in a nice little restaurant.  This is the desert menu - left is French, right is English.  Dan was amused that tiramisu is tiramisu, but he was more amused that creme brulee lost all its accents marks in going from French to English.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Marmore Falls

February 6th

We decided to go somewhere local for a weekend trip, so Friday night we drove up to Terni, just a little north and east of Rome, to be our base for our adventure to Marmore Falls aka Cascata delle Marmore.  

We were able to bring Tantalum along on this adventure, which was nice.  

She has to stay home for most of our travels.

The Falls are not natural.  They were constructed by the Romans in 271 BC.

The water is diverted to the hydroelectric plant at the top of the falls, so most of the time they look like this; however, the get "turned on" during a set schedule to appease the tourists.

Look Byron, you have a piazzale!

An alarmB sounded to let us know the flood gates were opening.  

But it wasn't like a WOOOOOSH! of water flow increase.

It simply slowly because a much more impressive waterfall.   

The sun was also cresting over the mountain at this point which didn't help things from a photo point of view,  but you can clearly see how the waterfall has filled in quite a lot from where it started.

There are some hiking trails around the Falls.  We decided to explore them and found some kayakers.

Here's the WOOOOOSH!   

The trail took some interesting turns.

This is the Tunnel of Lovers or Galleria degli Innamorati.

This is travertine rock.  

It's where HGTV gets all its fancy travertine tile - just kidding, but it is travertine rock.  

We chose not to go out to the Lover's Balcony because, well, neither of us wanted to be soaking wet for the rest of the day.  I don't think you can blame us for that.

We got out of the wet Tunnel for Lovers and headed up towards the top of the Falls.

It's definitely picked up a bit since we first arrived.

Woo!  Selfie at the Falls.

Also there was a pretty sweet rainbow and hints of a double rainbow.

This is the channel, the Curiano Trench, that gives us the lovely Marmore Falls.

Looking out through the trees, through the mountains, to the towns beyond.

At the top of the Falls is a sort of sculpture garden/park.  

Instead of sculptures, there are pieces of equipment from the hydroelectric plant nearby.

Dan is pretending to be a snail.  He may have gotten a bit stuck.

It's a giant acorn!  Or that terrible pineapple plant of death from Ocarina of Time.  

Or....maybe it's some sort of turbine.

Our path down was not as well maintained as the path going up.  

It was also much steeper and a little tricky due to the loose stones all over it.

Tantalum must go first.  Here she is dragging Dan behind her.

We made it back to the parking lot where we sat for a little bit.  Sitting felt good.  We then wandered away from the Falls to find lunch.  Which we were successful in doing.  I decided that we should take a scenic way back to the hotel to see what else was around us.  Pretty views, but not much else.

A little town on lake Piediluco.

Snow on mountains.

Dan thinking he's clever by taking a photo of me taking a photo of the mountains.

A little mountain top village.

And finally the view of the valley from our meandering drive back home through the mountains.  

This concludes our adventures for today.