Villa Karylos, Cap Ferrat and misc comments

Renewed interest in Pompei resulted in a fad for all things Greek. Here are some photos that reflect the mania for ancient Greece.

On a sad note, we passed by two French soldiers in full battle regalia, guns at the ready, on a quiet street in the 8th arrondisement in Paris. We could not understand what they were doing there until we noticed the synagogue across the street. A sad reminder that ant-semitism is on the rise in France and Europe.

This has nothing to do with any villa....its just an aside. I wish I could always buy my food in stores that look like this, and not just in France.

Great wealth exsts on the Riviera and Musee Nissim de Camondo

A private mansion in Monaco

 

I arrived at the Musee Nissim de Camondo a few minutes before they closed, unfortunately.. All I had time to do was run from room to room snapping pictures and in each room a guard was yellng at me, "We're closing in three minutes"; "We're closing in two minutes"., etc. I want to return next time.
Moise de Camondo was a wealthy banker whose only son was killed in World War I. At his death he donated his mansion to the French government with the stipulation that the rooms remain absolutely unchanged and that the museum be named after his son, Nissim.

Hotel Negresco, Nice

A candy store in Nice

more Nice and Saint Remy

More facades in Nice. Before Nice We did a "foodie tour" of Saint Remy. We started with a tour of a goat farm, toured the old town, then had a flight of cheeses with local Rose.

Vincent Van Gogh painted 150 pictures in the year he stayed in St. Remy. We visited the sanitarium where he stayed, saw his small room with the view of lavender fields out the barred windows. I could not bear to take photos of the "treatment" room.

Nice

Nice is a perfect tourist destination: it's beautiful, it's walkable, the food is great and the buildings are lovely. The Italianate architecture is very different from the look of Provence or Paris, and very lovely. It is an easy city in which to get around.
Dinner here  was PERFECTION. It is not in any guidebook, but every seat inside and on the terrace is full every nght.The waiter was always about 10 feet away, glancing at us in an inconspicuous manner.....was that fork set down to indicate the end of the course, or only a pause? The food was exquisite.

Here are some of the pretty facades of Nice

 

Here is the hotel Negressco. Sadly, not where we stayed.