Pétanque & Pastis

Musée Escoffier de l’Art Culinaire

We started our visit with a lovely lunch of baked sole with herbs in a saffron sauce accompanied by saffron rice and haricots verts and a chilled rosé, followed by strawberries with chantilly and vanilla bean ice-cream, at L’Auberge Fleurie (Rue piétonne – 11 et 13 rue des Mesures, Villeneuve-Loubet Village, tél: 04.93.73.90.92) in the middle of the old town of Villeneuve-Loubet Village.  Since the museum didn’t open until 2:00pm, we had plenty of time to savor our meal at this colorful restaurant.  It was just two steps from the restaurant to the Musée Escoffier de l’Art Culinaire, which was the reason for our visit to this small Provençal village, just the next town over from Antibes on the way toward Nice. 

   The museum is situated in the house where Auguste Escoffier was born in 1846, with each room preserving many of the appliances, utensils, books, recipes, menus, photographs, and other memorabilia from his distinguished career.  The “Father of Modern Cuisine” enjoyed creating dishes in honor of his special guests, which is how his famous “Pêche Melba” came into being.  He created it for the Australian opera singer, Nellie Melba, who sang at the Covent Gardens Opera House while she lived at the sumptuous Savoy Hotel in London where Escoffier was the Chef de Cuisine.  Among many other dishes, he also created “Fraises à la Sarah Bernhardt”, and a dish that we often see on menus in France, “Tournedos Rossini”, after the famous Italian composer.  Escoffier was also the innovator of the “Prix Fixe Menu” during his tenure at Le Savoy.  His innovations also extended to improving the atmosphere of his kitchen team and minimizing confusion and misunderstanding by dividing up the tasks in the kitchen.  The team was organized by their responsibilities of sauce chef, fish chef, vegetables chef, roast chef, larder chef, pastry chef, confectioners, etc.

   He is probably best known for what is often referred to as the Bible of French Cuisine, “Le Guide Culinaire”, published in 1903, with approximately 5000 recipes and garnishes.  An abbreviated version, “A guide to Modern Cookery”, was published in English in 1907.  In August Villeneuve-Loubet Village hosts a celebration of Escoffier called Les Fêtes Gourmandes, with many of the village restaurants providing menus with dishes prepared from his famous tome, often listing the page number from “Le Guide Culinaire” where the recipe can be found.

Tourists in Paris

We spent some time strolling along the Canal St-Martin in the 10^th arrondissement today, examining the locks, and waiting to watch the barge traffic come through.  Unfortunately, there was absolutely no activity on the Canal.  It seemed like the only activity we witnessed was that of a few SDFs (Sans Domicile Fixe – the politically correct term for homeless people) in some of the seedy areas under some of the bridges.  It was Napoleon who first conceived of the Canal St-Martin, which was built in the 1820s for transportation and to provide non-drinking water to the City.  It still provides 50% of the water in Paris used for cleaning the streets, sprinkling public parks and gardens, etc.  The City is attempting to gentrify this area, which has great potential, but it seems to be a slow process.

Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie

We rode the Metro to the Parc de la Villette for a visit to the Museum of Science & Industry, which we had tried, unsuccessfully, to visit in the past.  We enjoyed seeing all the space exhibits and the interactive displays, but I don’t think any of us will be rushing back.  It really didn’t compare to other museums of this type that we have visited in other cities.

La Sainte Chapelle

We called ahead for will-call tickets for the 7:00pm concert at La Sainte Chapelle in the 1^st (4, boulevard du Palais - tél: 01.43.73.78.41).  The setting is so beautiful, surrounded by all the amazing stained glass.  The one-hour concert included Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Geminiani’s La Folia, and Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major.  The conductor had so much personality, as he played the violin and bounded from one part of the stage to the other, his ponytail swinging back and forth.

We had a 9:30 dinner reservation in the 6^th at Roger La Grenouille (26-28, rue des Grands Augustins – tél: 01.56.24.24.34), which seemed to be a very popular place.  Although there are other very good menu options, they are known, of course, for their frog’s legs, which are piled high on the plate, so it’s best to go in with a good appetite.  I don’t know if tonight was normal, but it was extremely warm inside, so dress in layers that can be removed if you go.

Art & Dining in Paris

We took an early flight to Paris this morning, and immediately got settled into our rooms at the Hôtel Lenox Saint-Germain, and then we hit the road running.  Well, actually it was more of a stroll than a run – after all, we are in Paris.  We had a leisurely lunch under the arcades in les Jardins du Palais-Royal, and then we headed over to the newly refurbished Musée des Arts Décoratif in the 1^st arrondissement (107, rue de Rivoli).  It has only been re-opened for two weeks, and was highly recommended by several friends.  The museum is all about home furnishings and objets d’arts, with a chronology of decorative arts from the middle ages up to the present day, taking up 6000 square meters, on nine levels, in the Marsan wing of the Palais du Louvre.  My favorite displays were the complete rooms of some well-known figures from the past, which were decorated with furniture, wallpaper, mirrors, paintings, carpets, glassware, ceramics, candelabras, etc., in the style of that particular period.

La Tour Eiffel – Restaurant Jules Vernes

We splurged on dinner tonight at the Michelin one-star restaurant, Le Jules Verne (tél: 33 (0)1 45 55 61 44), on the 2^nd floor of the Eiffel Tower.  It has a private elevator at the Tower’s south pillar, which zips you up 125 meters above the City of Light.  I’m not sure why, maybe because we reserved the table back in March, we had an excellent table right up against the window, with all the monuments of Paris brilliantly aglow below us.  Although, on our previous visit, the view was still extraordinary, even from our table in the middle of the room.  Overall, it was an amazing dining experience tonight, and every course was delicious, with the exception of the desserts (the last two courses on the menu below).  Also, conspicuous by its absence was the cheese course.  Lingering over our digestifs at the restaurant’s bar gave us a chance to enjoy another perspective of the view below us.  NOTE:  Check the prices of the menu before you go.  You could be in for a shock.  Tonight's menu was as follows:

RESTAURANT

JULES VERNE

      *****

TOUR EIFFEL

      *****

CHEF DE CUISINE – ALAIN REIX

      *****

       MENU DÉGUSTATION

SUPERPOSÉ DE JEUNES POIREAUX,

ANGUILLE LÉGEREMENT FUMÉE ET FOIE GRAS DE CANARD,

CHUTNEY À LA TOMATE VERTE

      *****

LANGOUSTINES MARINÉES ET CAVIAR D’AQUITAINE,

FINE GELÉE DE CONCOMBRE

     *****

PETIT PAIN BRIOCHÉ AUX GROS TOURTEAUX,

JUS DE CREVETTES GRISES

      *****

DOS DE ROUGET BARBET EN COMPOTE DE COURGETTES,

SUC DE VERDURE

     *****

POITRINE DE POULETTE DE BRESSE,

GNOCCHI DE POMMES DE TERRE ET GIROLLES

      *****

MACARON AUX GROSEILLES,

PERLES DU JAPON AUX CRANBERRIES

      *****

GELÉE AU CHOCOLAT PUR CARAÏBE,

ÉMULSION À L’AVOCAT

      *****

Ce menu ne peut être servi que pour l’ensemble des convives

All Aboard to Île Sainte-Marguerite

We started the day with a walk along the ramparts of Antibes, on our way to the Provençal Market to pick up some goodies for dinner tonight.

Plage Les Pirates in Juan-les-Pins

Later on, we walked over to Juan-les-Pins to have lunch on the sandy beach at Plage Les Pirates (23, Boulevard Edouard Baudouin, Juan-les-Pins - tél: 04.93.61.00.41).  As soon as we were seated, the first thing we did was take off our shoes and stick our toes in the sand, and the second thing we did was order a bottle of cold Côte de Provence Rosé.

Cruising to Île Sainte-Marguerite

After lunch, we were strolling along the seaside in Juan-les-Pins when we noticed that the ferry to Île Sainte-Marguerite was sitting at the pier.  We made a mad dash to quickly buy our tickets so that we could climb aboard, but as soon as we got to the counter, we saw the boat take off.  As we turned around dejectedly, the woman selling the tickets made a call to the ferry, requesting that it return to the pier, so that we could hop on.  We couldn’t believe it !  We’re not sure what the other passengers thought about it, but nobody gave us the evil eye, nor did anyone make any rude comments to us, so we sat back happily and enjoyed the 20-minute cruise, in a state of disbelief.

Fort Royal Prison on Île Sainte-Marguerite

Île Sainte-Marguerite, which is located just a half mile off the coast of Cannes, is probably best known as the home to the prison where the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask was held for eleven years in the 17^th century, as ordered by Louis XIV.  Through the years there have been many theories regarding the identity of the face behind the mask, but to this day, he has never officially been identified, and the mystery continues.  We were able to explore some of the prison cells, where we read about some of the other famous “guests” of this prison with its beautiful sea view.  Then we stepped next door to visit the Musée de la Mer (Museum of the Sea), with a number of archaeological discoveries recovered from nearby shipwrecks.  Although we didn’t get a chance to do a lot of hiking today, this is a great place for it, with lots of trails winding in and out of the pine and eucalyptus trees, and all along the crystal-clear water surrounding the island.  After a short break at one of the few terrace cafés, we climbed aboard the ferry, along with all the other passengers this time, and enjoyed the cruise back to Juan-les-Pins.

Cézanne en Provence

Dominique, Véronique, Christiane, and I drove 1½ hours to Aix-en-Provence to see the Cézanne en Provence Exposition at Musée Granet.  Dominique had bought the tickets about four weeks ago, so we didn’t have to wait in line to get in.  The Musée Granet has been closed to the public for over four years for renovation work.  The purpose of this introductory exhibition of Cézanne is just to give us a taste of what to expect at the museum before its permanent re-opening in 2007.  In this centenary year of Cézanne’s death, this particular exhibit is especially relevant, since it is in Aix-en-Provence that Cézanne was born and was deeply inspired.  A walking tour of his associations in Aix is marked on the sidewalks with brass plaques, to allow those interested to follow in his footsteps around the city.  It is enlightening to come face-to-face with many of the real-life Provençal subjects of the works displayed in Cézanne’s works, such as Jas de Bouffan, which was his family home, and, of course, the imposing Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which he painted prolifically.

Sunday Tourists in Madrid

We started our day with a visit to the vast Sunday Flea Market known as El Rastro, which has been around for about the last 500 years, in one form or another.  Like other markets of this type, it was colorful, lively, and elbow-to-elbow with shoppers looking for a good deal.

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in the Palacio de Villahermosa

We hit the museum circuit once again today with a visit to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the last of the “Big 3” on our list.  Approximately 800 works from the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Family are presented in the Palace of Villahermosa.  Nearly every art movement in Europe over the past 500 years seems to be represented, from Renaissance to Baroque to Rococo to Neoclassicism to Fauvism to Realism to Surrealism, etc.  Some examples of what we saw include:  in the area of Rococo, François Boucher’s, La Toilette; in the area of Fauvism, Maurice de Vlamnick’s, Blue Vase with Flowers; in the area of Realism, Edward Hopper’s melancholy & lonely, Hotel Room.

Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas

We hopped onto the Metro and disembarked at the Ventas Station to check out Madrid’s beautiful Neo-Mudéjar style bullfighting ring, and to maybe see some bulls or a bullfight.  The bullfighting season runs from March to October, so we thought that maybe the timing was in our favor for getting tickets.  The place was teeming with people celebrating the Feria de San Isidro, which runs from May to June, and celebrates Madrid’s patron saint, Saint Isidro.  During this fiesta, there are bullfights every day and tickets can be hard to come by.  We stood in line for a while, only to find out that the bullfight was completely sold out, with lots of other hopeful spectators canvassing the crowd for available tickets.  I’m not sure that I was all that disappointed in missing the bullfight, but I think it could be quite fun and interesting to experience the pomp and pageantry of something so beloved by so many Spaniards.

Tourists in Madrid

We can never resist a colorful market, and the Mercado de San Miguel was no exception. Housed in a striking early 20^th –century wrought-iron structure enclosed by glass walls, the attractive, individually-decorated stalls offered beautiful produce, charcuterie, meats, olive oils, capers, etc.  Several of the stalls were not open, possibly due to the fact that each stall is individually owned and operated with their own set operating hours.  I’ve also read that the stalls may be closed due to competition from modern supermarkets.

Palacio Real

When the massive Royal Palace was completed, 26 years after Felipe V commissioned its construction after the original royal residence burned down in 1734, he was no longer around to reap the benefits.  It was his son, Carlos III, who became the first royal resident.  It has not been used as a home to the royals since Alfonso XIII abdicated the throne in 1931.  However, it is still used for official state functions, and it is open for the public to tour the opulent rooms, the pharmacy, the armory, the chapel, the furniture, the tapestries, the porcelain, the paintings by Velázquez, Goya, Caravaggio, etc., etc.

Museo Nacional del Prado

We achieved our number one goal in Madrid today with a visit to the Prado Museum.  And we were not disappointed !  The rooms were spacious, the lighting was perfect, and the collection was awesome.  Domenicos Theotocopoulos, nicknamed “El Greco”, was very well-represented with works such as, The Adoration of the Shepherds, where one of the shepherds bears a striking resemblance to El Greco himself.  We noticed in many of his paintings that there were subjects who seemed to resemble him, but we decided that it might have just been the style of the times that many men looked alike with their pointy goatees and white ruffle collars. There were also many paintings by Velázquez, such as, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), where he appears as the artist in the shadow in the midst of all the activity and mystery in the behind-the-scenes look at his daily work.  And, of course, there was Goya.  Francisco Goya, who was considered by some as the “Father of Modern Art”, was also well-represented in the Prado.  We especially enjoyed two of his most famous works, La Maja Vestida (The Clothed Maja) and La Maja Desnuda (The Naked Maja), which were both confiscated by the Inquisition as “obscene works” around 1813.  It is believed that the shocking, The Clothed Maja may have been painted first, and that the even more shocking, The Naked Maja came afterwards, when very few nudes existed in Spanish Art at the time.  Of course, the Spanish artists were not the only ones represented in the museum.  There were many important works by Flemish, Dutch, French, German, and Italian artists as well, including, David Victorious over Goliath by Caravaggio, that was especially memorable, in his familiar Chiaroscuro style.

Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

After everything else we did today, we didn’t imagine that we would also still have time to visit the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, but it turned out that it was open until 9:00pm, so we thought we had lucked out.  It turned out that we had only partially lucked out.  Our main reason for visiting this museum of modern Spanish art was to see Picasso’s famous Civil War protest painting, Guernica.  Unfortunately, several of the exhibition rooms of Madrid’s former General Hospital were closed due to renovation efforts, and Guernica was in one of these rooms which was not accessible to the public.  It was maybe for this reason that the entrance fee to the museum was waived, so we were still able to see other interesting works by Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, etc.  An ominous painting by Alfonso Ponce de León, entitled Accidente, was a bit disturbing, as the subject was a man thrown from a car in a traffic accident, which is how he himself lost his life later in the same year of the painting’s completion in 1936.

Return to the Netherlands

Last weekend we strolled along the canals of Venice.  This weekend, we’ll stroll along the canals of Amsterdam.  We took advantage of another one of Dave’s business trips to Amsterdam by taking a BasiqAir flight from NCE to AMS on Saturday morning, giving us the weekend to play before he has to go to work on Monday.  We started out by going to the highly-touted Rembrandt-Caravaggio exhibition, presented by both the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, to commemorate the 400^th birthday of Rembrandt.

The exhibition is presented in the not-so-picturesque Van Gogh Museum, maybe because the beautiful Rijksmuseum is still only partially open while going through a major renovation.

In an artistic confrontation between the two Baroque artists from northern and southern Europe, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), face off on the walls of the Van Gogh Museum, from February 24^th to June 18^th.  Rembrandt was born four years before Caravaggio’s death, and never viewed any of the works of the Italian genius.  However, Rembrandt may have been indirectly influenced by the works of Caravaggio, through other artists that he admired and who were familiar with his work in Italy.  They both used ordinary people as models for their paintings, and they both are described as masters of Chiaroscuro, which, according to dictionary.com, is described as the technique of using light and shade in pictorial representation.  They differed, however, in their style.  While Caravaggio’s style is distinguished with clean, clearly defined lines and precise areas of light and shadow, Rembrandt’s works have a distinct diffused lighting effect.  We both found the exhibit, which consisted of around 30 paintings, to be outstanding.

More Neighbors – Torcello & Burano

We bid a joyful farewell to the Michelangelo this morning, and to our first (and last) cruise.  We checked our bags into the luggage storage area at the train station, stopped for breakfast at a sidewalk caffè, and then hopped onto a vaporetto headed for the island of Torcello, another one of Venice’s 33 neighbors in the lagoon.  From the Fondamente Nove (F.te Nove) vaporetto stop in Venice to Torcello took about 55 minutes.

Torcello, which is Italian for “Tower and Sky”, is a small marshy island toward the northeast end of the salt-water lagoon.  It was the first settlement in the lagoon back in the 5^th century, and was considered a very important center of trade and commerce in the 14^th century, with a population of more than 20,000 inhabitants.  Nowadays, the island is largely abandoned with probably no more than 20 permanent residents.  It was a short walk, along the canal toward the campanile, on the town’s only street, to reach Torcello’s main piazza.

We found all the important tourist sites congregated together in the main piazza:  the 11^th-century Church of Santa Fosca (pictured above), the 7^th-century Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta with its campanile, the Museo dell’Estuario (a small archeological museum), and Attila’s Throne.

A five-minute vaporetto ride from Torcello got us over to the colorful island of Burano in time for lunch.  Actually, to say that Burano is colorful is an understatement.  And, it is for this reason, that it is always flocked with tourists.  The story goes that the houses on Burano were painted in different colors so that the fishermen could recognize their houses from their fishing boats out on the lagoon.  While the male population consisted traditionally of fishermen, the women were traditionally lace-makers.  It was the lace-makers of Burano who invented the famous “punta in aria” (stitch in air), which gave their lace a reputation for quality throughout Europe.  Our Venice Museum Passes (Musei Civici Veneziani) got us into the Museo del Merletto (Lace Museum), where we saw examples of the famous Burano stitches, as well as the interesting tools they used to create their works of art.

The 40-minute vaporetto ride back to Venice from Burano left us plenty of time to continue our favorite pastime in Venice, which is strolling around and searching out the small alleys and canals away from the crowds at Piazza San Marco.

It turned out that we got a lot of use out of our 3-Day Vaporetto Cards that we purchased upon our arrival for 25€ each, at the vaporetto station in front of the ferrovia (train station).  Your 72-hours of travel begins as soon as you stamp your card in the yellow stamping machine just before boarding your first vaporetto.  This was our third trip to Venice, and we had never been asked to see our vaporetto tickets … until our very last trip today from Burano to Venice.  You can be fined if you do not have a valid ticket.  Fortunately, we still had a couple of hours remaining on our cards. 

After a leisurely dinner at Vini da Gigio, Fondamenta del la Chiesa, Cannaregio 3628/A – tel: +39 041 528 5140 (reservations are essential), we climbed aboard our 11:00pm overnight train for the return trip to Nice.  The anti-CPE demonstrators have convinced SNCF (the French Train System) to resume their strikes, so there will be another complete shut-down beginning day after tomorrow.  For some reason they like to begin their strikes on Tuesdays, at least for this particular cause.  We're hoping the trains will be running tomorrow, so that we can get from Nice to Antibes.

A Tongue and Cheek Tour of Padova

A 30-minute train ride from Venice got us to into Padova in the late morning.  The first thing we did was to head over to the Scrovegni Chapel to make a reservation for a viewing later in the day.  After securing a 17h15 reservation, we meandered through the park that houses the chapel, the Giardini Dell’Arena, and then made our way into the centro storico (the old town) where we settled into Caffè Cavour at Piazza Cavour for an alfresco lunch.

After lunch we continued our tour of Padova by visiting one of the most important pilgrimage churches in Italy, the Basilica di Sant’Antonio.  It is here that the body of the Portuguese Franciscan preacher, affectionately referred to as "Il Santo", was entombed years after his death in 1231.  Among the “miraculous” relics found here in the church, is the tongue of Saint Anthony.  Yes, the tongue !!  We have often seen body parts of saints or other important persons stored in some of the churches of Italy.  Among other things, we have seen several fingers, a nose, an ear, an arm, a jaw (or cheek), and my personal favorite, a larynx.  Most of the time we just have to take the word of the relic descriptions since they are, largely, unrecognizable.  Would you be able to recognize a 700 year-old larynx, or a 775 year-old tongue ?

Our Padova Museum pass gave us entry to the Musei Civici agli Eremitani with its mosaic fragments from the 1^st century, Roman busts and full statues, Egyptian antiquities, and treasures from the Greek and Etruscan periods.

It was finally time for our 17h15 viewing of the frescoes by Giotto, the great Tuscan artist, in the Cappella degli Scrovegni.  We were required to start our visit with a 15-minute wait in a special air-conditioned multimedia room, where the flow of visitors into the actual chapel could be regulated.  Fortunately, an informative video about the restoration of the frescoes is shown during the wait, which gives you an idea of what to look for once inside, where you have only 15 minutes to take in all the amazing paintings.  These measures were put into place in order to safeguard the precious works of art from pollution.  When you finally enter the church, you see that the whole chapel is completely covered in Giotto’s treasured frescoes from the early 14^th century, depicting the life of Christ, the life of Mary, and relating the stories of Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne.  When you get to the end of the chapel and turn around facing the entrance, you face the gigantic “Last Judgement”, which covers the whole arched end of the chapel.  It would be very easy to spend more than 15 minutes on the “Last Judgement” alone.

Before heading back to the train station for our return to Venice, we got in a last stroll which took us along the beautiful, peaceful canals and waterways in and around Padova.

Reluctant Cruisers in Venice

We were able to board the Michelangelo at 6:00pm last night.  Our home for the rest of the week is very nice, and our room is very comfortable.  What we expected was a hotel on water.  What we got was a real, bona fide cruise.  Last night we were seated for dinner at the table where we will have all our meals, along with the two other couples who will be our table companions for every meal.  Fortunately, they are all very nice, and they only speak French, so we won’t have to worry about our French getting rusty while we are in Italy.

After a morning cruise in the Venice Lagoon, the Michelangelo settled in not far from Piazza San Marco, where we spent the afternoon visiting the Basilica di San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace).  We walked across The Bridge of Sighs, which links the Palazzo Ducale with the prison, and was so named because the prisoners would get their last glimpse (pictured below) of the outside world as they walked across to be locked up.

Venice 1948-1986: the art scene

We stopped in to see the Photography Exhibit at the very popular Peggy Guggenheim Collection in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on Venice’s Grand Canal.  Peggy Guggenheim made her home here in the “Palazzo non finito” (uncompleted palace) from 1949 until her death in 1979.  It looks as though the upper floors of the palace were somehow chopped off.  However, for reasons which still remain a mystery today, the construction of the building, which began in the 18^th century, was never completed.

The exhibit provides photographs from Venice’s post-war international art scene captured at the Venice Biennales from 1948 through 1986.  The << Biennale di Venezia >>, which also includes the Venice Film Festival, is an important contemporary art exhibition which has been taking place every other year in Venice starting from the late 1800’s.  Many of the contemporary artists of the day are shown in the photographs including Picasso, Alex Calder, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, etc.