Nice is nice

Photographs — 2016

This series of photographs are all about my long-awaited 10 day road trip to the Côte d’Azur. I flew from Lisbon to Nice, then travelled by car throughout the South of France, to wonderful towns as far as Nîmes, in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, and Ventimiglia, just across the French-Italian border. One can enjoy a great many places, such as Vence et Saint-Paul, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Cap-d’Ail, Antibes, Cannes, Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Saint-Tropez, just to name a few.

The lovely Provence, with its endless count of cypresses, provides a palette of Cézanne’s ocher and terra cotta. In fact, every landscape looks like a Cézanne’s oil on canvas. The quietude of Renoir’s house and studio at Cagnes-sur-Mer, overseeing the Mediterranean Sea and Antibes. The emotional visit payed to Chagall’s tomb at Saint-Paul de Vence, a beautiful medieval town now fully dedicated to tourism. The drawings of the one and only Jean Cocteau at Menton. Grace Kelly’s death curve near Monaco, a paradox site featuring astonishingly breathtaking views of the omnipresent Mediterranean Sea. Thankfully no signs can be found whatsoever of the accident that took place on September 14, 1982. Only an empty two car parking lot in the middle of nothing. I was there 34 years later, on September 11, 2016.

The turquoise blue green shutters on almost every building facade (the rest are gray). The exquisite food, as the French know how to create like no one else. The best croissants. The cheeses to die for. The carafes on every restaurant table and, oddly enough, Belgium abbey beers made with recipes as old as the XII Century.

And last, but definitely not least, perhaps the most compelling thing of all: the Mediterranean Sea, with its deep blue colour and warm waters. Very Nice.

Polyptychs

Photos