Cagnes-sur-Mer, Antibes, and Nice

As I found out while perusing Google Maps, the French Riviera is a real hotspot for the visual arts. The area boasts a museum each dedicated to Matisse, Chagall, Renoir, and Léger, and two dedicated to Picasso. Choosing between them was difficult, but we eventually decided to see Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer, as the city is easily reachable by train, and we had not been there yet.

When we arrived, we first clambered up to Grimaldi Castle to get a sense of what the city is like and to view the castle from up close. The hike was an arduous one. Making sure to stick to the shaded side away from the beaming sun, we wondered what it would be like to drive a car, ride a bike, or simply be old in this town. We then hiked down the hill once more. The Renoir Museum lay across the river and halfway up another hill, though this one was much less steep. The path to it seemed more suitable for cars than pedestrians, and we had to move out of the way a few times to make sure we would not be run over in a bend.

The Renoir Museum is situated in the home where Renoir spent the latter years of his life. It is faithfully recreated in many of the paintings produced by Renoir’s artistic friends, as are the views across the estate. From the balcony, one can see the sea on the left and the mountains on the right, and olive trees frame the view of Grimaldi Castle from the garden. I would say that although the museum illustrates Renoir’s homelife very faithfully, it is not exactly brimming with stunning pieces by the artist himself, many of which are in better-known museums.

Having completed our itinerary in Cagnes-sur-Mer very early, we decided that instead of returning to Nice, we would carry on further down the coast to Antibes. We had already ridden through the town once on our way to Cannes, and it was the only town where our express stopped on the way back to Nice. In my mind, therefore, the town received a connotation of relative importance that merited a visit. Or, at the very least, I knew it was big.

The major attraction that brought us to Antibes was the Picasso Museum. Located in Château Grimaldi, it exhibits works bequeathed by the artist’s wife to the museum following his sojourn there in 1946. These include a number of paintings, ceramics, drawings, etchings, and even carpets, none of which we really understood. I did like his gradually deconstructed goat, but I spent most of the time joking about the various obscene and nonsensical things I figured I could recognise in the artworks.

Our lunch experience following our museum visit was the most quintessentially French experience I could have wished for on this trip. Entering the front door, we walked past the kitchen and descended into the furnished cellar without finding a single server. Eventually, we realised this was because the chef was the only server; he did have a colleague, but he seemed quite incapacitated by a broken arm. Occasionally, this second man would walk around asking people whether they were having a good time, and even took away small plates when he was feeling particularly vigorous. Perhaps my favourite part of the whole two hour-experience was when the chef explained to us in painstaking detail each meal on the changing weekly menu – the ephemeral nature of which was why we were given no paper menu in the first place. Another highlight was when the chef brought two plates before us and explained what they were. When we told him we had not ordered those meals, he said he knew but just wanted to help us pick.

We spent the rest of our time in Antibes walking along the ramparts, which offer a lovely view of the Picasso Museum and the ship-dotted sea. Our stroll eventually took us back to the train station, from which we reached Nice by four o’clock in the afternoon. This gave us enough time to walk along the Avenue of Jean Médecin and into the old town, stopping by a few churches on the way. We visited the Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption, the Chapel of Mercy, and the Cathedral of Saint Reparata, where the church organist was pounding away a particularly jaunty tune. What I was most excited about, however, was getting to add grapefruit and rhubarb flavour to my ice cream checklist.