Last Day in Nice

Today was a short day, as I had to get back to Geneva for my job. We managed to finish our supply of cheese, fruit, and juice in the morning, which made me very proud of our planning skills. We packed up and, leaving a few things at our Airbnb to pick up later, made our way into the city for one last time. Our first destination lay to the north: the Church of Joan of Arc. A highly original and controversial building, it is sometimes referred to as “the Meringue” for its colour and shape; the church is built of reinforced concrete, its tall spire piercing the sky above a collection of white domes.

The church was not open yet and we did not want to wait around, so we continued directly to the nearby Museum of Marc Chagall. The museum carries the sobriquet “message biblique” (biblical message), as the collection centres around a series of large paintings of motifs from Genesis, Exodus, and the Song of Solomon. There is also an outdoor mosaic depicting Elijah in his chariot of fire from II Kings. Although I am not a great fan of Primitivism, I did like the vibrant colours of the paintings. My appreciation thereof culminated in the depiction of Noah’s rainbow, in which the whole world carried the rainbow’s colours while the rainbow itself remained white. Also interesting was the exposition assigning specifically designed perfumes to five selected paintings, which visitors could sniff from sticks dipped in containers by the paintings.   

Our last stop of the day was the centre of Nice. Although we had visited it yesterday, I felt it would be a shame to spend so little time in Nice despite conceiving all our day trips from the city. We saw a few of the churches again, though we did not walk inside as it was a Sunday and masses were going on. Indeed, as we were sitting outside an ice cream shop on Rossetti Square (I tried the ginger and cinnamon flavours), we saw several priests with a massive golden cross walk out of the cathedral and shake hands with the congregants. After that, we boarded the tram to our Airbnb, picked up our things, and headed to the airport.

The Church of Saint Joan of Arc
The central tower of the church
A side-view of the church
The many domes of the church
Two last views of the church
A mosaic at the Chagall Museum
Inside the Chagall Museum
One of Chagall's paintings
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption
The Cathedral of Saint Reparata
The front of the same
The clocktower in Nice

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