Nice Journal - Autumn 2011 - 8

Tuesday, 13th September, 2011

Photographic Museum, Nice

Lisa was feeling a little better this morning so, after the usual coffee and breakfast, we got out rather earlier than usual so that we could do some shopping at the Market in the Cours Saleya. We took the tram to the Cathédrale stop and walked through Vieux Nice to the Cours.

Lisa bought plenty of Marsailles soap, herbes de Provence, and paprika from various stalls to take back to the UK and finally a quarter water melon to take to Perry's. Errands complete we treated ourselves to a beer at the Civet de Cours before making our way round to Foresta.

We put the water melon in the fridge and helped ourselves to cold drinks while Perry finished some work on the computer. Our goal for the afternoon was the photographic museum ("Le théâtre de la photographie et de l'image Charles Negre") so we decided to try lunching close by and if unsuccessful close to the museum. We were once again turned away from "G Square" (clearly we do not have the right stuff to be allowed the privilege of access to their tables - fortunately an attitude that is exceedingly rare in Nice) so we took a bus to the Pietonne were we ate at "O'Palermo".

Lisa selected a squid dish, Perry went for the moules (marinières) frîtes and I choose veal escalope à la crème. My veal was delicious and Perry enjoyed his moules but Lisa found her squid overcooked and hence somewhat chewy. I picked a 2010 Bandol rosé and Lisa and I shared a half-bottle of that while Perry stuck with his regular tipple of apple juice. The wine was excellent. For dessert, Perry opted for the tarte tatin with ice cream, Lisa had a Café Liègeoise and I got a panna cotta with strawberry coulis. Coffee, of course, to finish. Apart from Lisa's squid, all was very tasty.

It was just a short walk from the Pietonne across Avenue Jean Médecin to the museum on Boulevard Dubouchage. The current exhibition is entitled "Parcours photographique" and features the work of several photographers capturing different aspects of Nice in a variety of styles. I was especially struck by a series of large, colour prints in a series called "Urbanistique". These showed figures of people juxtaposed in settings at once incongruous and illuminating, such as a pair of depictions of a mountaineering couple posed on ledges high above the railway station, a pianist playing in the middle of the tramway, a skier skiing down the tramway, an angel about to dive into an empty swimming pool, and several more very arresting images of that sort.

We caught a bus back to Place Garibaldi and walked down Ségurane to Foresta. We made plans for the following day (our last before returning home on Thursday) and then collected our shopping but left the melon to share tomorrow. After a beer in the Civet de Garibaldi, we got the tram home and I went up to Monoprix while Lisa called in at Casino on her way back to the apartment.

After a couple of hours or so of chilling, to the accompaniment of some Ron Carter (with and without Jim Hall) on the iPod (the first music we've played on this visit), it was time to have some supper. Lisa prepared a pair of Toulouse sausages fried in onions and each served in a half-baguette slathered with Dijon mustard. These were wonderfully tasty and very satisfying. Thanks to Lisa's Casino expedition, we had a bottle of 2010 Château de l'Aumerade Côtes de Provence rosé to go with supper; very nice indeed!

We stayed up rather later than recently, so it wasn't until 12:30 that we both headed for bed.