St. Paul

I've sort of decided that chronological order for blogging in overrated. The second day I was at sort of loose ends in the Cote d'Azur, after I'd dropped Phil off at his meeting a Sophia Antipolis, just north of Antibes, I went to St. Paul. I'd only wanted to visit St. Paul and Vence for about 35 years or so, can't remember, but ever since I'd read about them, and all the artists who hung out there.

Alley

Art in a shop

Cannon in a wall

fountain

interesting door

hey, it's American, but it's named after me

my lunch

less than 2 meters wide

St. Paul's street and fountain

Art in restaurant La Colombe d'Or

more art

street scene

steep alleyway

And after I read more recently, I realized they were very different, although both were thick with history and 20th century artists, and also they aren't the same place, what with being very near to each other, but each being on a big (seriously BIG) hill that by most people's standards would qualify as a mountain, with sort of a big gorge separating them. You can see across it from one village to the other, but you sorta can't get there from here (actually you can, but you have to go around). That first day I visited St. Paul. Had read about La Colombe d'Or restaurant for many, MANY years; it's famous for all the 20th century art there.

entry and exist way

The guy who started the hotel/restaurant evidently wasn't all that great a cook, or at least didn't run a great kitchen, but over the years he accepted art as payment for rooms and meals, and it became a destination more because of all the art -- Matisse, Chagall, Picasso, etc., etc., -- around the place, as for the food. Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, as I understand it, met there and were later married there. So I decided to see if we could have lunch there...I asked while I was in St. Paul and was very haughtily told by a French woman with a well-cultivated British accent (after I asked in French) that they were "fully booked" the rest of the week...

St. Paul the village was perfect, though, in a lot of ways, and I'm very glad I went. Did a great deal of shopping. It's a beautiful, beautiful medieval village, picture-perfect.

Don't seem to be able to get the photos to be where I want them. My lunch up there was in the restaurant with the photo of the (VERY narrow) room; it is less than 2 meters wide and is the width of the BUILDING.

Art everywhere in St. Paul. Beautiful place, despite the fact that there's a "restaurant" which is a burger shop called "Lily's place"...but hey, they spelled my name wrong...

Cheers, Lillie