St.Paul de Vence & Vence - Day 2

Panoramic view from the Hotel Diana

St. Paul de Vence and Vence; 1st full day - Tuesday

Nola and Randy met us at the hotel at 10:30 on Tuesday morning and we drove a short 3 km to St. Paul de Vence.  I had thought about walking it but was glad I didn't after looking at the road.  It is twisting, winding and absolutely no room for pedestrians to maneuver the hair pin curves. The weather was mild, that is not hot, not cool either and a little muggy.  Houstonians would love it.

Randy let the three of us off at the Maeght Foundation, a modern art museum in St.Paul, where there was a special exposition of modern art and of course a cafe for coffees.  The main artist on display was Chagall, the only one I recognized.

St. Paul de Vence is a huge tourist attraction, so there were busloads of tourists there. Our first stop was a restaurant for lunch just outside the main city gate. Two things new that we've seen: Dogs are welcome in the cafes and most of the rest rooms are for men and women both! No details, there is privacy and common hand washing areas.

St. Paul is what the French call "villages perches" built in medieval times with fortified walls several feet thick and small openings for bow and arrow defense. At the front gate is a huge canon. If they didn't like your looks i guess they'd just shoot you. We walked around the narrow streets after lunch. There are virtually no cars and only merchants can get in by vehicle.

There were more "art dealers" in St. Paul than anything you could imagine.  We eventurally cut our visit there a little short though because it was so crowded and headed back to Vence.  Randy let us off at the hotel and he went to find a place to park the car, a big "probleme" here, parking!  We met him at Henry's Cafe for coffee and people watching. 

After Nola and Randy headed off to Coursegules where they live, MA went to the local deli and bought ham, cheese, crackers, fruit and yogurt for an "in-room" light supper and morning breakfast. I walked around some more, camera ready.  Later we went up to the roof top to watch the sunset and check out the jacuzzi. 

Lots of photo ops today.  I noticed a young French boy about 14 or 15 shooting pictures from the same vantage point that I had just used. He had a Nikon D5000, an exceptional quality DSLR.  In my mixed French and English I asked to see some of the photos on his camera.  He was more than eagar to show them to me.  He is going to be a great photographer someday.  I told him so and urged him to "keep shooting".

Au voir til tomorrow.

St.Paul de Vence