Antibes & Picasso

Much of our holiday was dominated by art of one sort or another. The clarity of light around this area have brought artists to it.

 

Old Antibes

Our first gallery to look at was in Antibes, right next to Juan les Pins. Here we visited the Musée Picasso. Some of you may remember our visit to see an exhibition of his works at Martigny in Switzerland.

 

The cathedral taken from the entrance to the museum

In 1946 Picasso was offered a studio in the Château Grimaldi. He duly accepted & worked there. It was clearly a time of much joy, resulting in paintings such as “La Joie de Vivre”, which was on show. For those who believe Picasso couldn’t draw, have a look at “The Goat”. I expect a bleat at any moment as it gets up to leap around. On show were also an impressive collection of ceramics he made in nearby Vallauris. A sculpture stands outside in the courtyard on the way to the garden. It makes you realise the sheer range & quantity of art he made in his career.

 

On the wall, just beyond the square tower, are the figures in the museum garden

The museum garden (& sleepy visiotor)

One thing the exhibition did bring home was the paucity of art materials in the immediate post-war period as Picasso experimented with all sorts of different materials.

The collection at the Musée Picasso is largely based on Picasso’s own donation of 44 drawings & 23 paintings, all works he’d produced while at Antibes. Later additions have been donated to the gallery. There are also photos of him at work in the studio.

Other artists featured too, including Nicolas Staël who also stayed in Antibes at one time.  The house he stayed in has a plaque telling you when he stayed. It overlooks Fort Carré, his painting of which is on show.

Fort Carre across the harbour & Stael's house

It was a satisfying, emotional draining but wonderful exhibition, well worth the visit.

Juan les Pins

So where do I start with tales about our holidays? I suppose the first thing is to tell you about Juan les Pins, where we actually stayed.

Juan les Pins is a seaside resort about halfway between Cannes to the west & Nice to the east. In March it is still a fairly sleepy place, although, on our second weekend there, a particularly sunny day, it was heaving as day trippers arrived from all over to appreciate the azure seas, the views across to the Massif de L’Esterel & Cannes, the marina with its luxury boats. It certainly gave you the impression how busy a place it would be at the height of the season or during one its festivals. We were relieved we’d gone in the quiet time.

Along the Promenade du Soleil

Looking across the sea to the Massif de L'Esterel

With Cannes behind

The marina beyond

Needless to say there are loads of pine trees there.

I first became aware of Juan when my then French penfriend boasted about her holiday there. In the 60s it was regarded as a more affordable in place.

I gather it really gained international renown in the 1920s when the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald & Ernest Hemingway favoured it. 

And along came jazz. In 1951 the jazz player Sydney Bechet married here & from then on took his annual holidays in Juan. With Claude Luter, he set Juan Les Pins up as the European capital of Jazz. After Bechet’s death in 1959, the first jazz festival here was born, featuring many of the greats such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie & Miles Davis – what a line up for the first festival! The festivals still happen every year in July.

The influence of jazz can be seen throughout Juan. Along one road are the handprints of various jazz legends. There is the Carrefour de la Nouvelle Orléans with the New Orleans jazz bar on the corner next to the Hemingway. Restaurants & bar resound to the strains of jazz, even in our hotel. Statues of jazz players & artworks of jazz instruments abound.

 

One jazz artist after another

Dave Brubeck

The other great attraction of Juan for us was a restaurant we found, Ti Toques. The onion soup was out of this world. Unlike you usually find in France where a large slice of bread covered with grated cheese is first put in the bowl, followed by the soup, here they toasted some, I think, gruyere cheese on half a baguette and served it on one side. It was truly delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed our meals there – turbot & scallops with a champagne sauce, salmon, fillet of beef Rossini, slow cooked lamb shanks. I salivate at the very thought.

Getting back to normal

We’re slowly getting back to normal. The big wash is under way. There always seems to be so much after a holiday – not surprising I suppose when I don’t believe in doing washing while we’re away unless it’s absolutely essential. Five full loads have been done. I’ve only one more to go but, as I haven’t anywhere to hang it, & it’s raining, I don’t see much point in washing this load until some more of the rest has dried.

On Saturday I managed a stroll round the garden. It was lovely to discover the perennial clematis was in flower along with some hellebores. There was also some bright yellow stars of winter jasmine along one fence. A few winter pansies are also laughing in the wind. The pot of miniature daffs are still in flower to jolly up the garage wall a bit. Leaf buds are appearing on the trees & shrubs.

Today I’m doing my first real bit of cooking. On Saturday we took out of the freezer a meal the Fox had made a while ago. As it had lots of potatoes & other vegetables in we only needed to warm up the stew & serve with some fresh bread. Sunday saw the Fox making one of his excellent Kipper & Egg Kedgerees while I sorted out the washing. So today is really my first bit of cooking.

So what’s it to be? I’ve made some pork burgers with some sweet and sour flavours, topped with pineapple rings. They’re in the fridge now ready to grill this evening. I also peeled some potatoes ready for chips to accompany it. The only other thing to do is find some peas in the freezer & a nice bottle of wine to go with it. I’m thinking probably a chardonnay with tropical pineapple flavours is the best bet. We’ll see what I can find.

We’re both being struck by how much more relaxed we’re feeling, how much more energy we now have. How long it will last I’m not sure. Once the Easter holidays are over I dare say the pressures of everyday life will once more settle upon us. Still it’s good while it lasts & the holiday obviously is what we needed.