Nana on the Riviera

Andrew's hand is smaller than Stallone's!

Cannes and Nice (week 15)

As I mentioned in the previous post, we ended up in Cannes at the end of our trip along the Verdon River.  We stayed in Cannes two nights.  On the day in between we toured along the waterfront (the Boulevard de la Croisette), from one marina to the other.  At either end are public beaches, in between is mostly private, owned by hotels and beachside restaurants (but, of course, you can walk along the waterline between them all).  Along the other side of the boulevard are hotels and shops - mostly designer labels like Chanel, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, and Armani (but not Ralph Lauren, who is exiled 2 blocks back from the beach on the rue d'Antibes).  At the east end is the Cannes Film Festival complex, which is only interesting at this time of year because it contains the Tourist Bureau and for the celebrity handprints in the sidewalk around the theatres.


It was a nice day (26C), so we spent most of our time by the pool at the hotel and on the beach - Nana's first dip in the Med!  Both nights in Cannes we ate at the same restaurant - Caffé 72 - which is the first Riviera restaurant we've found that has family-friendly menu items and pricing, and that's open past 6 pm.  For lunch we ate at one of the seaside restaurants (Vegaluna), which was also pretty good family fare, although packed even in the middle of October.

Incidentally, Cannes seems to be the place to spot cars.  We saw two different Rolls Royces and three different Ferrari models.

The next day we went to see the Chagall museum - one of the very few private museums in Nice, and therefore one of the very few that has an entry fee.  Nonetheless, because the space was designed and the installation of the paintings were done by Chagall himself, it has a harmonious and user-friendly feel that you don't get at big galleries. The theme of the museum is the Bible (including some New Testament stuff, even though Chagall was Jewish).  Even the boys enjoyed it, at least for an hour or so.  Luckily there was a small garden area where they could have a snack and run around.