Le Port

I must admit that Bill was far more fascinated with the Port de Nice than I. Perhaps I feel that having seen one or two boats / ships / yachts, I've seen enough. I do sort of understand Bill's fascination with the amounts of money each of these vessels represents and the different lifestyle available to those entitled to use them.  My suspicion is that businesses own these more often than individuals, if only for tax reasons. 

I find it doesn't do to dwell too long on these sorts of things, however, because one can always find people in the world who are 'better off'. I've seen it make people bitter and envious, ashamed at their 'lack of success'. I prefer to look in the other direction at the vast majority who had far less than I do. It keeps me grateful and contented to hold that perspective.  

Besides, I wouldn't even know how to act if I was aboard one of those vast yachts with servants in livery - I kid you not!  I didn't even have the nerve to take a photo of some people dining at the back of their yacht, being served by others in uniforms. I don't know if it was because I didn't want to invade their privacy (but hey, they were out their in plain view from the street); if I didn't want to make rich people angry, if I didn't want to document the service people's 'lowly status' (might be a cushy job, for all I know). See what I mean?  I didn't even know how to act...

The Port was very much a defining feature for navigating our way back home and we passed it most of the days we headed for the Promonade des Anglais or the Vieille Ville (Old Town), as Ben's flat was up the hill, NE of the Port.  You can see it on the map below at the east end of the Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels), the little rectangular shape. The road that traces the edge of the Bay is the Promonade des Anglais, apparently so named because of the many rich English who came here in the 1800s.  At the east end of that road is a short bit called the Quai des Etats-Unis (Dock of United States), so named when the U.S. joined in with World War II.



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More than the many boats in the water, and there were a few old wooden crafts that were truly beautiful, I mostly enjoyed the historic buildings around the port. I'm guessing they might date back to around the late 1700s, early 1800s.  

One day Bill noticed a sign with a painting on it, indicating that the artist had painted this view and pointing out the buildings still there as reference points.  We didn't document the sign as we did with most of the ones we found relating Alfred Sisley's work in the area around Moret-les-Loing (near where we visited last spring).  We think it was probably the work of Henri Matisse, but I can't document it now. There is a Matisse museum in Nice but Ben had said he didn't think it was very well done and apparently Matisse's work sold so well during his lifetime that his best works are in private ownership rather than in museums.  Ben suggested the Marc Chagall museum but that was a bit more out of the way.  Also, I've seen a Chagall in Chicago and the film Notting Hill, so that's probably enough for me anyhow.