Ticking clocks, drinking water, and Italian underwear

The Port of Antibes

This was a week of excursions. We went on three excursions with the school and one of our own. On Monday Blandine took us to Cagnes-Sur-Mer, where we looked at a bit of the small French town feel dating back to the Middle Ages. On Wednesday we headed to Antibes, where we got another feel of the Vielle Ville style French culture. Antibes houses a Picasso museum, an Archaeology museum, and the largest port in Europe. The Picasso museum did not have a lot of Picasso paintings, but it did have a decent amount of other works of Picasso's style and tributes to the famous artist. The port was very interesting, mainly because the yachts looked like they cost more than the whole area of the Mediterranean. One yacht had a helicopter port on it and I have made it my lifelong goal to procure that vessel.

A real Italian pizza that didn't seem so real....

Friday, we "accidentally" slept in late and took the day off to go to Ventimille, or as the Italians call it, Ventimiglia. Ventimiglia is located in Italy, just on the other side of Monaco from Nice. Every Friday they hold a giant flea-market in the city. It was a little intimidating being in a country and not knowing any of the language, but luckily everyone spoke French, so we got along. We had some Italian pizza at this little restaurant on the sea and I had a few bites of a canoli that was incredible delicious. The lady that houses Josh and myself does our laundry for us, Madame Alemane. And on the day prior to our venture to Ventimiglia, she told us that our boxer briefs were not sexy, and if she would not sleep with us if she were a young mademoiselle. For her sake we bought some Italian underwear and showed it to her. If Madame Alemane approves of your underwear, you can officially be deemed sexy by French culture. We should get extra points in the culture class now...

Les sous-vêtements très sexy

Public drinking fountain in Saint Paul.

Saturday completed the long and adventurous week with an excursion to Vence and Saint Paul. These two cities were both very small and reflected the epitome of construction during the Middle Ages. We were also able to learn a bit more on the game known as "Jeu de boules". Enfin, we visited the Chapelle Matisse, one that was constructed entirely by the artist. It was a work he considered his masterpiece and it was definitely one of the most incredible artistic accomplishments I have seen from the modern period. On Sunday we will visit the Musee Matisse to further this adventurous time in Nice.

This was the coolest watch and clock store in Vence.  They had vintage Omega wrist and pocket watches, which I have been looking for everywhere.  It reminds me a lot of the watch store I work at in Orem, except it is a thousand times cooler.