Today we rose early and packed up and picked up our rental car at the Nice airport. We wanted to first head to Vence, which was about 10 km from Nice on the hills. There I wanted to see the chapel that by the request of his friend and former model who had turned nun asked that he build for the convent that she now resided in. The chapel is designed by Henri Matisse and all the stain glass and drawings are all done by him as well as the architecture. It was supposed to be open but when we arrived we discovered it was a national holiday and so it was closed. The priest that was near by was thoughtful and offered us some fresh cherries instead .We happily accepted the offer ;) Nate had heard about a small town Saint Paul from someone the other day and said it was really beautiful. That was just a couple miles away so we made our way there. It was a beautiful medieval city built on a rock outcropping with narrow cobble streets and little houses turned shops filled with beautiful art, many from the impressionist and contemporary artists that lived in the area. Chagall lived his last days in this town and was buried here. We saw many prints and a couple of originals of his work here and one that I just fell in love with that looked like a Mermaid offering a bouquet of flowers to the Cote d’ Azur… wish I could afford it because I would love it, very magical. We strolled the streets for about an hour and Sam found some art her loved too, but rather than a painting we opted for lunch. The lunch spot was idealic with a surreal view over the rolling green hills and down to the ocean. Our meal was fresh and filling and the carrots were so tasty I nearly ate them all (usually hate carrots) and the fish felt like it had been caught that morning.
We decided we didn't’ have time to get to the other 3 stops we had hoped to so made our way to Gordes, which my friend Kim Gorland had told me about. Nate picked an off the freeway route for the major part of our road trip and that turned out to be so picturesque I couldn’t help but start singing Sound of Music songs when we drove through a colonnade or trees and fields of tall grasses and poppies. Nate researched an Inn just outside of town and we pulled in around 6:30 and they had one room left and it slept 3. Meant to be. It was called Le Ferme and it was The Farm, right in the middle fo fields and beautiful grounds and a small upstairs room in the stone farmhouse. Perfect! We strolled around the neighboring farm roads and took in the late evening sun before dinner. Dinner was in the farmhouse and again I enjoyed some tasty sea bass and greens followed by an ice cream sundae- shouldn’t have but glad I did :)
Snuggled into bed with windows open and a slight breeze. Just heavenly.
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