Another visit to the Castle Hill Cemetery

Each visit to the Nice cemetery re-affirms to us how amazingly beautiful it is. Not only does it have the best view of any cemetery we've ever seen (except maybe Old Harbor), the sculptures are so surprisingly touching and interesting. Every time we go we notice new ones...

Baroness Ephrussi Rothschild's Villa

The girls just visited the sumptuous Rothschild villa near Cap Ferrat, about 20 minutes outside of Nice. We heard something about a mouse that guides kids on a scavenger hunt around the grounds so we thought we better check it out. It turned out to be a little notebook (with a picture of a mouse) that the kids were given with various clues for them to seek out… This sort of activity was exactly what the kids needed, keeping them interested and moving (and looking behind sculptures, finding the meaning of pediment and column, as well as running forward to look for a certain goddess sculpture).

Background: The Baroness Rothschild was herself a wealthy heiress who married a wealthy banker (Ephrussi) and then devoted her life to travel, architecture and collecting art and antiques. After her death at age 75 in 1934 her amazing house became property of the Academie des Beaux Arts in France who now open her home to interested tourists.

A few things that the Baroness adored: pink, Marie-Antoinette’s court at Versailles, and sumptuous gardens filled with exotic animals. Her house was built with views towards two bays and in the fashion of the fine Renaissance- era Italian palazzos. The villa is at the prow (her gardens were set up in the shape of a ship with her house at the tip) of nine amazing themed gardens. There is a formal French garden, a wild ‘provencal’ (this region) garden, an exotic garden with rare trees and a huge variety of cacti, a Rose garden, Spanish garden with pink marble columns and a grotto with dolphin fountain, a stone garden with gargoyles and arches from long ago, and a stark Japanese garden. This villa is one of the few open houses in which us outsiders can view the luxuriousness of the “Belle Epoque” which is a term you hear a lot in Nice. Meaning “Beautiful Era”, it was a period in European history that began in the late 1800s and lasted until the ‘fall’ of World War I. This time was when peace in Europe prevailed, people became rich in trade and train travel became commonplace.

The most amazing aspect of the Villa Ephrusi for us: the musical fountains! Every twenty minutes the music would sound and a series of maybe 20 fountains would unleash their crazy spouts and would do a wild water dance to the music. Captivating! What a great day….

Eze

During the time that our friends were visiting we decided to venture out to the mountain-top medieval town of Eze which we had heard was gorgeous yet touristy. True to form, we had to return shoves and hang on to one another to even make it onto the bus. It was about a 25 minute bus ride along the Moyenne Corniche road, which is a road that appears to be perched right on the edge of the mountaintop. We had absolutely amazing views of Nice and VilleFranche as we headed east.

Leaving the bus, we followed the pack up the hill and in through some massive stone gates into the fortified town of Eze. Why fortified? Poor Eze had the bad luck to be part of the House of Savoy from 1388 on (this small kingdom was often at war with France). Consequently, they protected their city with a double door or a "postern". Again, poor Eze… In 1543 the Turks and their French allies seized the village and in 1706 Lousix XIV ordered the walls of the city and castle to be razed. However, it wasn't until 1860 that Eze became officially French.

Immediately upon entering the postern, the girls were entranced with the 'little windows' into the walls… I’m sure it never crossed their minds that their purpose was actually survival. To them, they were the best peekaboo windows ever. The twisting, turning little streets were captivating and beautiful. Once we reached the top we decided to visit the Jardin Exotique, which is the elaborately planned summit garden covering the ruins of the former castle. We were amazed to discover not only the huge amount of succulents and cacti here, but also some gorgeous goddess statues set in strategic points throughout the garden. At the top, we sat in the ruins of the castle and just stared in awe at the view.

Along the way I became very excited about the Chateau labeled on the map as the Chateau de Chevre D'or. My amazing French suggested to me that this meant the Palace of the Golden Goat Cheese and I couldn't wait to investigate. Sadly, I finally realized that this just meant "Palace of the Golden Goat." My kids reminded me that this was still very cool and we googled it when we got home. Apparently it all comes back to the legend of the golden goat (sigh...) that appears time and time again in stories in Southern France and revolves around a fight between a hero (trying to hide his gold in a cave) and myriad horrific beasts and finally, his gold turned to dust, he escapes and leaves his riches behind. Lo and behold, a small goat enters the cave and becomes covered with the gold powder. The story goes that the goat is still living in the mountains and it will lead the good and faithful towards fortune.

A funny story about the bridge shown in the photos... "Devil's Bridge". A citizen of Eze, a shephard, promised the devil a soul (of whomever first crossed the bridge) if he would build the massive bridge. He did and the devil sat eagerly waiting on the other side. The shephard then threw a stick onto the bridge so that his dog would run after it, his dog thus claiming the prize, and the devil left in disgust!

Eilidh's favorite things about Nice

Eilidh's Top Ten

10. I like seeing butterflies because my nickname is Bug. And they are pretty.

9. I love to go swimming and I love to dunk my head and I don't like the taste of the salt.

8. You should look at the head of the Orangina label. It has an Indian hat! And it tastes good.

7. I saw lots of cacti. I like them because they are pokey and they are pretty and sometimes have pink flowers.
6. Carnivorous Plants at Parc Phoenix. Cool!


5. Silly dragon street performer. He scared me when I put a coin in the bucket. He went towards me and looked like he was going to bite me so I ran back to my mom.
4. Mini cars everywhere!
3. We have a tunnel by our house and street people sometimes sleep in there.
2. This is right in front of our apartment under castle hill. I like how you can hear a canon going off every day at 12:00.
1. My favorite thing about Nice is the steps (and swimming). There are 60 steps up to our apartment.

Dead End.