Today we commenced our journey slowly winding along the coast road through some well known Riviera resorts. St. Raphael, Frejus, Cannes and then as we exited Antibes we were greeted by the extraordinary view of the turquoise mediterranean backed by the gleaming peaks of the distant Alps. It was truly a stunning sight, to which photographs cannot do justice.
From Antibes we headed inland, twisting and turning into the Alpes Maritime. We were impressed by bold splashes of yellow in the forests emanating from a tree which we did not recognise. We were determined to discover what tree flowers so freely in February. Having stopped to pick a sample of the leaf and flower, Sarah trawled through her book of European trees to find that it was a Mimosa. Not a native tree at all, but an import which is obviously colonising this part of Europe. A pretty interloper, rather like our Rhododendron, but hopefully not so invasive.
The reason for our jaunt inland was to visit the town of Vence, which had been home to various artists over the years and where D. H. Lawrence breathed his last, while attempting a cure for TB. The object of my curiosity was a chapel on which Henri Matisse worked almost exclusively for a period of 4 years during the late 1940s. It was one of his last complete works and one with which he expressed himself to be entirely satisfied.
The chapel itself is simple, with beautiful Matisse stained glass and highly stylised large paintings in simple black on white glazed tiles of Madonna and Child and the Stations of the Cross. I saw it on my own and it was a sublimely peaceful place.
Attached to the chapel is a small gallery housing Matisse’s preparatory drawings for the chapel and also formal robes designed for priests to wear while taking services. It was a very worthwhile diversion.
SatNav said we still had three tortuous hours to our destination in Italy and having already been driving for over two hours we opted for our first toll road, which cut the travelling time in half.
We arrived at our overnight stopping place, which is a Sosta (Italian Aire), located immediately adjacent to a shingly beach and just outside a very upmarket marina at Santo Stefano al Mare (43.837079, 7.905621). The location is great and is just €10 without electricity.
Basil’s view for tonight
We ended the day with a long walk around the marina clogged with some enormous yachts. There were also numerous Laser and 420 dinghys returning from what appeared to be a day’s racing. They all had German national colours and GER marked on the sails, so we wondered if it had been a training camp for German sailors.
