Saint Paul de Vince and Cannes
Trip Start
Feb 2007
1
4
Trip End
Feb 2007
Cannes, France
Monday, November 12, 2007
Well after looking at the ampitheater for a bit I went back to my room, gathered up my belongings and headed outside to wait for the buses. Eventually all of us got on board and our buses headed on the way to St. Paul de Vince.
When we arrived in town, the buses stoped and we were given instructions. We had 2 hours to visit and enjoy St. Paul de Vince, and we had a choice of visiting this famous art musuem or of visiting the town or both. Due to the small amount of time, I chose to visit the town. St. Paul de Vince is this charming little city in the midst of some hills. The old city looked like something out of a children's fairy tale book. The heart of centre ville is surrounded by the old Medival walls. The small, winding, cobble stone streets are narrow and buildings were so close together, any closer and they would have been "kissing". As I walked down these ancient streets, I noticed quite a few art galleries...supposedly St. Paul de Vince has always been a haven for artists and there are a lot of art galleries in and around each other. I know on some streets I saw like 10 art galleries in a row. One could see the vibrante colors of the many paintings and scupltures of these galleries from their shop windows, adding color to somewhat of "bland" looking streets.
I didn't do much in St. Paul de Vince due to the horrible 2 hour time limit: I just walked around, bought some souvenirs and chatted up with some of the shop keepers. In particular I had a long conversation with a vendor on different santons, while with another she and I talked politics. Santons are basically small ceramic scupltures depicting everyday people, life and religious figures. Santons have been made in Southern France since the Middle Ages, and are traditionally made to accompany a nativity scene below a Christmas tree. There are supposedly three different "schools" of santon making: Grasse, Marseille and somewhere else (forgive my memory people!). The santons of Grasse are very plain looking (they have a color sceme of white and beige), are simple in subject matter and are less "realistic" looking-supposedly the santons of Grasse are true examples of the artform when it started in the Middle Ages. The Marseille style santons are very bright, colorful, very realistic looking and the subject matter deals a lot with capturing a moment, a time and place you might say. The other school of santon making is similar to the Marseille style in regards to the fact that it's very colorful, but like the Grasse school of santons are less realistic and have a very simple subject matter.
During my tour of St. Paul de Vince I encountered a small little square where I saw some elderly Frenchmen play a game of "boule". For those of you who are not familiar with boule it is a game sort of like bowling, but with smaller balls and no pins. I believe that the balls are made out of some sort of metal, and sadly I don't know the rules behind the game, but traditionally it is played by men of all ages actually but in the case of my visit to St. Paul de Vince, the players were all elderly men. While the men were playing their game of boule children were running in and around the square under the watchful eye of female family members, who were sitting comfortably at some of the cafes that surrounded the area. I watched this scene for a few minutes, but eventually I decided to move on. As I walked furthur town I came across what looked like the reminants of the city's Medevial walls. From the little, yet well preserved part of what remained of the old city walls was a small opening which led to the heart of centre ville. After passing through this opening, I felt like I had been transported into another time.
St. Paul de Vince's centre ville has extreamly narrow, cobble stoned streets, so narrow that it is impossibly for a car to drive down them, which explains why this area is for pedestrians only. The streets of the city went up and down inclines, and winded through the city almost endlessly. The buildings in this part of town were very compact, were similar in design and look, and looked as if they had not changed in style for over 800 years. What had changed about these buildings was the interiors of course. St. Paul de Vince has a well known artist community, and all these old buildings now house art galleries. I didn't go into any of these galleries because I knew that I couldn't afford the art nor did I have the time to really look at their pieces, but I did window shop a few of them and the work look beautiful. I saw a lot of modern/modernesque art...primarily paintings and some sculpture. After walking around for an hour or 2 it was time to get back on the bus and head over to Cannes.
After an hour or 2 our bus finally arrived in Cannes, the last destination on our trip. Our bus parked in front of the harbour and we were instructed to meet back at the bus in 2 hours. As you can imagine, I couldn't see much of Cannes in 2 hours but of course, I'm sure there's someone out there who would beg to differ. As soon as I got off the bus I walked over to this little artist/antiques market in this little square. The square was located right across from the harbour, where our bus was parked. I walked around the market and admired the antiques and art. They had a different array of antiques, from furniture to china all in fairly good condition. The art ranged from modern to surrealism, and from realism to romanticism, to paintings to sculptures, all done by local artists either from Cannes or from the surrounding area.
After talking with some of the artists and purchasing some pieces for myself (their art wasn't that expensive but not bad) I went over to a sandwich shop to eat my lunch. After eatting my sandwich and sipping a little of my Orangina, I decided to go take a promenade along La Croisette and check out the beach. As I headed over there, I saw the famous theater where the Cannes Films Festival is held. I didn't realize that the theater was located along the beach, but I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, Cannes is famous for its beach. After taking some pictures of the theater I finally found myself along La Croisette and began my promenade. La Croisette is basically a long boardwalk, and is Cannes' equivelant to Nice's Promenade Des Anglais. After walking down La Croisette for a while (I can't remember how long actually, but I'd say after walking a mile or so) I decided to go check out the beach.
I noticed along La Croisette that there were several ramps and stairs that one could use to access the beach, so I started to look for the next ramp or stairs as I passed by. I finally encountered some stairs and walked down. Even though it was cold that day, I remember it being a very sunny, beautiful day. The Mediteranean Sea looked very calm, not too rough. I didn't take my shoes off, though I wish that I had, but I bent down and placed my hands in the sand. The sand was slightly cold but very fine and soft to the touch, almost the texture of granulated sugar. I have never felt sand so soft or fine in my life. The sand was a very dark tan, almost a light brownish color. I've never seen sand that dark before, but of course I'm used to the sandbeaches in FL and SC which are very light tan in color and are much course to the touch.
Eventually I started to look for sea shells to add to my collection back home. Whenever I visit the beach, I always like to take home with me a shell (or a few) as a reminder of my visit to that particular beach, but so far during my trip to Europe, I hadn't had much luck with finding any! In Nice, for example, I ended up gathering a few of the pebbles, which that was expected and I was okay with that but I didn't find any shells on the beach at Cannes! I couldn't understand why, after all I was on a sand beach, one should be able to find shells on a sand beach, but after thinking for a short while I began to think of a reason why...as fine as the beach was I wasn't going to find any because all the shells evidently had already contributed to the make up of the beach.
Realizing that my search for sea shells was folly, I decided to walk over to the edge to place my hands in the Mediteranean Sea. I should have taken my shoes off; I regret not doing so now, but I think I didn't because it was February and still quite cold. The only thing that mattered to me was that I could at least touch the Mediteranean Sea. I stuck my right hand in for a few seconds and then took it out. The water was fairly cold; I would not have gone for a swim in it but still it I got to "dip" my hand in the Med. Sea...fair enough. After "dipping" my hand I decided to promenade for a little bit along the beach. As I walked along the beach I admired the scenery. Even though it was February, there were a lot of people, both tourists and locals along La Croisette and the beach. Many of them, were just promenading like myself, sitting along the benches along La Croisette or along the beach. There were quite a few tourists along the beach and along La Croisette, taking pictures and admiring the sites; in fact, there were more tourists when I was there than I was expecting, but still it was all good. Towards the end of my promenade I was asked by some Asian tourists to take some photos for them.
After taking those photos and walking along the beach, I decided to head over to Vieux Cannes for a few minutes. I didn't have a whole lot of time to really explore more of Vieux Cannes because it was close to when I needed to get back to the bus, but I walked down some of the old Medival streets, took some pictures and looked through some of the souvenir shops.
Finally it was time for me to get back to the bus. I got back before anybody else, but sadly I wasn't allowed to get back on the bus until it was officially time for us to leave. When everyone in my group was finally all accouted for our faculty shaparons and the bus driver allowed us to get back on. Finally it was time for us to go back home to Aix-en-Provence. During the ride home I think I took a nap; I don't remember exactly, but I do remember feeling tired. I had really enjoyed my weekend. Even though I would have liked more time to really explore these cities, especially the ones that I had visited for the first time, still I had a great time. I enjoyed visiting my old favorites, as well as visiting new cities that I plan to visit again. Someday I will return to the French Riveria, hopefully soon enough....
We arrived late afternoon back in Aix. The bus dropped us off in front of the Tourist office. From there I walked over to my bus stop off, and took bus number 6 back home. I arrived home just in time for dinner. Camille and I talked for a long time about my weekend, as well as other things. After dinner we watched some TV, and eventually I called my mother. After talking with my mother and watching some TV, I went to bed.
