Day 55, Sunday, October 22, 2023
Antibes and the Picasso Museum is our destination today. We take the bus instead of the train but it is quite a bumpy ride that makes drawing a bit tricky. I think I prefer the train. Good thing it is only a half hour ride.
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As we walk towards old town Antibes we pass aa area that has enormous hanging planters and flowerpots. They are really spectacular.
We head for the harbour to check out the ancient ramparts and an interesting sculpture. There are some really enormous boats in the distance as well.
These boats are docked in an exclusive area, no walking past them… so I take a photo from the ramparts. Take note of the white van parked by the second boat to help give a sense of scale. 
Bob had read about this sculpture by Jaume Plensa called Nomade. It is an eight meter high figurative sculpture which is located on the top terrace of the Bastion Sainte Jaune. It is invites interaction by its viewers, including me.
“On the terrace, facing the sea at the corner of the ring wall, was a monumental sculpture eight metres high of a squatting figure, Nomade. All these pieces used the formal vocabulary developed by the artist over the last few years, based on letters. With this vocabulary, Plensa is suggesting that, beyond its simple mission of communicating a meaning, spoken or written language can also be seen as a kind of envelope covering the matter and energy that constitute us. “Like bricks,” he says, “letters have a potential for construction. They enable us to construct thought.” ~ Jaume Plensa
Walking along the ramparts we see more boats. This one from Bali has its surfboards mounted on the back. I think that most surfers do not own yachts.
There are signs with information about boats for rent, little boats…
and little bit bigger boats…makes me wonder how much it costs to operate the enormous yachts we saw earlier? and no, I have absolutely no interest at all in renting or buying a boat…just not something I would enjoy, even if had that much money..
There is a little sand beach on the outside of the ramparts, and in the background is the huge yacht and the sculpture Nomade.
Next stop is the Picasso Museum. Nice that photos are allowed.
I am not a huge Picasso fan but this museum has lots of information explaining Picasso’s paintings and methods which help me appreciate his work.
This huge painting was painted on three cement panels that are usually used as a building material.
There is a big display of his glazed platters which are interesting.
More people take photos of these copies of Michelangelo’s sculptures than of the Picasso paintings.
I spend a bit of time drawing a couple of Picasso’s altered vase forms.
Here are couple more large paintings. I forgot to take photos of the titles…
There is another exhibit on the main floor of the museum. Paintings by Yves Zurstrassen, but it doesn’t interest either of us so we just do a quick walk through. 
Outside on the patio there are several sculptures by Germaine Richler which I quite like, and two young ladies drawing in their sketchbooks. I love seeing other people drawing. They were deep in conversation so I didn’t interrupt them.
Walking back to the bus station we pass these porcelain cups in a shop window. Made me smile.
The streets are narrow and we have no idea what might be hiding behind those closed shutters.
While waiting for the bus we chat with two twelve year old boys who are absolutely bursting what energy. One of them asks me to draw him. It isn’t a very good drawing but he is happy with it. He has a lot of hair!
As the bus is pulling away I tap on the window and his friend looks up so that I can snap a photo. Too bad I missed getting a photo of Emin.
The bus ride home was even rougher than the one coming. We are travelling on different streets because of all the one way streets in Cannes. I definitely prefer train travel
The Nice train station is really big, clean and airy.
Here is a clue.
There is the prettiest green seaweed and I see fish, Lots of fish, little ones and then some really big fish with whiskers…catfish?
They particularly like hiding in the seaweed. I keep showing them to Bob but he doesn’t see them. I think he thought I was making up all these fish I was seeing until he took off his polarized sunglasses and then he can see the fish too. He even gets to see one of the really big ones. 
But first we pass two of these strange half built bridges. It doesn’t look like they plan on completing either of them although the bridge with a road bed is on both sides of the river and just has one section missing. We wonder why.
Another view from the streets on Bob’s walk, and of the ‘pirate’ tourist ships.
We bought some refreshing sorbet and just enjoyed the view before heading home to Sarlat to pack. Tomorrow we are on our way to Carcassonne.
I loved this carved lizard, which is the symbol of Montrésor.
I notice that the leaves are staring to turn colour…winter is coming!
Then just two blocks later we see three of its siblings! These are the perfect cars for parking in France’s cities.
There is so much to see in Rouen. I thought this was the Notre Dame cathedral but it is the much smaller 
Rouen’s Notre Dame Cathedral was the tallest building in the world (151 m) in 1876, and still keeps the record of being the tallest cathedral of France. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.
This is just one small section of Rouen’s Notre Dame cathedral. It is enormous!
As is their pipe organ, but there was no organ music today.
The Gros Horloge (the Great clock) is one of the oldest clocks in France, the movement was made in 1389. 
It has a different face on either side and it rings on the hour, the half hour and the quarter hour.
This fellow spends his time on the street busking for money…only he plays the same song over and over and over. No variety at all to his performance.
Here is a little video that gives a better of idea of what we saw. 
We walk by a huge Printemps store only to discover that it is a warehouse with a beautiful entrance.
We find a little boulevard park to have tea and these sweet older ladies are sitting opposite us. I snuck a couple photos but they were a bit too far away so the resolution isn’t very good. I loved their outfits, that they were both sitting the same way with their canes between their knees, that their feet didn’t touch the ground…and they have such expressive faces.
Soon another lady joins them.
We met this young lady on the flight. Alexa Kubicki is a 16 year old boxer who was returning home from a three month competition tour. She won 4 international Tournaments and received 4 Best Female Fighter Awards over the last 4 months. Next year she will compete in the World Boxing Championship and she is aiming to compete in the 2024 Olympics. I told her I would look for her in 2024.
I tried drawing but was so tired that I had problems with proportion. Not the best likenesses. I did manage to get another couple hours sleep on this flight so that helped.
It was a very long day, more than 24 hours since we left our apartment in Vienna until we walked through the door at home. First thing we notice is how big our house seemed after all the little apartments we stayed in! It was a really good holiday but it is good to be home. This blog is my travel journal of our trip, and I know sometimes the posts were long…so thanks for following along and a special thank you to those who wrote comments or liked a post.
We were pleasantly surprised though to find that food here was reasonable. I bought a cone of yummy hot roasted potato slices for just 3 euros. There were lots of other affordable food options as well as hot chocolate and hot alcoholic drinks and mulled wines for 3 to 5 euros. There are so many people here that sometimes it is difficult to get to the front of a booth to see what is for sale.
Near the booths is an area with beautifully decorated trees and ….
a skating rink! There is a 3,000 m² artificial ice rink with skating paths throughout the park. We watch the kids learning to skate, everyone is having a good time.
This all takes place under a canopy of the most beautiful trees, all lit up with thousands and thousands of white lights.
Just take look at the size of this tree! It is enormous! 
A special attraction is the tree of hearts, and we see couples taking selfies here.
I love all the lights and there is Christmas music playing, children laughing and everyone is enjoying the evening. I am beginning to feel Christmassy!
As we leave the market, I take one last photo looking back towards the Parliament Building…
This is a smaller market, only 70 stalls, and the only decorated trees are the man-made ones. 
We see a booth with goods from Bomo Art, the little handmade book store we visited in Budapest.
There are also some pretty crazy animal candles, cute stuffed gnomes, blue and white pottery and wooden boxes and cabinet with drawers. The tall one with six drawers is ‘only’ 350 euros! That is about $500.00 Canadian. Still nothing I really love to take home with us though.
These little pink snowmen were kind of cute…
and a tree decorated with bird ornaments is different. Only at 10 to 15 euros a bird this would be a very expensive little tree! There are at least 150 birds on this tree, so it would cost between 1,500 and 2,250 euros, which is $2000.00 to $3,200.00 Canadian! No bird trees for me!
The booths are centred around this big fountain…
and there are lights projected on a nearby building, adding to the festive feeling.
It isn’t very warm, the high today was only 9° and it is colder now that the sun has gone down. We want to walk and see some of the streets lit up for Christmas …
but we are both getting chilled so we head home to finish getting ready for our trip home tomorrow.
We visit the Buda side of Budapest today. First stop is the Matthias Church, located in the Holy Trinity Square in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion. It has a beautiful tiled roof and a 60 metre tall bell tower. 
There are a lot of people here.
One of the many great views from the Bastion.
We had to wait a bit to find an arch not filled with other tourists. It often takes a while before I can get a decent photo, which involves deciding where I can get the best view and waiting until vehicles and other people are not in my picture frame. Bob is very patient, waiting for me to take photos. I probably take at least 5 or 6 photos for every one I use in this blog.
The Bastion was inspired by the architectural style of the early medieval times. It has many towers and was meant to feel like a fairy tale castle, as it wasn’t built for defence.
I am always happy when I find a dragon!
These medieval church ruins were built into the modern Hilton Budapest Hotel.
The Black Plague caused the death of 30-60% of Europe’s total population in 1691 and 1709. People believed that erecting a column would protect them from the plague. The carving on the top of the column represents the Holy Trinity. Below this the whole column is decorated with smaller statues depicting angels, and saints. The central sculpture shows King David praying to God to let his people avoid the outbreak of a plague. Residents believed the Holy Trinity Column did its job, as the plague never returned after 1709.
On our walk to the nearby Buda Castle we pass these Medieval ruins. Beneath some of the ruins there is a wine cellar which offers wine tastings. It is located below the remains of a 13th century Dominican Cloister, which is part of a huge labyrinth system underneath the Castle Hill. 
King Matthias (1457-1458) adopted the crow as his heraldic emblem after catching one of them stealing a ring, and killing it to get his ring back. These gates are topped with a crow with a ring in its mouth. The gates are very bizarre, almost creepy looking.
This is the back side of the Buda Castle…
and here is a close up of its fountain. Too bad the water in all the fountains in Budapest has already been turned off for the winter.
The front of the Buda Castle with lots of tourists…
and a bride and groom taking their wedding photos. I wonder if the photographer has to photoshop out all the tourists?
We see a large river cruise ship o the Danube.
There are walkways high above Medieval walls.
We walk down a flight of stairs below a statue of the Madonna and baby Jesus.
When we walk across this bridge we can see these same stairs on the far left side of this photo.
We are walking to this little bookstore that sells handmade journals. Bomo Art is a tiny store, less than 2 metres wide! It didn’t have any larger sketchbooks with good paper for drawing. Too bad, or maybe it was good. My suitcase is already pretty heavy with the two sketchbooks I bought in Linz, and the huge Dürer book I got in Vienna.
We watched this street performer for a while and wondered how he was able to hold this difficult pose. We later saw him in a different position but when we walk by again we see a guy lean heavily on him and to our surprise he crumples! Turns out he is a mechanical man! People were putting lots of coins into his can, trying to get him to move. They had no idea they were being tricked into thinking this was a man in costume. 
It is quite cool at night but it doesn’t stop people from sitting outside drinking beer. 
One last walk down the decorated street towards the Christmas Market. There are so many more people out on the streets tonight.
We stop at one of the stalls and I buy a couple small gifts I have been eyeing every time we walk by. 
I also took photos of the food stands. Pork hocks are a big item here! We were going to buy a meal here a few days ago but quickly changed our minds when we discovered that one cabbage roll, albeit a big one, would cost us 5,000 Forints, the equivalent of $25 Canadian! A small plate with a sausage and two small helpings of side dishes was $35.00! We were rather shocked at how expensive it was. We saw other tourists change their mind and refuse to purchase what they had ordered when they realized the price.
I saw lots of these sparkling balloons and thought they were so pretty. They were even nicer in person than in the photo. We spend the rest of the evening tidying the apartment and packing for our drive to Croatia tomorrow. Oh, and the puppet show we saw ws ‘Coraline’.
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