Thursday, September 24, 2015

Socca and Matisse

Yesterday evening we wanted a snack, so returned to a small shop that we know sold socca.  Socca is a regional specialty.  It's a crepe  made with chickpea flour and typically sprinkled with pepper and eaten with an aperitif.  I thought it was good, but certainly not addictive.









On the walk home we went through the gallery district and saw a couple of very interesting sculptures.  Apparently there are offices in the block above that guy's lip.




















This morning we headed up to the Cimiez neighborhood, formerly an area of very fancy hotels, most of which have now been converted to apartment buildings.  We saw the ruins of a Roman arena and caught a glimpse of additional 3rd century Roman ruins behind the Archeology Museum.








The real reason for climbing that long hill to Cimiez was to see the Matisse Museum.  It's in an attractive rose-colored building situated near a large grove of olive trees.  It has a small collection of Matisse paintings, drawings, and cut-outs, primarily from the long period when he lived and worked in Nice.  I liked this museum a lot, but felt that the small size of the collection didn't warrant the 10 euros admission fee.  Photography of the artwork is not allowed, so I can't show pictures of what we saw.
















We had seen signs in cafés and snack bars advertising blette sucrée, and were curious about what it is.  Google Translate said it means "sweet chard."  So, after the museum we stopped for a snack and ordered it.  Turns out to be two layers of pastry sandwiching a sweet filling that does actually look like finely chopped chard with pine nuts.  The top is sprinkled with confectioners sugar.  I foolishly snapped only one shot of it and that turned out blurry, so I can't show you.  Like the socca, it was tasty but not addictive.

The final stop in Cimiez was a visit to Matisse's grave.  People had left stones, flowers, and leaves on top of the tomb in tribute.


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