May 2. Last day in the south of France. We made the drive into Nice to go to the museums and actually found the first one, the Matisse, but never did figure out where to park. It is in a residential area of majestic large apartment buildings and private homes, but along with that comes the lack of public parking. So gave that a miss, and on to find the Chagall museum. Better success there; it was also in the same area, but more street parking. An interesting coincidence here is that Marc Chagall came from Vitebsk in Russia, the same town that Natalie's father also lived. The museum isn't really large, tho the paintings in it were huge. several feet high and wide. He also did some stained glass pieces, in the tradition of church windows, but very modern design. From there we drove along the waterfront of Nice, and headed back into the hills to see the little chapel designed by Matisse, an unusual undertaking for an artist. It took him 4 years to design the building and create the stained glass windows , again quite modern for a church.
Both Matisse and Chagall were 19th century painters. I gathered that Matisse started out in the tradition of the old masters but went on to the more modern style. Chagall has a very different style, a more primitive look I think. The pictures show the bright colors of the stained glass by Chagall, and a tapesty of one of his paintings, and the other is of Matisse in the chapel.
Last activity of the day was dinner at a restaurant near the hotel, also with a lovely view over the surrounding hills and looking towards Nice. Next on the itinerary, the drive -about 300 miles north to the town of Annecy.