Nice is Nice

This small port is the home of the super rich and a favorite of cruise ships.  After having cruised west in the Med we actually went east again from Cannes to get to this spot. 

Many believe the Villefranche-sur-Mer harbor is one of the most beautiful in the Mediterranean as well as being one of its deepest natural harbors at 2000 ft (609 m).  This is the place where ships came to dock for hundreds of years until the Nice harbor was built in the 18th century. 

Fun arm rest on the benches at the dock.  I love the name Villefranche-sur-Mer, it just rolls off the tongue in French.

Now, as for the lovely town of Villefranche-sur-Mer.  Nestled into the hills surrounding the bay, its streets of pastel homes create a relatively quiet and relaxed place to visit, albeit with some climbing.  The name of the town means “free town by the sea” which comes from the time when Charles II, King of Naples, tried to encourage people to settle here by offering tax relief in the mid 13th century.  Originally it was a fishing village but tourism to the Côte d’Azur changed all that in the early 20th century.  The streets are a bit steep in Old Town but are definite eye candy with the colorful buildings and their pretty flower boxes on the windows. Most of the buildings date back centuries,

We headed off about 15 minutes to the south to the high rent district of  Cap Ferrat where the real estate averages just about $4,250 per square foot!  Our destination was one of the cape's jewels, the stunning Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.

These are the types of places the kind of cash I mentioned above can get you.  And no, I have no idea who has that kind of money!

The mansion and gardens here are described as where “Venice, Versaille, and the Côte d’Azur come together”.  Built in 1905, it was designed and furnished by Béatrice, Baroness de Rothschild, a banking heiress who at her death in 1934 donated it to the Académie des Beaux-Arts.  We toured the villa as well as its nine different gardens, each with its own theme, that were maintained for the baroness by 30 gardeners. 

Some of the views of the gulf to the east as we made our way up to the hilltop.

Not too far around the point in the distance lies Monaco.  Many of our friends had visited there the day before from Cannes.

A few more of the estates in the neighborhood with their marvelous views, plus a lovely bougainvillea bordered window on the way up the hill to the Ephrussi/Rothschild mansion.

Pretty in pink, there sits the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in all its glory, an over the top house that didn't feel as overdone as I anticipated, much more tasteful.  If you've ever visited Hearst Castle on the central California coast, it's reminiscent of that, except the house isn't as large or as overdone as Hearst is.  

Beatrice inherited a huge fortune from her father which enabled her to create this home.  Her husband, Maurice Effrusi, was a philandering wastrel that she separated from after several years of marriage.  There was a room maintained at the villa for him just for show.

Rather than post photos room by room I just did this collage, architectural and furniture pieces came from all over the world and various periods of time.  When some nuns wouldn't let Beatrice purchase a piece from their chapel she bought the whole monastery instead to get what she wanted.  She had a desk that is believed to have been owned by Marie Antoinette and original Louis XIV furniture.  It was all elegance with taste and everywhere you looked there was an amazing view.

Seamstress that I used to be I had to put in this 15th century dress that was on display.  I love historical fiction and many times I've read about poor women ruining their eyes trying to embroider some noblewoman's dress.  Now I understand!  All of this incredibly detailed and beautiful work would have had to be done by hand and I cannot imagine how many hours it must have taken.

Just your random piece of art from a church hanging on the wall.

We all know I have a thing for doors by now, this one had some lovely detailed carvings.

Beatrice inherited a love of collecting porcelains from her father.  There were multiple collections of dishes with various designs, as well as vases and the clock on the right that is similar to one that is at the palace at Versailles.  Note that all of these pieces would have had to have been hand painted.

Once our time was up in the house, I didn't have a chance to explore upstairs but Karl got video there so check his YouTube channel, it was time to head out into the gardens.  The garden closest to the mansion itself was the formal French garden.

Just a back door view of the house, look at all those windows that could see the gardens.

There were multiple fountains in the back and every 20 minutes they would go off for a water/music show, which was fun.

Just me and one of the larger fountains in the background.

Loved this flower border, and after visiting here Karl is again thinking about a water feature in our back yard, just on a smaller scale. 🤞

It would have been so peaceful to just come out here and sit in the gazebo and gaze at the house and gardens on a warm afternoon.

Just a few of the beautiful blooms that we saw throughout the gardens.  There is a unique microclimate here on this spot that enabled Beatrice to grow pretty much anything she wanted to, well at least for her gardeners to grow it.

So appropriate to have a picture of my beloved Serenade in a photo from the gardens.  Beatrice loved cruising and at one point she required her gardeners to wear cruise ship staff uniforms so that she could feel like she was on a cruise ship all the time.  Who has time and money to dream up this kind of stuff!  

I guess if you have four gardeners looking after the grounds like they do today you can grow huge hydrangeas.  I have got to figure out how to grow these!

So many boats in the small harbor at Villefranche.

One of the many pieces that Beatrice imported to her mansion grounds from somewhere else.  This was a lovely piece in the front courtyard that I noticed as we left.

Next stop on the tour was the medieval hilltop village of Eze.

What remains of this town sits high atop the hill above Villefranche and Cap Ferrat.  It was built as a place of refuge after fishing villages below got tired of pirate attacks.  From here they had a commanding view all around them plus fortified walls to keep them safe, until Louis XIV decided he didn't want his people to have places they could retreat to against him so he had all the hilltop fortifications in this area destroyed.

From the top you can get a 360 degree view, including this lovely church.

This view is towards Nice.   Check out all the mega yachts in the harbor.

To prove we were there.

Where the fort used to stand is a sort of desert garden, lots of cactus and succulents.

My favorite part of the gardens were these sculptures called "The Earth Goddesses", done by Jean Philippe Richard.

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One of the narrow streets in Eze and a view from the old fort of the bridge our bus crossed to get to the foot of the hill.  We did a lot more climbing today than we anticipated!

Flowers growing from a wall at Eze and the statue of a knight that graced the grounds of a hotel there in Eze.  It's a unique property in that it has rooms in buildings throughout the village, not in just one.

Another view of the fortress ruins from directly below it.

On the road again we headed for Nice, pronounced "nees".  We had about an hour to walk over to the rocky beach and wander the old town a bit.

Nice was part of Italy until 1860 when they had a referendum to decided whether to stay Italian or become part of France again.  The Italian magistrate, Giuseppe, who called for the vote, was sorely disappointed when things didn't go his way.  You can still see the Italian influence in the buildings of Old Town.  If you look closely on the left in this photo you'll see that we got to view more wedding photos.  They are standing in front of the Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, and we actually saw four different brides and grooms come out before we left.  Officials crank out weddings pretty regularly there on a Saturday afternoon apparently!

While we didn't dip our toes in it was soothing to look at the azure waters.

It's not gelato in France, it's called glace, and I was so happy to find a Rose flavored one.  I had been looking for Rose all over Italy but never saw it, it's one of my favorite flavors.  It tastes a lot like a rose smells.  I also had a scoop of what they called "Citrus Meringue" and it was good too, but not as good as Rose.

Street scenes from Old Town.  They are getting ready here to welcome the Tour de France cyclists on July 21.  This month is big for the country with that going on as well as the Olympics in Paris.  

The Fountain of the Sun sits not far off the beach so LeaAnn and I took a ramble around it.

The feel here in Nice is much nicer than in Cannes in my book.  So far it's my favorite large city on the French Riviera.

Remember our trishaw rides in Vietnam?  This kind of vehicle is what you get when you take one in Nice!

Time to say farewell to Nice and head back to our ship tender after another stellar tour day.