Alice in Wonderland

Bonjour Mesdames et messieurs, thank you for joining me today. Mike and I have just got back from our end-of-summer holiday in the South of France, stocking up on some Vitamin D before winter hits us in the face like a wet kipper. 

We stayed at the weirdest and most wonderful place - Le Negresco in Nice. The Negresco is one of the last singly owned luxury hotels in the world - it is owned by a nonagenarian, Madame Augier, now confined to her room through ill health.

---

 She has treated it like her home and the decor reflects this - she has filled it with eclectic objects which at times have no connection with one another - extremely modern sculptures such as a 'Nana' by Niki Saint Phalle coexisting peacefully under a Baccarat chandelier made originally for Tsar Nicholas, in a cupola designed by Gustave Eiffel.

---

Here's another Saint Phalle statue, this time of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis at the entrance to Le Negresco. 

---

The Stravinsky Fountain

Saint Phalle used to be married to Tinguely and I have seen her sculpture in the Stravinsky fountain outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

---

Visage

And this is an image of a necklace called 'Visage' designed by Niki Saint Phalle.

---

 I was right at home there, as I like mixing things up without a thought or care for their origins or provenance - at the Negresco, everything is a work of art and one can find a sculpture made from metal parts from a car, living cheek by jowl with a painting by Salvador Dali.

---

The look was a bit difficult to get used to to start with - it felt a bit like someone had hired an interior designer to do up their house, and then, when the last painter/decorator/designer had left, scattered their own belongings about the place to make it feel like home.

---

The cupola of the ball room from inside and out, designed by Gustave Eiffel.

Breakfast was in a room rigged out like a carousel, complete with horses and booths - a very surreal experience.

---

The ceiling was painted like a marquee and fitted with a beautiful chandelier

---

Some of these horses actually moved!

---

Waiting for his boiled eggs - was he praying to the God of boiled eggs that they got it right??- an Englishman has to have his eggs done 'just so'! Unfortunately, the G of BE's did not heed his prayers on this occasion.

---

Just outside the hotel was the Promenade Des Anglais, where we spent time people watching, eating gelatos and drinking in the sea air. The beach looked mighty uncomfortable and we didn't bother with it - the pebbles were just a bit more than we wished to contend with.

We travelled out, taking trains and coaches into Villefranche Sur Mer, St Paul De Vence, Gourdon, Tourette which were within easy reach of Nice and of course we had to visit Monte Carlo, Cannes, Juan les Pins, Antibes and Cap Ferrat, just to see how the other half live, for a tiny millisecond.

As you can see, my camera was working overtime - and this is as far as I managed to get with the post production editing. Once this is all done, I can quite easily post a link here to the rest of the pictures on Facebook, for those of you who feel like a browse. In the meantime, have a fabulous weekend, and I will find you next Friday, at the usual time, same place
xx