Vence and the Matisse Chapel 11-19-25

Today was our visit to Vence to see the Matisse Chapel. It is located about 20 km from Nice and up a valley in the hills above the Mediterranean. It is the town where Matisse bought a villa and spent the last years of his life. One of his gifts to the town was the decoration of a chapel, now called the Matisse Chapel. But there is a lesser known part of Vence as well as will be seen. We started out with a tram ride out towards the Nice airport to a relatively new bus station where we were able to transfer to the bus going up to Vence. It’s about a 45 minute bus ride because the bus services virtually every little stop between the two terminuses, even if they are two blocks apart. It goes through the heart of Cagnes-sur-Mer, which is a thriving seaside Riviera town. Then it turns to go up the valley to Vence.  We have never taken this road before and it was amazing to see all of the development that has occurred. One stop was at a very modern mall which had pretty amazing architecture. This pic is a bit garbled but the gap between the two building floors is a large head!

We arrived in Vence an hour or so before the chapel’s opening time as was our plan.  However we were having trouble getting oriented to the town so we stopped and asked a young woman where the cathedral was located. She was dumbstruck, “Vence has a cathedral?”. So Deb told her that the cathedral is the smallest one in France, which increased her confusion. She was a very pretty young woman with dark hair and a milky white complexion. But her confusion and a bit of embarrassment caused her to blush almost cherry red and she began laughing with her friend, almost uncontrollably. She was very charming. At that point we had a reasonable approximation of where we needed to go and we thanked her as we left.  We followed a street down a few blocks and found a square where there was a small brocante market. We knew there should be one there and there were perhaps 4 vendors.  The day was a lot cooler than we’ve been having and I think it discouraged the other vendors from setting up.  After spending 

a couple minutes looking at the meager pickings I located the cathedral on my map and we set out to visit it.  It is located in the medieval part of the town with very narrow passaged to be followed leading to a small square. The front of the cathedral is about 20 feet wide and could easily be overlooked. It is a very old church, built in a classic Romanesque style there are Roman and Byzantine carvings set into the walls. There was a church here at the time of Charlemagne in the 9th century. I don’t think is is even 100 feet long, but it has a nave and two side aisles. It’s very dark and quiet, a lovely little building.  We were lucky in that when we arrived they were getting ready to close within the next 15 minutes, so we had just enough time to visit.  When we left the cathedral we walked out through another medieval gate and back to the square from where we started. Deb said that there was a restaurant in the square with good reviews.

We went to the restaurant and asked if we could get a table for lunch and the owner said ‘of course, inside or outside?’ We asked to sit outside even though it was pretty cool and the sun was weak but shining. This was our second encounter with a charming young woman, the owner’s daughter. She was between 3 and 4 and had a mind of her own, she was running dad a merry chase. But he was very patient with her and kept her pretty much in control.  We ordered our meal, an entrecôte for Deb and lamb chops for me. Both came with in-house cut fries. All these to be washed down with glasses of a very nice red wine of the area. As we ate we got to watch dad deal with his little one who had a lot of energy and sass. We were getting ready to order dessert when couple of women came to the restaurant and were turned away because they were too late. Our host said that they make a certain number of dishes for the mealtime and when those have been served they stop. Luckily for me, the dessert of the day, a deconstructed Poire Belle Helene was still available

while Deb had Pannacotta with red fruit coulee. The little daughter at this point was helping dad empty the bottles of tap water into the plants on the patio under some supervision.  Our waiter asked the little one if she had given us a card for the restaurant and if not, she should. So she commenced to bring out a business card for each of us, which we took. Then she brought out another one for each of us. This was repeated until we would have had maybe 10 cards apiece had we not been putting them in the folder with the bill. Dad said she was getting the idea of marketing but maybe was too enthusiastic. When she had given us the last cards, I asked her for her hand. She shyly let me take her hand and I bent over and kissed it. Which surprised her and made her laugh.

It was now just after 2:00 and we had a 15 minute walk up to the chapel.  On the way we passed the house in which Matisse spent the last years of his life. It is being restored and may be open to he public in the not too distant future.  A little beyond that we spied chapel and walked up. Pictures were not allowed inside therefore the exterior pictures will have to suffice.  It was built next to a Dominican sister’s convent/house and the two structures could not be more different.  The sisters house is a perfect 19th century overly ornamented mansion, while the Matisse Chapel is stark white with only a very simple Matisse design at the doorway. Why no indoor pictures you ask?  When we got to the gateway it was locked! We double checked our watches and the time was correct.  Deb had carefully made certain that we would visit before their annual closing. But alas, they changed the dates! They move it forward 3 days and yesterday was the last day. What we feel is an excellent reason to revive the Inquisition! Dejectedly we walked back towards town,

Deb was fulminating a little on their perfidy. At one point on the way back we were sitting on a bench when a gentleman walked up and asked about the chapel. We told him of the betrayal and he thanked us and continued up the road towards the chapel. We saw him a little later getting on the same bus as us for the trip back to Nice, dejected I say. 

But on a more serious note. Possibly all is not lost, they also plan to open 3 days earlier than what is shown online. That means that we may be able to come up again, the day before we leave, if we’re not crazy busy then.  At the end of the day the whole trip would have been worth it just to have the interactions with the young woman and the duckling.