Picasso’s Hangout

After the war, art supplies were hard to get. The city of Antibes, just west of Nice offered to Picasso studio space and all the art supplies he needed. Picasso set to work at a furious rate, drawing and painting. He was 65 at this time and living with Francois Gilot who was in her 20’s. The love affair ended badly when she left him in 1953 with the cruel remark that she did not want to be married to a historical monument. When Picasso finally moved to nearby Vallauris, he left most of the work to the museum. 200 other pieces were added to the collection making it one of the major museums of Picasso’s work. At Vallauris Picasso became interested in ceramics and did a number of pieces, some of which were carefully copied by a local factory to be sold as limited edition pieces. You can still pick up a few of these pieces if you open your wallet wide enough.

We tried staying at the port of Antibes, but ended up staying at Golfe Juan which is near Vallaris, about half way between Antibes and Cannes. It turned out to be a great port. The train station was just a couple of blocks from the marina and we made day trips to both Cannes and Antibes. One afternoon we got talking to a couple from Canada. They had a rented car and asked us if we wanted to go to Vallauris with them. So up the hill we went to visit the town that is still very much an artisans center. Picasso’s presents is still influencing the work done by local ceramic artists.

The next day we took the train into Cannes. Known for their film festival and famous celebrities, it is a town of excitement for a couple of weeks of the year. After that, it calms down into a midsize town. Cannes is more modern than most of the towns in Southern France. Where others have tried pretty successfully to maintain the flavor of the historic nature of the architecture, Cannes went the other way and created a modern profile. There are great beaches and palm tree lined broad promenades.