206: The Book of Kells, Dublin, Ireland

When asking the lovely taxi man- what are the best things to see in Dublin...Im afraid the Book of Kells didnt feature. After seeing it now myself...I think a tour of the Guinness factory was perhaps a wise suggestion by my driver.

The book, which since 1953 is actually now 4 bound volumes of which two are on display at any times, is an elaborately decorated manuscript of the four New Testament Gospels produced by monks around 800AD.

Wikipedia says "The illustrations and ornamentation of the Book of Kells surpass that of other Insular Gospel books in extravagance and complexity. The decoration combines traditional Christian iconography with the ornate swirling motifs typical of Insular art. Figures of humans, animals and mythical beasts, together with Celtic knots and interlacing patterns in vibrant colours, enliven the manuscript's pages. Many of these minor decorative elements are imbued with Christian symbolism and so further emphasise the themes of the major illustrations."

There you have it!!  The display is housed in the fabulous Trinity College but in reality consists of little more than about 10 pages blown up as exhibits with some minor text about the meaning behind some of the elaborate drawings...and the two books- both open to a page each under glass. Still as you can see from below- it was very popular with tourists- and at 9Euro entry- must be a good money spinner for the College as well.

More "wow" was the Long Hall of Trinity College which one walks through on the way out as part of the exhibit of The Book. The air was redolent of old leather, dusty covers and creaky bindings- from floor to vaulted ceilings ancient books covered every shelf with busts of various famous people and excellently preserved medical tools as well as books lay on displays in the center.  To be able to peer back in history down this hall and read about the ways in which a surgeon in the 1400's recommended the removal of one's appendix was worth the entire 9 Euro entry fee courtesy of the Book of Kells.

Should the Book of Kells be in the 1000 places to see before you die book??  Well.......no from my point of view. Id say the Vatican probably houses a vast number of historical treasures in their bookshelves so on the basis that if they were all counted as being as important as this the book of Kells then there would not be any more slots for a historical monument to take..Id say no, the Book of Kells you can live without seeing before you die.

205: St Tropez, France

Loved it, loved it , loved it!!  Definately has to be included in the 1000 places to see before you die book. Bridgitte Bardot arrived in 1956 to film And God created woman...and never left. Easy to see why.  Its a lovely town but the gawking factor is extremely high. Bronzed bodies, bra-less silicone everywhere, totties teetering off multi million pound boats on 6 inch stilettos, champagne bottles flowing, glamour clothes. Ah yes- this was surreal heaven sitting for hours watching the passerbys.

The book recommended going to Senequier cafe on the portside to watch the parade of "various aesthetic stages of beach and resort chic that they could never get away with at home." And so duly we waited for an outside table and watched the show. Lost hours here admiring the boats, the women and the dogs!





The cafe on the port

The boats (and the disgorging of their passengers) was the highlights.  Incredible boats from speedy ones to old sailing yachts. All werent less than 60feet each- we peered in a few to admire their gyms, their toys, their flowers, their paintings in their dining rooms. It was a whole different life 



Only drawback of St Tropez...................dont drive in!!  We were fortunate and was stuck in traffic for about 30 mins. However its one road in and one road out....on our way out after lunch.....the line of cars waiting to come in stretched for over 1 hour of driving. Unbelievable. And there was no accident!!  Biggest problem is parking in the tiny little fishing village.  Far better to park in the bay around the corner and come in by boat!

203: Vence from the 1000 places to see before you die book

Vence: hard to know what to say on this town.

Its little sister town, St Paul-de-Vence was far cuter. The book 1000 places to see before you die describes Vence as a "provencal magnet for artists and writers which is nestled in the hills covered with pines, cypresses and olive groves."  All that is true!

But the town itself isnt I dont think worthy of inclusion.....so I hazard a guess the only reason why its in here is as Vence has the Matisse Chapel...."a 20th century tour de force!!" Matisse recovered from a long illness and promised a Dominican sister, who was his muse, that he would redecorate the Dominician Oratory. He began this at 77 years old, it took 5 years and died 3 years after its completion.

Jury is out on this one as to whether this makes the place something to see before you die. I wasnt bowled over- but my mother enjoyed it!! Sadly no photos so can only show you the outside. Essentially he decorated the building, and then went on to design everything in it- from garments to bowls.



outside of matisse chapel



The book then sent us to lunch- Chateau du Domaine St-Martin, a "handsome inn tucked away on a wooded hillside above the town." Inn it was not- being a Relais hotel and extremely formal but the views were spectacular.

Im afraid that Id rather look at a large collection of Matisse paintings...than see some decorations in a chapel.. so im sticking with my view that this doesnt belong in The 1000 places to see before you die book.

204: Ampitheatre of Arles

Well no doubt the ampitheatre was looking very pretty after a recent cleaning job that had seen half of the grimy stones removed of years of filth.

me sitting on the steps of the uncleaned bit!

Arles is the former capital of Provence and, as the book 1000 places to see before you die points out, its the city of van Gogh's anguish. Heavily bombed during the war alot of it has been rebuilt but a few areas have been left un touched like the below bridge

Now it was hard to determine whether the ampitheatre is used nowadays or not as it was completely closed due to the renovation and you couldnt go inside. But Arles is famous for its non-killing bull fights. Nice for the bulls- even though the still get heavily annoyed for an hour by the bullfighter.

The book 1000 places to see before you die recommended the Grand Hotel Nord-Pinus. Sadly their restaurant was shut for renovation (amazing given it was tourist season) so all I could do was snap a photo of the facade!!

202: Les Baux-de-Provence, France

The sun was shining and this marvel of an old castle and the surrounding old village was ready for exploration!

Les Baux-de-Provence has a few drawbacks. Firstly it is at the top of a very lonely hill surrounded by nothing other than olive trees. Secondly, it is one of the most visited places in Provence so the place is teeming with tourists. Thirdly, said tourists arrive in large buses who park all the way along the one road that winds past the ruined castle..meaning a long walk uphill in any direction from where you finally squeeze in your little beast of a Fiat in between the buses.

The castle is ruined and hasnt been rebuilt and now consists of really cute shops nestled in the old 16th and 17century streets.  No residents live within the grounds and there appeared to be only a few restaurants in the area.

Castle on the top!

View from halfway up

Is it deserving in the 1000 places to see before you die book??

Mmm...no. Personally I couldnt see the point of a rather long drive from the nearest place to go and visit extremely run down stone piles masquerading as a castle especially when faced with thousands of tourists.

201, Eze, Provence, France

Eze is absolutely stunning and a well deserved entry into the 1000 places to see before you die book.  The only drawback- the drive to the top of the mountain!! God that was hair-raising. None stop bends straight up a 1300 foot mountain before you arrive at the tiny town. It was covered in fog when we first arrived, which made the driving even more perilous, but it soon burned away and we were faced with an amazing view.

Eze is the highest town in Provence and chockablock full of tourists every day of the year. Tiny little alleyways wound themselves round and round, artisan shops were crammed into minute stone doorways, the cobbles pulled at your heels with every step while underfoot fragrant flowers covered the doors and walls of the stone town.

While we didnt go in, the Chateau de la Chevre d'Or was one of only two hotels we saw in the tiny town. Its terraces tumbled down the mountain with full size cast iron animal sculptures cavorting over the landscaped lawns.

Garden of the Chateau de la Chevre d'Or

We did however visit the second hotel- the charming Chateau Eza, a 400 year old building refurbished by Prince William of Sweden and now a luxury hotel. Hot chocolate on the balcony was a necessity!!

View from the balcony of the Chateau Eza

The town was exquisite and well deserved its entry into the 1000 places to see before you die boook

200: Vieux Nice from the 1000 places to see before you die book

A lovely combination of pebble beached seaside, a mediaeval town, bustling commercial city, kilometres after kilometres of promenades, pooches being walked by stiletto heeled Cote D'Azur trash and a fairycake of a hotel fronting the Mediterranean sea. Nice, I have to say, for a great few days stay would be my favourite town on the Cote D'Azur. But to knock over all the things in the 1000 places to see before you die book of course I could only blow in to the town, do a tourist bus ride for an hour, a wee walk on the promenade, lunch in the old city, before jumping back in the car to head further down the coast to St Tropez.

The beauty of this city is that, while it may well be the 5th largest city in France it did, as the book promised, retain its feel of a small town. It was my first experience in an open decker tourist bus which was a laugh, soaking up the sun while hearing about various points of interest as the bus meandered up and down the hills- Chagall museum, Picasso museum, the sugerplum cake exterior of the Hotel Negresco on the waterfront with its priceless furnishings, the graveyard of the czar-in -waiting who died in the city at the age of 22 after contracting meningitis and the beautiful ancient merry-go-round on the waterfront with its cavorting horses.

A meander through old Nice, with its cobbled stones, its tiny streets, the amazing parking skills of people who it seemed just "dumped" cars whereever they could find a spot irrespective whether parking there made the road safe or not.

 

Yes definately a charming place and belonging in the 1000 places to see before you die book.

194: Antibes and the Hotel Du Cap Eden Roc: from the 1000 places to see before you die book

It was a blustery day and the kitesurfers were out in force.

Antibes, described in the book 1000 places to see before you die as "one of the Riviera's great delights." It was a nice town...but like alot of these towns on the Cote D'Azure, they tend to blur from one to another and are riddled with some rather unattractive high rise, low development, apartments all along the coast.

Recommended in the book was the Musee Picasso. In 1946, so the book 1000 places to see before you die says, Picasso spent some of his happiest months in Antibes and the nearby Vallauris which is an art and crafts centre. Close to 300 paintings, ceramics, drawings and sculptures were bequethed to Antibes and are housed in the Chateau Grimaldi (which incidentally was the second Chateau Grimaldi I visited in as many days- the other one being outside Aix-en-Provence).

The town was rather cute...

Not done in the 1000 places to see before you die book however was a visit to the Restaurant de Bacon in the town (as we were full from the earlier meal at Mougins) and sadly, due to my father wearing shorts, we were denied entrance to the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc...so its a half tick this post!!

Should it be in the book....cant judge until Ive eaten at the restaurant and sipped champagne in the hotel bar!

199: Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Ha- trick shot- this is Copacabana Beach...cant seem to find my shot of Ipanema Beach but it looked just the same with slightly less high rises.

the book, 1000 places to see before you die describes it as "the now famous Antonio Carlos Jobin and Vincius de Moraes wrote a song about a beautiful girl from Ipanema Beach and turned this sandy strip into a shrine".

Well to be fair- there were a few very elaborate sand castles and sand sculptures with some people standing behind them dedicated to whatever their cause was.

Other than that....no, I dont think it deserves an entry into the 1000 places to see before you die  book. I could name you off the back of my hand 10 beaches I have seen that are far more stunning than this odd yellow beach in the heart of a motorised zone.

198: Mougins, Provence

 Yes, Yes, Yes- a resounding tick for entry into the 1000 places to see before you die book!!

Had a very lovely three day stay using this little hillside town as the base to explore Cannes, Juan St Pins, Vence and Nice. The town consisted of two main - and rather spread out areas. Mougins- the residential and commercial area at the bottom of the hill on one side of the motorway- and Mougins Vieux Ville- which was where we stayed- situated on the top of the hill.

The air was one of refined objet d'art shopping nestled in shops with doors so small you had to stoop through them. Reaching out both arms you could touch each side of some of the tiniest cobbled streets. Large bunches of red geranium bounded down the stone walls , falling from storey to storey, coseying up to the elaborate wrought iron balconies, nudging the pastel coloured provencal shutters before abruptly ending its joyful downward race as it hit the stone steps. Rising from the ground outside the houses were run amuck by everlasting jasmine creepers, their boughs thickly covered in scented white flowers, spreading up the walls and intermingled in parts with the falling geraniums. Tiny pots with flowers filled steps and in the hot air the scent of the blooms invaded every corner of the tiny walled village. It was magical.

Perhaps only 20 little streets existed within the old stone walls so it was a pleasure to amble through them, popping into their little doorways and purchasing nic nacs (Provence is full it seems of little "frenchy objets d'art" for purchase). Before Picasso spent his last 15 years here, Mougins had already gained a reputation as being an artists haven.  Bar 2nd and 3rd storeys which looked residential, all the ground floors of the houses were devoted to either galleries, high end objet d'arts shops, restaurants or artist's residences.

Along with the old city, we also visited the Michelin star restaurant Le Moulin de Mougins, www.moulin-mougins.com , recommended in the 1000 places to see before you die book, where master chef Roger Verge had put provencal cooking on the global stage since opening in 1969. In a 16th century olive oil mill there was a choice of a "sandwich and salad bar"- all funky fluoro green, orange and blue chairs under mosaic tables- and the Michelin restaurant.  Being gluttons for good food we picked the latter one of course.  Trendy touches were resplendent throughout this restaurant as well with funky artwork, paintings, lounges and sculptures dotted around the area.

The meal was sublime- such a shame i didnt take a note of the food but here is their latest menu

http://www.moulindemougins.com/maj/pdf/dejeuner_au_moulin/Dejeuner_du_6_au_12_Juillet.pdf

Entrees

Vegetable cake with prawns

Mains

Desserts

Ended with the most unusual method Ive ever seen to remove bread crumbs from the table- the waiter took a spoon and sweeped it in a figure of eight movement to pick up the crumbs. We experimented doing this ourselves over the next few days but found it impossible!!

Other than The Fat Duck in Bray- one of the most enjoyable dining experiences of my life!

Definately the town...and the restaurant...are worthy inclusions in the 1000 places to see before you die  book.