Day in Nice- Markets and Photography Museum

Wednesday February 22 had some sun in the morning, but it got cloudy and cooled down in the afternoon.  High of 14C.  Good walking weather, but the temperatures are a bit cooler than we expected.

Late morning, we headed out to replenish our food supplies.  First up was the cheese shop at the end of our street.  The owner waved a greeting and helped us get some sheep cheese from a local purveyor.

The wonderful cheese shop about two minutes from our apartment

The local patisserie where we buy our baguettes

We then went to the Square with the three fish stalls.  We were a bit earlier today, so had a good selection.  We got some cod and salmon.

Our fish lady- recognised us 

We walked back to the large Cours Sayela market near the Promenade des Anglais.

Lemon trees

Teas

Lots of chili peppers

Matisse's apartment in the yellow building with the view of the market-- location, location, location

The lemons and clementines were very nice- especially in the sun

We got some delicious olives here- spicy with some orange peels

Strawberries from Morocco

Another building Niçoise

After we dropped the food off at the apartment and had a light lunch, we went to a new place for a coffee. It is called "The Service Course" and is also a cycling shop.  The coffee was very good- beans came from Aix en Provence.

Alain

Very nice shop with a Rocket machine

We 💖 coffee!

We then went to see an exhibit at the Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre (Museum of Photography).  It was entitled : Lionel Kazan, Un Air du Temps. 

Outside of the Musée.  Adjacent to the Cours Sayela

Poster for the exhibit

Intro to the exhibit

Lionel Kazan (1930-2016) was born in Monaco to a Russian father and Polish mother.  His original name was Lev Danielevitch Kazantzeff.  At 12, he met the director and photographer Marc Allégret who gave him his first camera.  In 1946, after graduating from the Technical School of Photography and Cinematography, he started at Condé Nast France as a laboratory assistant for Vogue in Paris.  Vogue Paris published his first photograph in 1951.  He was 23 when French Elle magazine published his first cover.  He did 92 covers for Elle magazine and 1000s of pages of fashion for the magazine.  He had a deep friendship with Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, founder of the magazine and a Russian speaker like him.  

He was in Paris from 1950-56 and then in New York from 1956-65 working for Condé Nast.  In the early 1960s, he broke his contract with Condé Nast to collaborate with Harper's Bazaar and then reconnected with Elle.  He returned to Paris and worked for Elle and other French magazines from 1965-74.  He then retired and devoted himself fully to painting.

Lionel Kazan (on the left) and his assistant, Patrick Bertrand, photographed by Jean Lattè, 1955

The photos in the exhibit listed the models, the clothes designer, sometimes the location, and the year the photograph was taken.

Bettina Graziani, Côte d'Estoril, Portugal, Juin 1955

Inside of the Photography Museum - two rooms on the ground floor and one room and
a small library upstairs

Dorian Leigh in Jacques Fath, March 1954

Enid Boulting, Jaqueline de.. at Porta Férrea, Université de Coimbra, Portugal, June 1955

Mickey Belverger, Sonia Rykeil, Le G.O.U.M., Moscow, October 1964

Suzy Parker, Hubert de Givenchy, April 1954

First cover for Elle with the Algerian desert as a backdrop, April 1953

Greece cover, May 1956 

Unknown model, Enid Boulting (centre) and Bettina Griazini, Christian Dior, September 1955

There were many photographs in the exhibit of Lionel's wife Pia Rossilli Kazan.  They were married in 1959 and divorced in 1987.  They had two children.  Their daughter and actress, Alexandra Kazan 

(b. New York, 1959) produced a beautiful photo book in 2016 which included a number of previously unpublished photographs by her father.  It was entitled: Lionel Kazan photographer: 1930-2016: in the words of his daughter.  A number of photographs from the book are in the exhibit.

Pia Kazan, Nina Ricci, September 1966

Self-Portrait, New York, around 1959-60

In the summer of 1957, Condé Nast sent Kazan to take pictures of the filming of Bonjour Tristesse, directed by Otto Preminger, and adopted from the book by Françoise Sagan. 

Jean Seberg (1938-1979), Levandou,1957 

Jean Seberg and Otto Preminger (1905-1986), Lavandou, 1957

Elaine May and Mike Nichols, New York, 1958

Bridget Bardot, December 1952

Monica Vitti (1931-2022), July 1966

There was a small room with a disco ball and a number of photos and a slideshow from the photo shoot by Kazan for Marie Claire's 1966 "collections" special.  The photos were taken at New Jimmy's, a club on boulevard du Montparnasse, Paris.

Pia Kazan, Yves Saint Laurant, Club New Jimmy's, September 1966

Unidentified model, Anita Modes at Grand Central Station, New York, April 1957

Pia Kazan, Leslie Fay, New York, February 1965

Pia Kazan, Tatiana du Plessix Libeman (hat), around 1965

Pia Kazan, Jewellery: Van Cleef & Arpels,  American Vogue, October 15, 1960

In 2009, Alexandra Kazan discovered the Vogue cover (below)  by accident on the Champs-Elysées as part of an exhibit of Vogue Covers 1920-2009.  This discovery was the point of departure for her inquiry into the works of her father.

Cover from Vogue, Paris Dec 12, 1960

After our visit to the Museum, we wandered and found ourselves on a street near Place Massena where a Carnaval parade was taking place.

Backs of the King and Queen

I could look through a slat and see a bit of the parade

Balloon people

At the end of the street near the water were a number of security people

Cloudy on the Promenade

View of the Castle

Up close

Looking the other way

We walked around the rock formation where the castle is and found the I Love Nice sign (seems every city in Europe has a similar sign).

Squished under the C

On the backside of the rock was a huge memorial to the fallen soldiers in WWI and II.

Memorial

Un dimanche à Nice, Stéphane Cipre, 2019

We walked back into the Old Town, passing the Cathedral a few minutes from our apartment.

Cathedral in Old Nice on a busy square.

Alain made a salmon dinner with zucchini, tomatoes, onions and potatoes.  We are alternating our Nice days with day trips. On Thursday, we are planning to visit the the hilltop town of Èze.