Friday, July 25, 2008

Mes amis

Last week Gerby, Crookie & Boris came to visit. I showed them around Nice & tried to give them a taste of the best parts of the Riviera in the short time we had.



The Gorges du Verdon is France's biggest & most beautiful gorge. We drove 2 hours out of Nice to Castellane & rafted down the river. It was fairly tame with only a handful of pulse-quickening rapids. Things were livened up when the guide pushed Boris into the water, I jumped in voluntarily & a lizard jumped out of the water into Gerby's life vest!


Our guide suggested we tip the raft for fun so we all jumped to the same side & in we plunged. When I tried to re-surface I was somehow trapped underwater beneath the raft. Panicking I managed to get out choking & spluttering. Crookie passed me my helmet which was on his foot! A near drowning in two foot of water was the highlight of an eventful day. It may have been the worst organised trip ever but we had fun despite the fiasco of the car keys, the fly sandwiches & carrying the deflated raft 200 metres uphill!



The next day we drove to Cannes & caught the open top bus along the Croisette to the port. There we took the ferry across to Isle St. Marguerite & spent a relaxing afternoon sunbathing, swimming & throwing pebbles at each other.




Crookie had a later return flight than the others so on the last day we visited the musée Picasso, Vallauris. Picasso had settled in the town during the late 40s to focus on ceramic works but he also found time to decorate the small chapel with his 'War & Peace' mural. While not exactly Guernica it's a joy to enter into the 'tunnel' & be inside a Picasso painting.


Above is the view as you enter. The peace section looks like this-


-and the war section-




A small collection of ceramic work is on show. I love this stuff-Picasso experimenting with a new medium & having so much fun at the same time.

14 comments:

Uli Meyer said...

Ahahahahaha!
The rafting pic is priceless!

Oscar Grillo said...

Brilliant caricatures, Matt!!

Boris Hiestand said...

love it! I want to come back and do it all over again!

Elliot Cowan said...

It sounds like a gay time was had by all.
Did you hold hands?

Drazen said...

those are great sketches and that sounds like a nutty tour guide.

abhishek singh said...

cool stuff ..
really like ur quick recordin the moment sketches ..
nice compositions n experiments with abstraction..
:)
great to see such stuff

limbolo said...

I feel sentimental...

gur-B said...

Boris is slapping his helmet.( love the drawing !) Fantastic time it was indeed Jonesie ! Will you be visiting me in the Benelux ?

Matthew Cruickshank said...

hmmmm- I don't remember YOU or GERBY carrying the raft.

The picture of Boris with the fly sandwich cracked me up!

Unknown said...

Bravo ma chatte! Tres tres jolies photos et dessins, superb illustration in the raft, I laughed a lot!
Awesome drawings dude!

Double0zero said...

Hey Matt looks you are having a ball down there. I am going to try and get down that way this summer. Especially after seeing this little adventure. Great drawings old boy. HK

Richard Mitchelson said...

Great raft pic!

Matt Jones said...

Uli-if only u could have been with us-there was room

Oscar-gracias

Boris-anytime!

Elliot-u missed seeing us hunks in our speedos-u would have been a fine addition to the team

Drazen-cheers-the guide wasn't as much fun as u think

Abhishek-thnx for the feedback

Limbolo-Patrick misses u!

GurB- I'll visit u in the Benelux anytime!

M@- I was helping Gerby carry an oar!

Stef-merci mec!

Heath-let me know when u'd like to do a dangerous outdoor pursuit-bring your swimming cozzie

Rich-cheers pal!

Elliot Cowan said...

With the exception of perhaps Margaret Thatcher, I am the last person on Earth anyone needs to see in a speedo...