“Hamish, Hamish – wake up”. “What?”, I said groggily. “Wake up”, said Dad. Dad took me into his bedroom with Mum. I sat on the bed half awake and wondering what was wrong. But then Amelia, followed again by Dad, came into the room. Dad explained that we were going to Cagnes Sur Mer for the day by ourselves and that we had to get up and get ready early. So I got up and walked to the kitchen but I don’t think Amelia quite understood because she was still lying on Mum and Dad’s bed.
I had cereal for breakfast and got dressed in warm clothing and then waited for everyone else to get dressed and ready. Mum, Dad, Amelia and I said goodbye to the Campbells and Nanny and Pa and set out for the bus stop in town. I bought the tickets for the bus and we boarded the bus for our fun day ahead. We got off the bus one stop early which did not matter because we stopped right outside the tourist information centre. Taking the opportunity, Super Mum went in and planned our day.
When Mum had finished she mentioned that we were going to the Renoir Museum and the Grimaldi Castle. We walked up a really steep hill towards the museum, having a laugh at ourselves for missing an easier walking path. We got to the visitor centre and went to the desk to buy our tickets and arrange a locker for our backpack and coats. We walked further up the hill through the peaceful gardens to Renoir’s house. He spent the last 10 years of his life there.
We walked through the house, checking out artwork by Renoir and by his family and friends. It was a really nice house with amazing views over the town and the Mediterranean Sea. I bet people would love to have a house like this today. Dad says that with all the photos of members of Renoir’s family on the walls, you could almost hear the laughter of the kids playing in the garden.
We had a long conversation with a lady working at the museum. She enjoyed answering all my questions. She told us that Renoir had bad arthritis and she showed us his bedroom where he died. She also told us lots about the painters like Renoir and how people in France did not like his work and he had to sell it in the United States.
Once we finished we went back to the visitor centre and looked at the bookstore before walking back into town to catch the shuttle bus up to Grimaldi Castle. At the bus stop there was a man collecting cigarette butts so that he could get enough tobacco to make himself a smoke. I wonder if he was poor?
We got on a small shuttle bus for the windy drive up the hill. As we got close to the castle and the medieval town the roads got really small. The bus driver had to slow right down as the bus could barely fit. He made it though, and we congratulated him.
We got a brochure which showed a walk around the medieval town. We followed the steps through windy paths, lots of stairs and some dark, creepy alleyways. We got back to the square in front of the castle but it was still closed so we went for lunch. The boys had pizza and the girls had burgers.
After lunch we went to a playground, for 2-12 year olds, and Amelia pretended she was 12. We had some fun on the climbing gym and on the seesaw.
When it opened, we went in to the castle. It was a very old castle, but modern artwork was displayed inside. From sculptures to timelapse, paintings to snake skins it was pretty cool.
Although it seemed like they dumped modern art in the middle of a cool castle we still had fun. At the top of the castle we had a perfect 360 degree view including the Nice Airport and Vence. We watched planes fly by us and pretended that we could see our house in Vence.
We got back on the number 44 bus into Cagnes Sur Mer and then got on the 400 bus back to Vence. We did the big walk home and we were welcomed back into the nice atmosphere of family.
After the big day I felt like going to bed before dinner. But, of course, I didn’t miss out on dinner.
P.S. Dad took me back the next day to go on the carnival swing I had seen. We had no time to go on it on our first day in Cagnes.