Send in the Clowns

Hello again from Juan les Pins! Today was a fantastic day all around. At 9am we boarded the bus to go to nearby Antibes, one of the oldest French cities. We went on a fantastic walking tour. One of the famous inhabitants of Antibes was painter Pablo Picasso. We visited a museum in town that housed many of his happier works as well as other famous french artists and sculptures. The museum was right on the water and we had a great view of both the water and yachts of many famous billionaires. Our walking tour of the town also took us to a delicious local bakery that we visited later. The local pizza was not like the pizza that we think of in the states. Instead of tomato sauce and cheese, there were onions, anchovies and garlic. It was very delicious. Above is a picture of the view from outside the Picasso museum.

After our visit to Antibes, we departed for local concert in a series of concerts called Nuits de Chateau (Nuits of the Castle). Although it was close to Juan in terms of miles(or kilometers) it took us longer than expected to get there because we also had a lot of vertical traveling to do. The scenery was stunning. We played at a castle on top of a hill of a small village. At first there was a scare where the rain forced us inside to an alternate venue, but it eventually abated and we were able to play at the castle The hill overlooked neighboring towns as well as the town itself, and our stage was right on the edge of a cliff...thankfully it was walled off. Here's a picture of the stage.

Anyways, on the trek up to the top of the castle, (all by foot), we happened to pass the mayor of the town, who beckoned us inside for a "family photo". We walked into the cultural activities office where he was, to find that the circus had taken over the entire building. There was a model circus built to scale that filled a whole room, along with circus costumes on display, and many pictures as well as circus props. We were all moderately confused with the situation but laughed and went with it. The mayor was very excited to see us, and it was a lovely stop on the way to the castle.
The concert tonight was AWESOME. The crowd loved us, and there was a lot of energy in the band. There's nothing like a  summer night outside a castle to cheer you up. While we were playing there was even a dove that kept swooping through one of the spotlights near a castle tower.

Stay tuned for more updates and don't forget to check out older posts for pictures!