Today our relatives will return home before we leave tomorrow towards Tenerife to meet with another set of relatives. But before all that we have one more stop planned in Vallauris as our relatives really want to see some Picasso art and this was the most easily accessible in the area. The advantage is that the parking is very close to the castle where the artwork is displayed, which can be seen from the parking lot.
Before entering the castle we explore first the central square, it has some interesting historical buildings with the typical window frames of French buildings that we really like.
As expected there is also a major church in the middle of the central square however the interior is quite austere compared to other Catholic churches we have seen. So after enjoying the cooler temperature for a short while it is time to exit and head towards the castle.
There is some artwork in the courtyard but what we don’t expect is the fact that the museum allows free entry today, quite nice. The museum itself was quite confusing for us as it is difficult to understand what it actually is. Both the Picasso National Museum and the Ceramics Museum are mapped at the same location in the castle, at least with the free entrance we can check both of them out.
The bottom floor of castle is what we start with. It is dedicated to Picasso’s time in Vallauris where he focused on ceramics, something that we really were not aware. Or better said we were aware but not about the quantity, there are quite a few remaining only in the museum. There is also a short video showing this stage of his life which is quite interesting.
In fact him staying here created a rennaisance of ceramics making in Vallauris and the area which is what led to the creation of the more comprehensive Ceramics museum. But for now we examine Picasso’s works including some pigeons that look…reasonably pigeony.
There are different ceramics objects from jugs to decorative to plates. They are interesting enough and again we are surprised at the many shapes Picasso was able to create during his time here.
Afterwards it is time to move to the higher castle floors which host the Ceramics Museum. The focus is on the ceramics produced by the surrounding area, it was quite famous even before Picasso moved here due to the quality of the clay.
Not all objects and paintings are serious, some are quite whimsical or inspired by Eastern Art filtered through modern European painting styles.
There are also objects that we do not know how to interpret even though they are fun to see. Maybe that is the point really.
And that is not all. Part of the combined museums is also the castle chapel which was painted by Picasso with the War and Peace mural. It is quite a large mural covering the whole chapel and it takes quite a bit to unravel all the different topics painted.
But in the end all of the relate to either war with people killing each other in various gruesome ways or peace with people enjoying various activities, raising children and so on. Quite an interesting place and our relatives also enjoyed the visit.
And now it is time to leave but before we explore the narrow streets a bit more and buy some refreshments. We then return to our AirBnB so our relatives can pick up their stuff and then it is time to reach the airport in time so they can board with enough time to spare. And then back to the AirBnB so we can pack ourselves as tomorrow we relocate to Tenerife for the second part of our trip.
