The fortified village of ST-PAUL-DE-VENCE is home to yet another artistic treat, and one of the best in the whole region: the remarkable Fondation Maeght created in the 1950s by Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, art collectors and dealers who knew all the great artists who worked in Provence (www.maeght.com; daily: July–Sept 10am–7pm; Oct–June 10am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; €6.10, €8 during exhibitions). The Nice–Vence bus has two stops in St-Paul: the Fondation is signposted from the second, and is approximately 1km from the old town. By car or bike, follow the signs just before you reach the village, off the D7 from La-Colle-sur-Loup or the D2 from Villeneuve.Once through the gates, any idea of dutifully seeing the catalogue of priceless museum pieces crumbles. Alberto Giacometti's Cat is sometimes stalking along the edge of the grass; Miró's Egg smiles above a pond and his totemed Fork is outlined against the sky. It's hard not to be bewitched by the Calder mobile swinging over watery tiles, by Léger's Flowers, Birds and a Bench on a sunlit rough stone wall, or by the clanking tubular fountain by Pol Bury. The building itself is a superb piece of architecture: multi-levelled and flooded with daylight, and the collection it houses of works by Braque, Miró, Chagall, Léger and Matisse, along with more recent artists and the young up-and-comings, is fabulous. Not all the works are exhibited at any one time, and during the summer, when the main annual exhibition is mounted, none are on show, apart from those that make up the decoration of the building. The other famous sight in this extremely busy tourist village is the hotel-restaurant La Colombe d'Or on place du Général-de-Gaulle (tel 04.93.32.80.02, www.la-colombe-dor.com; over €150; closed Nov–Christmas), where if you're prepared to splash out €61 for a mediocre meal or more than €200 for a room, you can enjoy the Braques, Picassos, Matisses and Bonnards that hang from the walls, most of which were acquired by the establishment in the lean post-World War I years in lieu of the artists' unpaid bills.
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