The extensive collection concentrate s on art from the 1960s to the present, pieces by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschen-berg, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, and fun, interactive folk displays by the French artist Ben Albert Chubac. Molly and I thought we'd be able to absorb the meaning of all this art better on a full stomach. So we shared (another) pizza and washed it down with a low-key house red wine at the museum's outdoor cafe. From our table, we also could watch the "head" of a giraffe-shaped Alexander Calder sculpture twirl around and people hang laundry out to dry on their apartment balconies. A few blocks southeast of Vieux Nice, the Colline du Chateauhad the best views next to the one on the airplane. The Greeks, who founded and named the city (Nikaia) in the 4th century B.C., built an acropolis on this hill, and the dukes of Savoy later constructed an elaborate chateau decorated with fish and sea horses made of colorful local stones. I boycotted the 300 steps to the top, paying $1.40 to ride the elevator. Up top, kids played in a park and grown-ups ate at a cafe.

Narrow, paved paths led to building steps that went nowhere, under arches that no longer supported anything; a man-made waterfall; the ruins of the Savoy chateau and fortress (which Louis XIV destroyed in the 1700s); and the remaining blocks of the Notre Dame Cathedral from the 10th century. To the west was the Baie des Anges, with its beach and big hotels.

To the east was Port Lympia, packed with sailboats and large, streamlined ferries that make the Titanic seem puny in comparison. Mount Boron was behind the port and beyond it, the Alpes-Maritimes. Sailing and skiing within spitting distance -- and we Trianglites think we have it so good with beaches and mountains a half-day apart and a couple of malls scrunched in between.

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