One of our vacation days was spent in a trip to Biot, a nearby town famous for its artisans. Unfortunately, many shops, museums, and restaurants are closed on Monday and Tuesday. Also, they seem to close from 12:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. Some are also closed on the weekends. By my calculations, many French laborers seemed chained to a grueling 18 hour work week! Nevertheless, we found many things of interest in Biot. [Click any picture for a larger version]
 

Approaching Biot from the winding mountain road, it is as it appears, a compact and easily defensible medieval city located on a strategic bluff.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
One of the places that was open on our visit was the Verrerie de Biot glass works, a workshop and showroom for their distinctive hand blown glass. In this picture a craftsman has just finished shaping and reheating a glob of glass in preparation for blowing it. He will do so by blowing on the long hollow tube in his hand. Below is a video by Jean Clause Deaupere that shows some of the finished products as well as the glass blowing process.

The final stop of the day was at the Musee National Fernand Leger, an artist perhaps known for his ceramic murals. The museum offers a complete retrospective on the painter's work, from early pen and ink drawings and sketches, oil paintings, tapestries, sculptures and of course murals of all sizes and mediums. Below is a video slideshow of some of the museum's pieces, assembled by Claudio Alejandro  Galletta.