Les Bateaux Gros

Dear Friends,

Yesterday we went on a wonderful excursion to Antibes, Cap Juan les Pins and Mougins.  We certainly saw much of the extremes of life.

Our first stop was the Port Vauban, Antibes.  It is a wonderful, large marina with many boats big and small and a separate area for super yachts.  It being a Sunday in the off season, we walked right in with no problems even though I am quite sure normally security would have stopped us.  The segregated area for super yachts is called "Grande Plaisance" which simply means big pleasure boating.  More often we heard people refer to this area with a little disdain as the area of les bateaux gros (big or fat boats).  There were probably 20 or more there, virtually all registered in George Town, Cayman Islands.  Most were in the 60 meter/200 foot range.  They were, of course, beautiful to someone who loves boats, but they also represent the worst of the worst extravagances.

There were several that I particularly liked so I wrote down the names to look them up.  One was called Montkaj.  It is owned by Mohammad bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, as you may have guessed a Saudi prince.  It is 256 feet long with a beam of 42 feet.  It can accommodate up to 24 guests and a crew of 22.  Sorry to tell you that it is not available for either purchase or charter.  I guess you need to get to know the owner.  

Another boat that I liked was called Baton Rouge.  It is slightly smaller at 205 feet long and 40 feet at the beam, but it is very pretty.

The good news about the Baton Rouge is that it is for sale which also means you can charter it.  The asking price is only 59,950,000 euros and with the dollar getting stronger against the euro it is becoming more of a deal every minute.  If you want to try it out to see if you like it, you can charter it for a week in the winter for 475,000 euros or only 420,000 euros in the summer.  Of course that is just the base price, there are many additional expenses.

After we left the marina of decadence we proceeded to the top of Cap Antibes - Juan les pins.  The view was fantastic.  Here is a picture that Jane took looking back at Nice and the mountains behind.

From there we traveled inland and upward to a small village called Mougins.  It is an old village that now is full of restaurants and art shops and in the summer is full of tourists.  On this Sunday in the winter it had just a few people strolling about the town taking in its beautiful streets and enjoying the magnificent views.

We had lunch in a wonderful little restaurant called Le Petit Fouet.  If you look closely at the picture, you can guess that le fouet means whisk.

It was great food and ambience, and everybody was speaking French.  On the way home we passed through a poor area of Nice, reminding us once again how lucky we are.

After a short rest, we took the bus to Nice to meet a friend from Minneapolis for dinner.  She is in Nice just for a few days, and it was fun to see her.  Even though she lives only a few blocks from us in Minneapolis, we had not seen her for six months.  We had to go to France to find the time to get together.

It was, as you can see, another wonderful day in paradise.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal