Une Grande Aventure

Dear Friends,

Jane and I have been very purposeful about keeping Wednesdays free from lessons.  Today we decided to walk to St. Jean Cap Ferrat for lunch.  It is about a two mile walk each way if you walk directly and do not get lost.  It was a beautiful day full of bright sun and a nice breeze.  To get there we decided to walk to Beaulieu and then along the coast to St. Jean.

There is a wonderful walking path that goes by many magnificent homes (mansions) including David Niven's which is the only one that is on the sea side of the path.  For all the others are all on the inland side of the path.  This is a picture of David Niven's house from the path.  To continue on the path you go behind his house.

Jane decided to stop and play a little jazz as we arrived at the port.

St. Jean is a very nice new port full of large boats.

As you can see despite the warm weather the port continues to celebrate Christmas.

We had yet another great French meal.

Of course no French meal is complete sans du vin.

This wine is a nice bottle of rosé from Provence.  See if you can spot the one sentence in English on the back label.  The answer is at the end of this post.

Two hours after we arrived for lunch we decided we had better walk home, but by a different route.  But before we left we thought we would stop into this store to get a truly French bathing suit.

As you can see they have thongs, but unfortunately they were closed for the winter.

Thinking that we were truly French and that we knew exactly where we were going we began to climb up the hill which we thought would lead us to the other side of Cap Ferrat and then we could walk along that coast back to Villefranche.  We walked up and up some lovely stairs with absolutely gorgeous views.

As we approached the very top, we encountered a very nice Frenchman and in our very best French said, "Pardon Monsieur, je suis désolé de vous déranger, mais nous cherchons Villefranche."  He spoke back in French which we consider a great victory and told us very nicely that we were not on the right road and that we must go back down.  We understood most of his instructions and began our walk down the hill.  We came upon a small chapel.

The sayings on each side of the door are "all by love" and "nothing by force".  What a wonderfully uplifting sentiment in this violent time, especially here in France.

After a while we came to a fork and were not sure which way to go so we used our best French again on a young mother with her son who had just finished playing soccer.  She was very nice and responded also completely in French, another victory even if we were still lost.  We followed her directions and before we knew it we saw the Villa Rothschild and knew exactly where we were.

At about the same time we saw the man that had given us directions originally and wondered how he, who was walking slower than we were, had gotten ahead of us.  Of course the obvious answer is that he knew where he was going, and we did not.

By now the wind was very strong and we were walking in the shade. It was so cold that I had to put on a jacket over my shirt.  Sorry to those of you in Minnesota but here when it gets to be windy and shady I need a jacket even if it is 60 degrees.

Eventually we caught up to the gentleman who had given us directions and had a nice conversation with him all in French.  There were a couple of times that he did not understand.  I was surprised twice when I understood Jane's French exactly but he did not.  The only explanation for his lack of understanding must have been that he could not hear her speak since the wind was very strong and loud.

Eventually we arrived home, having taken over 15,000 steps for our grand adventure.

The English phrase on the back of the bottle of wine is, "A succulent fruit bomb ideal for aperitif or with typical Provençal cuisine."

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal