Villefranche-sur-mer v.1

Chers Amis,

Nous sommes arrivés à Villefranche-sur-mer, et nous allons y rester pour le mois de janvier.

Our flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam was very nice since we were very unexpectedly upgraded to first class, as Delta had oversold the flight.

We were met at the Nice airport by our taxi driver and taken to Villefranche where we were met by Valentina who helped us with our luggage (a real blessing since we overpacked as usual and are getting old) and let us into our apartment. We have the same apartment as last year. It is just as wonderful as we remembered it to be.  You can see multiple pictures of it here.  It is referred to as "Chez Nous".

We were too tired to provision so we went to lunch at Cosmos where we have eaten our first lunch each time we have come here.  After lunch we napped and were still too tired to provision, so we went to Le Serre for a quick pizza for dinner.  With each meal, we were getting more chatty in French.

Today, since we still had not provisioned, we were forced to have breakfast at Les Palmiers, a place we frequently have breakfast when we do not have the right food in our apartment.  We are forced to have pain au chocolat et espresso along with our omelette.

After breakfast we finally did our provisioning.  The first stop is the Casino which is not a casino but a chain of grocery stores.  This store is good for staples like toilet paper, cereal, soap, mayonnaise, etc.  Next stop is Picard Surgelés for some frozen berries, sauces and soup as well as our favorite mustard.  Next Primeur, where we can get the best roquefort in the world as well as fresh vegetables and fruits, but we prefer another location for the vegetables.  Next stop would be the patisserie but the one closest to our apartment is closed on Wednesdays so we skipped the bread.  The next stop was the butcher where we got some fantastic pork chops that are more tender and tastier than any that we have ever had in the United States.  We also got some wine here.  The final stop was the guy who sells fruits and vegetables in a tiny square next to the butcher.  Here we got some potatoes, leeks, onions and green beans, all for 4 euros, and he is the expensive place in town.  He is a wonderful guy who makes sure that we get just what we need when we get it.  His usual question with an avocado is when will eat it, so that he can give us one that will be ready when we want to eat it.

After provisioning we had to make a trip to Nice, since this year our apartment comes with a nespresso machine.  The only place to get real Nespresso pods is at Place Masséna in Nice.  After a bus trip and a walk we decided we needed lunch so we stopped at a place serving Italian food in the old city of Nice.  After lunch we got the Nespresso pods and had to visit the Galeries Lafayette to do some shopping.  Finally we returned to Villefranche and our apartment where I sat on our balcony and read The New York Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune online.  I had a hard time concentrating because of the distracting view.

After a short rest, we made dinner for ourselves.

And for dessert the world's best roquefort.

And so ended our first full day.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal