Villefranche-sur-mer 2019 - 13 Eating Out

Dear Friends,

After publishing my last post, I was afraid that I had left the impression that we never venture out for a meal.   What a mistake and lost opportunity that would be.  I would also be lying by omission.  So I hope this post will clear up any misconceptions.

Villefranche-sur-Mer has many great restaurants ranging from very casual to very fancy.  Our favorite restaurant in Villefranche and maybe in the world is Le Serre.  It does not have a website, but here is the link to Trip Advisor.  There are many reasons that we love it.  The owner, Sylvie, and the staff we see the most often, Marie, Beranise and Mikado are warm, welcoming, funny people who are great at their jobs.  We are always welcomed like old friends and treated like royalty.

The food is simple but great.  They have lots of different pizzas, most of which are named for various US states.  We cannot see any connection between a particular state and the pizza with the name of that state.  The salads are also great and can be a full meal.

Each day Sylvie plans a 19 euro three course meal.  Every night there are three potential entrées (in France an entrée is the first course as it should be since it means entrance or starter), three potential plats (main courses) and a dessert of the day.  Two of each are the same every night but one of the three changes each night.  The two constant entrées lately have been tomato mozzarella toasts and a niçoise salad.  Last night the third was a tarte fin tomate mozzerella (a tart with fine herbs,

tomato and mozzarella).  The tart was fantastic.  The third choice for a main course yesterday was a vol au vent de la mer.  I do not know how to exactly translate that but it is seafood en croute.  I did not have it so I do not know how it was.  The dessert of the day was a strawberry panna cotta which was great.  In addition to the pizzas and the prix fixe menu, there is a full menu of other items.

We always eat at Le Serre on our first night and our last night.  We also eat there from time to time during our stay.  Here we are sitting outside at Le Serre on the night we arrived in Villefranche, exhausted but happy.

Here are a couple of other pictures of the wonderful food at Le Serre.  

a salad

 a chicken brochette with a zucchini tarte

a beautifully decorated panna cotta 

When we eat out, it is often for lunch.  One of the first days we were here, we met a friend for lunch at Le Mayssa Beach restaurant (trip advisor here).  It was a beautiful day and the restaurant is on the second floor overlooking the water.  Two of us had the loup (usually translated as sea bass) grilled and presented whole but then expertly deboned by the server.

Jane had a crab meat, avocado and tomato salad.

Le Mayssa Beach is right on the waterfront in Villefranche so there is virtually no walking involved which is a problem with a several hour French lunch.  With the need for exercise in mind, we sometimes walk to Beaulieu or Saint Jean Cap Ferrat for lunch.

One day we walked to Beaulieu with the intention of going to a small restaurant we had eaten at before.  Unfortunately we arrived after they had closed for lunch.  We walked to a string of restaurants in the fancy marina and went to L'Atelier d'Emile.  

We ate outside on a beautiful day.  Rather than rewrite the review I wrote for Trip Advisor (here), I will just quote myself.

"My wife and I stopped at L'Atelier d'Emile on a Friday afternoon just before 2:00 pm without a reservation and a little late for lunch. Nevertheless we were immediately seated in a very comfortable outdoor area. 
We both ordered the plat du jour which was "Le Filet de Lieu Noir Roti au Beurre Blanc Boulgour aux Légumes". We were not familiar with the type of fish. The waiter described the dish as a white fish in beurre blanc sauce. The kind of fish is saithe which is also known as coalfish, coley, or Atlantic Pollack. Apparently it can also be cod. In any case it is a wonderful light white fish that is flaky with a great texture. The beurre blanc sauce was fantastic. It had a great flavor yet was very light. The bulgar wheat went perfectly with both the sauce and the fish. The vegetables were finely chopped but still crunchy. They provided a wonderful taste, color and texture to the dish. For dessert we split a "riz au lait de coco aux fruits frais". It was a rice pudding with a not too heavy or sweet milk/cream sauce with coconut and beautiful fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. It was delicious. 
The price was very reasonable particularly for Beaulieu. For two plat du jour, two glasses of house wine, one dessert and two coffees, the total bill including tip was 57 euros."

While this was a big lunch, please keep in mind that we walked about two miles each way for a total of 4 miles just for lunch.

Another day we walked to Saint Jean Cap Ferrat to a restaurant in the fancy marina there, Le Pacha du Sloop (Trip Advisor here).  This restaurant is just over 2 miles from our apartment so once again we walked over 4 miles in connection with this meal.  Actually we walked more than Google Maps would give us credit for since we took the scenic route past the house that used to belong to David Niven.  It is the only house that is actually right on the water without a public right of way between it and the water.  This picture was taken a couple of days earlier when we were out on a boat ride with the couple that we rent from, but that is a story for another time.

We had been to Le Sloop a couple of times before, and it is always good.  We splurged and each had the 27 euro prix fixe menu.  Sorry for the bad photo, but we didn't take it until the end of the meal.

For our entrées,  we split the marinated artichoke salad

and the green asparagus and basil salad.

We each then had the fresh grilled dorade (translated seabream by the restaurant).  It came grilled but whole.

We were left to do the deboning which did not look as great as the way a professional server does it.

The dessert du jour was a raspberry panna cotta with fresh raspberries on top.  It was great but a picture could not do it justice.  Jane did finish with a noisette which is technically a hazelnut but when ordered at coffee time is a small espresso with some warm milk.  The fashion and amount of the milk varies greatly depending on the place and who makes it.

While I was engrossed in writing this post, Jane reminded me that it was almost 2:00 pm and that we had not eaten lunch yet.  I remembered that we had no bread so we were forced to go out to lunch.  We just walked down to the row of restaurants along the quai and went to Trastevere (Trip Advisor here).  We had a simple but good lunch.  We split an Italian salad (lettuce, tomato, mozzarella, parma ham, melon and parmesan)

and a neapolitan pizza.

Unfortunately it took very few steps to get to Trastevere, but fortunately we took a nice walk along the beach this morning.  Such is life in Villefranche.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer 2019 - 12 Dinners at Home

Dear Friends,

We are back in Villefranche for a three week stay.  The weather has been perfect, and we are enjoying ourselves immensely.  We fill our days studying french, going for walks, lamenting the state of the world (particularly Trump and the Republicans) and shopping for our dinners.  We eat most dinners at home.  Virtually any dinner requires a stop at the butcher, the baker, the green grocer and a seller of wine.  The wine is the easiest since you can buy wine that this quite good very inexpensively almost anywhere.

We love to buy our wine at Chez Marie-Claire, our favorite boulangerie/pâtisserie.  Most boulangeries/patisseries sell bread and pastries and maybe a few extras like pieces of pizza, pre-made sandwiches and chocolates.  Marie-Claire does all of that plus eggs and wine.  Unfortunately Marie-Claire is getting older, probably well into her 80s.  She is open from 7:00 am until 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm most days.  In the summer she takes one day a week off and in the winter she takes two days off.    Normally that is not a problem because she coordinates with her arch rival, Patrice, who runs the other boulangerie/patisserie in the old town so that one of them is always open.  Unfortunately, in the winter there is one day when there is no boulangerie/patisserie open in the old town.  You can't really plan ahead for that problem because you need to eat the bread and pastries the day they are made or they are just not as good.

There is a boulangerie/patisserie just up the hill from the old town whose products are just fine.  But, it is modern and once you get your purchase your contact with a real person ends.  A machine tells you how much you owe, you put your money in one slot and your change comes out another slot.  It is incredibly impersonal so we only go there in a dire emergency, like needing a fruit tart for dessert when the Marie-Claire and Patrice are both closed.

The real problem is that these small shops are disappearing all across France.  As I said Marie-Claire is quite old with no obvious successor.  Bernard, the green grocer, is also quite old with no hope for a successor.  Pascal, the butcher, is not too old and from time to time his son helps out in the shop.  So there is hope there.  Patrice is not too old and wants to continue working but after many years of renting the same spot in the middle of the old town, her landlord is trying to throw her out and replace her with yet another real estate agency.  There are already way more real estate agencies in and around the old town than any other type of business.  We have joined with many locals in petitioning the mayor to intervene, but it is probably a lost cause.

On the bright side, there is a new focacceria in the old town.  He sells great Italian cheeses and salami along with a few pre-made Italian dishes and sandwiches.  He is young, and we try to frequent his store often in hopes that he succeeds.  Any conversation with him is a combination of Italian, English and French.  His English is worse than our french, and we speak no Italian.

The only issue with our method of provisioning for dinner is you really need to see what people have before deciding on your meal.  Bernard is the least reliable in that regard.  First, his hours are sometimes a little random and second, his inventory varies dramatically from day to day.

So here are some examples of our dinners at home so far this trip.  At this point, these will just be repeated.

In this meal, you see steak cooked perfectly on the gas grill on our balcony accompanied by a sauté of mushrooms, onion, leaks and garlic, a baked potato with crème frâiche and of course and steamed artichoke.

We do vary our steak meals. This one is accompanied with haricots verts and roasted baby tomatoes.

We don't just have steak.  On this day the butcher had some lamb chops so we got them.  Also there were no haricots verts so we got some flat Italian beans and big tomatoes instead of baby ones.

We don't just have red meat either.  Here we have a pork chop with flat Italian beans, red peppers and a sauté of carrots, mushrooms, onions, leaks and garlic.

We also have chicken.  Here we have a boneless skinless chicken breast grilled to perfection on our gas grill.  We put mustard on the top before cooking and then only cook from the other side.  Apparently the green grocer was out of green vegetables this day.

Some times we have more simple fare, but what could be better than an omelette with créme frâiche, sautéd ham and a fresh baguette with blueberry jam.

Sometimes we even eat vegetarian.  This simple pasta with tomato sauce and fresh burrata from the new focacceria with a sauté of zucchini, baby tomatoes and onions was even better than it looks.

You may have noticed the presence of a potato on the plate virtually every night.  Potatoes are plentiful here and very good.  We get one medium size baking potato for the two of us.  We then cut it in half lengthwise.  This approach permits us to maximize the amount crème frâiche per bite.

What I have not shown are the desserts.  We have not taken pictures of the desserts.  It would be too mean to show them to you.  Most of the time we split a pastry from Marie-Claire that looks particularly good that day - a religieuse (here), an eclair, a fresh fruit tart, etc.  

So we eat very well, but I have averaged over 11,000 steps and almost 28 flights of stairs a day since our arrival.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Democratic Candidate for President 2020 - 3 How to win and who can win?

Dear Friends,

Now that we have a better idea about where all the Democratic candidates for President stand on the issues, I can say without any fear of contradiction that all of them are far better than President Trump.  I can also say that all of them that have any chance at being the nominee want racial and gender equity, fairer distribution of wealth and income, healthcare for all, education for all, housing for all, food for all, an immigration system that reflects our values as a country of immigrants, a living wage for all, etc.  I certainly have my favorites as a result of their positions on the issues, but I am focused on which one has the best chance of winning the election.  I would say electability, but I have already done a post on that subject so in this post I will refer to how to win and who can win.

I have been reading articles and studies on the 2016 voter turnout and related issues.  There are three that I would recommend to you.  A Pew Research Center article from May 2017 about black voter turnout falling here, an article from the Wisconsin State Journal in November 2017 about black voter turnout in Wisconsin here, and a study from the Center for American Progress (CAP) entitled "Voter Trends in 2016" from November 2017 here.  The report from the CAP is excellent but long and very detailed.  I will quote extensively from its conclusions below and then attempt to answer the how to win and who can win questions.

The CAP report focuses on four things:
Voter composition - the percentage of actual voters from various demographic groups
Turnout rates - the percentage of eligible voters in those demographic groups who are eligible to vote and did
Support rates - the support for the Democratic or Republican candidate from each of the demographic groups
Shifts - the shifts in these factors between the 2012 election and the 2016 election
The study considered 32 demographic groups
Racial - white, black, latino and asian/other
Age - 18-29, 30-44, 45-64, and 65+
Education  -  four year college degree and no four year college degree

As background here are some findings that are important as you consider the conclusions.
The voters in 2016 were
     73.7% white  down 0.3 points from 2012
     12% black down 1.1 points from 2012
     8.9% latino up 0.9 points from 2012
     5.5% asian/other up 0.5 points from 2012

White voter share dropped by only 0.3 points between 2016 and 2012 even though white share of eligible voters dropped by 1.7 points.  Black voter share dropped by 1 point even though black eligible voters rose 0.2 points because black turnout fell by more than 4 points (62.1% to 57.7%)

White non-college degree voter turnout was up 3 points while white college degree voter turnout was up only 2 points.

As we all know too well, Presidential elections are not decided by majority vote of the country but by state.  The CAP report had the following conclusions for the three rust belt states that were supposed to stop Trump but instead went for him - Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.  Here are the conclusions:

Our estimates indicate that if black turnout [in Michigan] had remained at its 2012 level, Clinton would have carried the state. For that matter, she also would have carried the state if white non-college-educated turnout had remained at its 2012 level, instead of going up. And it would have probably been enough to flip the state if Latino turnout had remained stable across the two elections. 

Our estimates indicate that changes in black turnout in Pennsylvania had little effect on the election outcome; had black turnout remained at its 2012 level, it would have done little to overcome Clinton’s 0.7-point deficit in the state. However, our estimates show that if white non-college-educated turnout had remained at its 2012 level, instead of increasing significantly as it did, Clinton would have been able to carry the state. 

In contrast to Pennsylvania, here [in Wisconsin] we found that black turnout had a significant effect on the election outcome; had black turnout remained at its 2012 level, instead of dropping as it did, Clinton would have erased her 0.8 point deficit and won the state, albeit narrowly. None of the other changes in turnout from 2012 to 2016 had much of an effect on the outcome, according to our analysis.  

This [Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin] reflects the ongoing decline in the white non-college-educated share of eligible voters, which could be only partially mitigated by increases in white non-college-educated turnout. However, it is important to stress that these increases in white non-college-educated turnout were otherwise important: In two of the three states—Michigan and Pennsylvania—Clinton would have been able to carry the states if this group’s turnout had remained at 2012 levels.

As you can see from the above, turnout in two groups seemed to be critical - white non-college and black voters.  The report goes on to discuss the three states that Obama flipped in 2012, but Clinton did not - Florida, Iowa and Ohio as well as North Carolina which Obama did not win.

In terms of shifts from 2012, the most interesting change [in Florida] was that the white non-college-educated share of voters went down so little—a mere 0.3 points—despite that group’s share of eligible voters falling by almost 3 points. This was due to a nearly 7-point increase in white non-college-educated voter turnout. Without that turnout spike, Trump might not have carried the state.  

The biggest change in the structure of the electorate [in Iowa] compared to 2012 was a 1-point decline in the share of white non-college-educated voters. Turnout was down for all racial groups except Latinos, whose turnout increased by 6 points. However, our estimates indicate that turnout shifts had little to do with Clinton’s 9-point deficit in the state: If Iowa turnout patterns had remained the same as they were in 2012, it would have barely moved the needle. 

White non-college-educated voters [in Ohio] were down by a modest 0.6 points from 2012, while white college voters increased their vote share by 2 points and black voters declined by close to the same amount. The latter was tied to a sharp drop in black turnout in the state—down 10 points from 73 percent to 63 percent. This by itself dropped Clinton’s margin in the state by almost 2 points. But because she lost Ohio by more than 8 points, this was hardly the decisive factor in her loss.

Another key loss for Clinton was North Carolina, although this was a state that Obama also did not carry in 2012. Here the white share of voters actually went up—increasing by 2 points to 72 percent—and, very unusually, this included a 1-point increase in the share of white non-college-educated voters. Black voters, on the other hand, declined by 3 points as a share of voters, reflecting their 9-point fall in turnout, from 75 percent in 2012 to 66 percent in 2016. By itself, this decline in black turnout did not hand the state to Trump because, even if 2012 levels had been maintained, Clinton would still have lost narrowly. But the race in that state would have been a great deal closer. 

In discussing the national results of who voters supported in the 2012 and 2016 election, the CAP report concluded

Reflecting the fairly large change among non-college-educated white voters, plus their very large size as a group, this was the support shift that had the largest effect on Clinton’s fortunes. If Clinton had been able to replicate Obama’s level of support among non-college-educated white voters, she would have carried the popular vote by 4.4 points instead of the 2.1-point advantage she had last November. Interestingly, the second most important shift holding down Clinton’s support was the decline in vote margin among black voters. That shift took 0.9 points off of her popular vote margin, which is actually slightly more than she lost from the decline in black turnout. 

All of these conclusions would tend to support the need to get some of the non-college educated whites to vote for the Democratic candidate.  In the media these days these people are often referred to as Trump voters who could be won back to the Democratic Party.  As it turns out just because white non-college educated voters did not vote for Clinton does not mean that they voted for Trump as the following from the CAP report indicates

A final note here: In the discussion above and subsequently in our discussion of particular states, we concentrate on margin shifts relative to 2012 because these directly determined the relative electoral fortunes of Trump and Clinton. However, in this election it was typically not the case that margin shifts for a given group relative to 2012 were composed of decreases in support for one major party and equivalent increases in support for the other major party. There were usually some increases in third-party voting as well. 

For example, among white non-college-educated voters in 2016, there was a 5-point decrease in support for Clinton relative to Obama, a 1-point increase in support for Trump relative to Romney, and a 4-point increase in third-party voting. Among white college-educated voters there was a 6-point decrease in support for Trump relative to Romney, a 1-point increase in support for Clinton relative to Obama, and a 5-point increase in third-party voting. Finally, among black voters there was a 5-point decrease in support for Clinton, a 3-point increase in support for Trump, and a 3-point increase in third-party voting. Thus, even though the changes in margin between Democrats and Republicans determined the election outcomes, it should be kept in mind that increased third-party voting was frequently implicated in these margin changes.

75% of the white non-college educated voters who voted for Obama but not for Clinton went to a third party and only 1/6th of the white college educated voters who voted for Romney but not Trump voted for Clinton.  Why did so many people object to her?  The report reaches no conclusion on that point, but I would speculate it was that she was not a good candidate.  She had lots of baggage and was unable to generate enthusiasm except in those who really wanted a woman president.

So how do the Democrats win?

As I have said before turnout is the key as it always is for the Democrats.  The CAP report only focuses on the voters in 2012 and 2016 so none of its conclusions address the fact that the United States has terrible voter participation.  We are 35th among developed nations.  In 2016 only 59% of eligible voters turnout.  In 2008 62% turned out to elect the first black president.  Just those 3 points represent 7 million voters.  If all eligible voters voted at the same rate as the older voters, there would have been over 25,000,000 more votes cast in 2016 than there actually were.  Clinton would have won in a landslide.

According to the Pew report cited above, older voters (boomers and older) vote very consistently at close to 70% but younger voters particularly millennials (20-35) are inconsistent and lower.  In 2016 50.8% of them voted, up 4.4 points from 2012.  Black millennials were down 4.4 points while white millennials were up 2.8 points and hispanics up 3.8 points.

The Democrats can win by getting the millennials out to vote.  They can only achieve this result by putting forward a candidate who generates enthusiasm among that cohort.  The older people will vote because that is what they do, and they will stay with the Democrats (not vote for a third party candidate) if we have a candidate that has little baggage and generates enthusiasm.

Michael Moore has suggested that in addition to a candidate that generates enthusiasm, we should be sure that there are initiatives on the ballot that generate enthusiasm especially among young voters, eg, marijuana and anti-gerrymandering.  I think those are good ideas.  In fact anything to generate enthusiasm.

So which Democrat has best chance to win?

Of course this question is more difficult to answer.  It is clear to me that older white guys are not the way to go.  I include in this group - Biden, Hickenlooper, Inslee, and Steyer.  Bernie may be an exception.  A second group is middle aged middle of the roaders.  I include in this group Bennet, Bullock, de Blasio, Delaney, Klobuchar, and Gillibrand.  I would also eliminate Gabbard, Ryan, Williamson and Yang because they do not stand a chance.   I would also eliminate O'Rourke because if I want a young white male, it would be Buttigieg.

That leaves (in alphabetical order) Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Sanders, and Warren.  Each of these candidates could certainly generate enthusiasm.  Some of them have more baggage than others, but none of them has the baggage that Clinton did.  Polling data at any point in the race is interesting but hardly determinative.  Obviously all the polls got the last election very wrong.  I really doubt that the polling techniques have figured out how to conduct a truly representative poll in today's world where people don't answer their phones if they don't recognize the caller.

Here are the results from Real Clear Politics for these candidates from May 30 and August 6
                  May 30     Aug 6
Booker          2.2             2
Buttigieg       6                6.5
Castro           1.2             0.8
Harris           7.4             8.3
Sanders        16.6          16.5
Warren          9.8           18.3
Just for reference, Biden was at 34.8% on May 30 and on August 6 he was at 30.8%.

So my conclusion is that Elizabeth Warren is the best candidate to win the general election.  The more people get to know her the more they like her.  She generates enthusiasm and has little or no baggage.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Democratic Candidate for President 2020 - 2 Electability

Dear Friends,

I am driven to write by the constant media reports and conversations about who is the most electable Democratic candidate for President.  Virtually daily there is some new article or analysis in the media attempting to define "electability".  Following are just a few that I have read lately:

"Nobody Knows Anything About 'Electability'" by Peter Beinart in the Atlantic (here)
"the electability trap" by Linda Hirshman in The Washington Post (here)
"The Problem With 'Electability'" by Perry Bacon, Je. at FiveThirtyEight (here)
"Opinion: The Real Electable Democrat is Kamala Harris" by Bakari Sellers at BuzzFeed.News (here)  [I am not supporting or opposing Kamala Harris, but I found the article interesting.]
"How to Choose the Most Electable Democrat in 2020" by Bill Scher at Politico (here)

There are three things that I want to highlight from all of the discussions about "electability".

First, who a person views as "electable" is phrased as others will not support that candidate because she is a woman, because she/he is a person of color, because he/she is too far left/right, etc.  Essentially what that person is saying is I'm not racist, sexist, etc. but the rest of the electorate is.  This approach essentially means that straight, white, Judaeo/Christian, upper class, male centrists are electable and others are not.

Second, often an electable candidate is defined as a candidate who can attract swing voters.  I am sure there are probably a few million swing voters, but the person to attract is the non-voter.  The percentage of eligible voters voting hit a high in the 2008 Presidential election with about 62% of the the eligible voters actually voting.  In the 2016 Presidential election 59.2% of eligible voters voted for President. In 2016 there were just about 231 million eligible voters which means that the three percentage point difference in the eligible voters that voted represented almost 7 million voters.
Elections are won by turning out the people who will vote for your candidate.  There is no doubt that if 62% of the voters had turned out in 2016 instead of the 59% that did, Hillary Clinton would be President now.
There are approximately 25 developed countries with higher voter turnout than the United States, with Belgium topping the list with 87% of its voting age population voting.  The United States has about 250,000,000 age eligible voters.  If 87% of those people voted in 2016, we would have had almost 81,000,000 more voters.  If a candidate can get 10 million of those people to the polls, that candidate will win.

Third, the Democratic establishment has been pushing "electable" candidates on us for years.  Since the 1976 election, three Democratic candidates have won the presidency and five Democratic candidates have lost the presidency when running for a first term.
The Democratic candidates that have won are:
Jimmy Carter - age 52 when ran, 4 years as a Georgia state senator and 4 years as the governor of Georgia
Bill Clinton - age 46 when ran, 2 years as the Attorney General of Arkansas and 11 years as governor of Arkansas
Barack Obama - age 47 when ran, 7 years as an Illinois state senator and 3 years as US Senator from Illinois
The Democratic candidates that lost are:
Walter Mondale - age 56 when ran, 4 years as Attorney General of Minnesota, 12 years as US Senator from Minnesota and 4 years as Vice President
Michael Dukakis - age 55 when ran, 8 years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and 12 years as governor of Massachusetts
Al Gore - age 52 when ran, 8 years a member of the House of Representatives, 8 years as US Senator from Tennessee and 8 years as Vice President
John Kerry - age 61 when ran, decorated Vietnam War veteran and 28 years as US Senator from Massachusetts
Hillary Clinton - age 69 when ran, 8 years as First Lady, 8 years as US Senator from New York and 4 years as Secretary of State (she was far and away the most experienced and qualified person to run for President probably forever)

What are the lessons from this data?
Democratic presidential candidates who are political outsiders win.  All of the losing candidates had at least 20 years of public service before running for President (if you count Hillary Clinton's time as First Lady).  Except for Dukakis, all had been US Senators for at least 8 years.
The oldest winner was 52 when he ran and the youngest loser was 52 when he ran.  Based on this sample younger candidates do much better.
Except for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, all are white men, and in that category four lost and two won.
I would categorize all of these candidates as to the right of center in the Democratic Party and in that category five lost and three won.
So from this data one could say that a younger candidate who has not been in public office for very long is the best bet.

Next time you talk about the electability of a candidate or you talk to someone else about it or you read/hear an analysis in the media, ask what do you really mean by electability.  Since the "experts" continually get it wrong about who is the most electable candidate, please do not rely on those "experts".  If an "expert" thought that Donald Trump was not electable and Hillary Clinton was, there is no reason for you to give that "expert's" opinion any weight in your decision making.

The most electable Democratic candidate is the one who can attract a lot of the nonvoters without losing too many of the traditional Democratic voters who voted for Hillary Clinton.  Simply holding on to those voters who voted for Hillary Clinton and adding a few swing voters will not even come close to assuring victory in the general election.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer 2019 - 11 Odds and Ends

Dear Friends,

We arrived home from Villefranche on Sunday and are trying valiantly to adjust.  In addition to the normal jet lag and cultural change, this year we are faced with a dramatic weather change.  While we were in Villefranche, Minneapolis was having an extremely cold and snowy winter, setting all kinds of records.  When we left Villefranche it was a beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze and about 60 degrees.  We we arrived in Minneapolis -

Here is Jane in circle in front of the entrance to our apartment building.  She looks much happier than she was.

In our last week in Villefranche, there were several things that I did not get a chance to write about so here are the odds and ends.

Flying Fire Fighters

Almost every winter we get a chance to see so fire fighting planes practice scooping up water from the bay to drop on fires.  This year there were actually a couple of days when they swooped overhead to pick up water because there were actual fires.  It was quite a sight.  From our apartment we could not actually see the plane as it scooped up the water, but we got some photos of the planes swooping in just over the roof tops.

In the photo below the plane is just about to scoop up water.  They don't stop or actually land they just scoop it up as they fly along.

Walk around Cap Martin

Jane and it decided we would try another walk from the book that gave us the walk above La Turbie.  This time the book told the truth.  The walk around Cap Martin was beautiful, without huge up and downs and with a smooth path.  It is also easily accessible.  We took the train to the stop at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, just east of Monaco.  Despite some construction, the path was easy to find.

Here is a picture looking back at Monaco with Cap Ferrat in the background.

There were some spots where the cliffs fell rapidly to the sea from the path.  In the photo below, if you look closely you can see some paths as well as a small platform to swim from when the seas are calm.

There were some places that were not good for those with a fear of heights.  The ramp is about 3 feet wide and attached to a huge retaining wall.

The walk concludes when you reach Carnoles a neighborhood of Menton right on the water.  Even in the winter, there are restaurants available for a nice lunch.  We had lunch at a very nice restaurant called Le Fellini.  The menu of the day included the "salad bar", choice of three main courses, a drink and a coffee for 16 euros.  It was a great deal.  The salad bar was not like any American salad bar I have ever seen.

The picture is not very good, but it included roasted zucchini, roasted egg plant, roasted carrots, cabbage, green beans, red and yellow peppers, a tuna salad with peas, carrots and mayo, small pieces of pizza and a few other things.  Jane had the roasted chicken and I had the sword fish.  The drink turned out to be 1.5 glasses of wine each.  Anyway a great way to finish off a great walk.  We then got back on the train at the stop after the one where we had gotten off and had a short ride back to Villefranche.

Le Serre

There is a restaurant right in the middle of the old town that we just love.  It is very casual with a menu of pizzas as well as other regular items such as pastas, beef brioche, fish and salads. Each day there is a menu of the day featuring starters, main courses and desserts.  The full menu is only 18 euros, an incredible deal.

The best thing about it is the owner/chef Sylvie and her staff.  They are great at their jobs, but even more important they make you feel very welcome and make your entire experience wonderful.  

Pétanque

As you could have guessed from prior posts, I enjoy playing pétanque while in Villefranche.  Here I am with my teammates (one from Canada and one from Ireland) from the last match that I played before returning to Minneapolis.

The organizer of the pétanque matches is a John Paul, a resident of Villefranche (in the winter) and Maine (in the summer).  He is a wonderful person who welcomes all to play regardless of skill level.  His only reward is seeing everybody have a great time.  Jane and I had lunch with him before we left to which he wore the Minnesota t-shirt that we got him for his birthday.

One of the rules that John Paul has taught us is that if you lose a game 13 - 0, you have to run naked through the streets.  We are not sure that all of his rules are actually official pétanque rules.  When pétanque makes its Olympics debut in 2024, we will see what the actual rules are.  Anyway at lunch there was a rather unique statue which John Paul explained was a statue of Fanny.  If you win a pétanque match 13 - 0,  you get to touch Fanny's fanny.  You can see from the coloring of Fanny's fanny that lots of people must have won shutouts.

And so ends our latest stay in Villefranche.  We were sad to leave and even sadder to return to the cold and snow of Minnesota, but we know that we will return in September.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer 2019 - 10 La Turbie

Dear Friends,

Last Thursday, we had another great adventure.  We visited La Turbie, a town built 2,000 years ago by the Romans honoring Emperor Augustus.  The adventure actually started several days earlier when we decided to make the trip and to rent an electric car to do so.

In prior years we had used Auto Bleue to rent an electric car in Villefranche.  It was a car sharing service.  The cars are parked in Villefranche at charging stations.  You go online to book them and then you return them to the same parking place.  When I went online to book a car through Auto Bleue, I discovered that Auto Bleue had morphed into Renault Mobility.  I had to sign up all over again.  Fortunately this time I did not need to go to Nice, I could do it all online.

The instructions were very detailed but all in French.  With the help of my dictionary I was able to follow them.  Fill out the form with basic personal info.  Take a picture of your drivers' license both sides and your passport and take a selfie showing your face and your identification (in my case my passport) and then upload these photos.  While the selfie sounded rather bizarre, I followed the directions successfully.  Then of course, they wanted my credit card information which I was also able to provide them.

Unfortunately they then wanted my cell phone number.  I was doing all of this on my computer and for reasons that to this day escape me there was no format in which it would accept my cell phone number.  I decided to try to do all of this on my cell phone through their app.  I filled out the form, uploaded all the photos, gave them my credit card information and by a miracle it took my cell phone number without any complaint.  I submitted all of this and was told Renault Mobility would respond soon.

When they responded, they rejected my application.  They claimed that there was less than one year remaining on my drivers' license.  They were wrong, but of course there was no way to tell them that and it probably would not have done any good anyway.  So I changed the date of issuance (in Minnesota the issuance date is just the month and year but the form wanted the day also so I put in a new day).  Then a miracle occurred, they accepted my application.

I could then book a car online which I did for Thursday.  We asked a couple of friends to go with us.  The acknowledged reason for going to La Turbie was to take a walk called Le Circuit de la Forna.  The books describe it as an easy 6.8 km walk with only a 220 m change in elevation.  La Turbie is already on the top of a hill overlooking Monaco so the walk promises fabulous views.  Of course once we were going to La Turbie I made a reservation for us to have lunch at Le Café de la Fontaine, a wonderful restaurant in La Turbie.

Thursday morning arrived and the four of us meet at the car.  I opened the Renault Mobility app on my phone and followed the instructions.  I was quickly able to unlock the car by sending a signal to Renault.  The next problem was to unplug the car from the charger.  This step proved more difficult as there were two cards with chips and buttons to push.  Eventually I found the right one to unlock the electric cord.  I was faster at getting the car started.  I was also pretty quick at getting the GPS set to direct us to La Turbie.

The final step was to raise the triangle thing that saved the parking spot for our return.  I told Jane to get out of the car to raise the triangle after I had moved forward.  Just as I moved forward the triangle two spots ahead went up automatically.  It was only then that I noticed that we were in spot 1 but the app said that the car was in spot 3.  It was the right car because it was the right license plate number and it opened as directed.  What could possibly go wrong with a system that automatically raises a triangle to save a spot because the car started to move.  As my french tutor commented, "C'est un système infallible, comme le Titanic."  It is an infallible system like the Titanic.  Anyway we were off.

We arrived in La Turbie easily and without incident.  We found a parking place.  A very nice policeman gave us directions to the start of the trail, and we were off. We found the trailhead just where the policeman told us it would be.

We began the ascent which was not to be more than 220 m.  Several times we felt like we had already increased our elevation by more than 220 m, but we kept on going up.  We did, however, begin to see the amazing views.  Here are the three lovely women with whom I had the pleasure of walking.  You can see the snowcapped mountains in the background.

They insisted that I should be in a picture too so here I am with Jane.

From this point the trail continued its steep climb but also changed to slippery loose rocks so we went very carefully.  We were well rewarded as we approached the summit.  Here is a view of La Turbie.  The tall structure is what is left of the huge Trophee d'Auguste which was originally 49 m high but the statue of Emperor Augustus is no longer there so it is just 35 m high.

At the summit there is nice grassy area with a bench and a 360 degree view that is spectacular.  This pano does not do it justice.

Even though we had not completed the entire circuit, we decided to descend the way that we had come up.  It was great that we did.  The rocks had dried a little and some of the early crocuses had opened up as the day warmed up.

Since we hadn't walked the whole circuit, we were early for our lunch reservation but that was not a problem as it was market day in La Turbie.  We didn't buy anything special but we did get some fresh green beans which have been in short supply this winter.  We then enjoyed a great lunch for a couple of hours at Le Café de la Fontaine.  If you are ever in La Turbie, I highly recommend it.  Here is the sole.

And here is the Paris-Brest.  For those who do not know Paris-Brest, it is named after the famous bicycle race Paris-Brest-Paris.  Traditionally it is made from choux paste and a praline flavored cream.  In honor of the bicycle race, the pasty is supposed to have a hole in the middle so that it looks like a bicycle wheel.  In this case, they eliminated the hole, but the taste was delicious.

We then walked around the old town which is very clean and quaint.

As we were walking back to our car, we got a great view of Monaco.

We drove back to Villefranche, were able to lower the triangle by pushing one of the buttons on the key and park the car.  We figured out how to plug the car back in.  But the app would not let me end the rental because we had not put the right chips in the right slots.  There were two slots and two chips so we had quite a few combinations of front, back, side, side, slot, slot.  After I failed several times, Jane got it right on her first try.  The app agreed that the rental was completed.  There was just one more surprise.  When I reserved the car, the app said that the rental was going to be about 46 euros.  Either as a result of their desire to keep the true cost from me or my bad french, the actual cost was 90 euros.  We will not be using this car sharing service as often as I had thought.

We had a great day - learning how to do the car, seeing incredible views on our walk, eating a delicious meal, but most of all enjoying a beautiful day with great friends.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal