Yesterday, the women in the group of people we know here in Villefranche organized a lunch for themselves. They ate lunch for three hours at La Corderie, a great restaurant at the Darse of Villefranche. The Darse is the working marina in Villefranche.
Not to be out done, the men organized a pétanque game in Saint-Paul-de-Vence followed by lunch and sightseeing in Saint-Jeannet.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a wonderful medieval city perched on a hilltop as they all seem to be. It is well known for all the artists that hung out there. Just before you reach the gates to the old city, you pass a hotel/restaurant called La Colombe d'Or. It is quite famous. The same family has owned it for years. In the era of Matisse, many artists ate and drank there and since many could not pay their bills, they would give the owners paintings. As a result, the restaurant has an incredible collection of art which is nearly matched by the amazing view. While many people say that the food is not worth the price, there are many who say that the entire experience is. I have never been to La Columbe d'Or. But La Colombe d'Or has nothing to do with this post.
Across the small street from La Colombe d'Or is the Café de la Place and surrounding the café is an area where one can play pétanque. In fact many famous people and many great pétanque players have played there. In our group none of us is famous nor a particularly good pétanque player. Nevertheless we persisted.
Many of the tourists thinking we must be special to play there took our pictures. Of course we also had the usual discussions about whose boule was closer to the cochonnet.
After a heated game of pétanque, we drove to Saint-Jeannet where we had lunch at a local café.
As you can see, it was a beautiful day, and as you can see from the next picture the view was also spectacular. This was our view from our table.
We then went up the hill to the old town which was very quaint.
One of our group has a home in the old town which was very nice, but the most amazing thing about it was the rooftop porch. Here is one of the views.
After relaxing with some champagne on the rooftop porch, we drove back to Villefranche. What a wonderful day we had.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
What a handsome group of boule players!
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