Villefranche-sur-mer fall 2021 - 4

 Dear Friends,

I am afraid that I am giving the impression that all is always perfect here in paradise.  Unfortunately, there are some troubles.  

We encountered this (unlucky for him but lucky for us) dead rat in the street.  You can imagine that there must be lots of rats in la vieille ville (the old town where our apartment is located) parts of which date back to 1295 when Villefranche-sur-mer became a tax free port.

There are also the normal problems of a water heater not working.  Here I am late a night trying to find a switch to add water.  

The good news is a real repair person will be arriving in about an hour.  In any case, if the troubles are getting you down, you can always stop by a fancy butcher shop that has wine and some fresh produce in Beaulieu called Les Halles.  You can just pick up a quick glass of wine in style.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer fall 2021 - 3 Mon Anniversaire

 Dear Friends,

Yesterday was my 75th birthday.  I had a great day!!  

I started the day with half of a croissant and half of a pain au chocolat because I couldn't decide which I wanted more.  I got them from Marie Claire who is the owner of the pâtisserie just up the hill from our apartment.  She wished me a happy birthday, but I am sure she was thinking that I was still pretty young as she is older than I am.

After breakfast we went for a walk to Darse (the marina) and took the stairs up to the main street of the town.  The main street is about 200 feet above the Darse.  The steps are very steep and go straight up the hill.  I think that there are about 400 steps in all.  We made it without any heart attacks but with rather tired glutes.  We then walked back down to the patisserie for some bread for lunch.  For those of you who do not understand the need for fresh bread  -  in the morning you can buy croissants, pain au chocolat, etc. but you cannot buy a loaf of bread for lunch because they are baked to be ready just in time for lunch.  Thus the need for two trips to Chez Marie Claire within a few hours of each other.

After lunch we decided to go for a walk along the beach and a quick swim.  See if you can guess from these pictures which one of us actually went all the way in the water for a swim.

I want to note how nice the French are.  As you can tell from the fact that we went for a swim, the French provided us with a beautiful day.  Here is the view of the weather and the bay from the balcony of our apartment.

Please note that the mega yachts and cruise ships were gone, but some of the most beautiful and useful remained to celebrate with me.  Here is one of my favorites.

After our swim and a rest, we went to dinner with our French tutor and her family.  We went to a restaurant called La Corderie located at the Darse.  It was a beautiful evening so we ate outside.  In addition to the new scarf modeled by me here, the kids each gave me a drawing.

We had a great dinner complete with a big sparkling candle since they did not have 75 regular candles.

It was a wonderful dinner and evening as well as the perfect ending to a great day.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal