Villefranche-sur-mer - Fall 2024-3

 Dear Friends,

Things are perfect.  The rains have stopped for the last couple of days.  The humidity has disappeared.  The sun is shining, the sky are blue, and the temperature is perfect.  

Yesterday, we walked to La Darse (the historic working marina in Villefranche) for lunch at La Baleine Joyeuse (the happy whale).  It was the perfect day, and we had a perfect lunch after which I was truly in my happy place.

I need to digress for a moment.  The apartment that we rent is on the Rue du Poilu.  This street runs through the old town.  There is the street that is just by the water and then Rue du Poilu is the first one up the hill.  Here is a photo from our balcony to the street that runs by the water.

We are five stories above the water, but only two stories above Rue du Poilu.  Here is the little square just outside the door we enter to walk up to our apartment.

And here is a view of Rue du Poilu leading to our apartment from the center of the old town of Villefranche.

Historically Rue du Poilu stopped in front of our apartment, but now it continues to newer buildings and the train station.  The origin of the name is quite interesting.  "Poilu" in french means "hairy".  Les Poilus is an informal term for late 18th century to early 20th century French infantrymen.  French soldiers returning from war would often arrive at the harbor at Villefranche often without shaving.  They would walk down what is now, in their honor, called Rue du Poilu (street of the hairy).  

Today as we were walking along Rue du Poilu, we ventured into a brand new jewelry store called Aventurine.  It is on the corner of Rue de May and Rue du Poilu.  In this case aventurine means a translucent mineral containing small reflective particles, especially quartz containing mica or iron compounds or feldspar.  The proprietor is very nice, and the jewelry is beautiful and reasonably priced.  While Jane did not buy any jewelry made from aventurine, she did buy a nice pair of everyday earrings.  Here she is with the proprietor leaving the store wearing her new earrings.

My chores for the day are coming to an end.  The laundry that I did this morning and hung out on the line is dry, folded and put away.  

My next chore is to take the garage to la grande poubelle (the big garbage drop), and then I must walk the beach to be sure that all is well and everyone is having a good time.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche sur mer - Fall 2024-2

Dear Friends,

We continue to enjoy our time here in Villefranche.  We try to walk the beach each evening before dinner, but are not always successful.  We occasionally see some different sights.  These birds which I think are cormorants decided they had the right to enjoy the beach just as much as anybody else.

    

We don't just see birds on our walks.  The flowers are beautiful and plentiful.

Of course we also get to see the full moon over the bay.

We took that picture of the full moon as we were heading out for a quick dinner at our favorite restaurant, Le Serre.  It is a casual family restaurant that caters to locals and tourists alike.  This night it was even more family than usual since the owner's 12 ish year old son was helping out.  Here he is giving me an extra big helping of whipped cream on my mousse au chocolat, as directed by me, but with his mother's approval.

It is an unusual fall in that it has been raining a lot.  The schools have closed at least twice in the last two weeks due to the storms and resulting flooding.  Villefranche is not in particular danger but up in the hills with huge rains and small rivers that can flood to say nothing of trying to navigate small roads full of hairpin turns in a downpour, it is a different story.

Last Friday we decided we would go to Nice to do some shopping, get money and have lunch.  The forecast called for cloudy weather and a 30-40% chance of rain.  It rained a little during our breakfast but then cleared up.  Here is a picture of the sky, including a rainbow, as we were walking to the bus.

Nice is just a 15 minute bus ride away, but by the time we got there it had started to rain, but not hard.  We used our best brains and decided we should stop at a really good patisserie for a coffee and almond croissant to wait out the rain.  So we did.

The almond croissant looks small and harmless, but it is not small and cannot be good for us.  Nevertheless it is incredibly delicious.  The rain didn't let up but didn't really get worse so we started to walk through the old town.  After a while it really started to rain, and we took shelter under a store awning.  There were a couple of Australians there.  They were good sports about the rain, but it certainly was not a good time if you only had a few days in Nice.  

After waiting quite awhile we decided to head for a restaurant to get some lunch.  Unbelievably it started raining even harder.  When we got to Le Tire Bouchon, here is what it looked like.

Fortunately the food was good.

Unfortunately, we were still soggy even after a relaxed and enjoyable lunch.  By the time we finished lunch the rain had stopped and the sky was blue.  

Today, we finally walked to Beaulieu and had lunch at one of our favorite places Maison de Beaulieu.  The company, the wine and the tuna were all fantastic.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashedliberal