Villefranche sur mer - Fall 2025 - 4

Dear Friends,

Today it is raining and cool, an all around crappy day.  We had a three hour french lesson this morning as we do four mornings a week, with homework each day.  We had a great lesson learning about such things as "until" when preceded by a negative statement compared to "until" when preceded by a positive statement.  Trump will not stop until the people stand up to him (Trump va s'arrêter pas avant que les gens lui tiennent tête.)  Trump will continue saying crazy things until he can no longer talk. (Trump va continuer à dire des choses insensées jusqu'à ce qu'il puisse plus parler.)  You can see the one that starts with the negative phrase uses avant que for until and the other uses jusqu'à ce que.  In both cases the until phrase uses the subjunctive.

While having that grammar rule reinforced in us was fun, it was not the highlight of the day.  The highlight was having lunch with friends, Melinda and Jean Paul at La Table de la Réserve in Beaulieu.  La Table de la Réserve is a small chic bistro that is part of La Réserve de Beaulieu, a really fancy and very expensive hotel.  It has an extreme gourmet restaurant, Le Restaurant des Rois (the restaurant of the kings), a place fit for Trump.  

By comparison here is La Table de la Réserve where we had lunch.

The chefs use La Table de la Réserve to try out new and exciting recipes and combinations.  Those of us that have lunch there get incredible food, creatively presented at a fantastic price.

At both restaurants you can order from an à la carte menu or a special menu where you get several courses.  Here is the special menu for La Table de la Réserve for this week.  The cost for this menu is 28 euros.

The menus for Le Restaurant des Rois range in price from 195 euros to 295 euros.   I am afraid that we will never see the inside of Le Restaurant des Rois, much less eat there.

Tonight we are having penne pasta with tomato sauce and sauté zucchinis, onions and tomatoes with a 10 euro bottle of wine and followed by a piece of chocolate.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer 2022 - 4 La Vie Quotidienne (the daily life)

Dear Friends,

I often forget to write about all the normal daily things that make life in Villefranche so wonderful.  So here are a few such things.

Jane and I take french lessons all year round from Aude, a woman who lives in Villefranche.  When we are not in Villefranche, we have our lessons via Skype.  If all goes as planned in a week, we have a two hour lesson with Aude and just us, we also have a one hour lesson with Joan who lives in Wyoming but was born in Minnesota and Aude, and we have another one hour lesson with Katrina who lives in Rhode Island and whom we have never met in person and Aude.  When we are in Villefranche our lesson schedule varies as Aude is in high demand.  In January we are having three 2.5 hour lessons a week with just us and Aude and then on Fridays, we have a 4.5 hour lesson with Aude and Joan.  

Last Friday we met at the Brassiere Le Sourcouf.  Here are Jane, Aude and Joan arriving. 

Of course, we quickly settled into our lesson.  Well actually first we had to order coffee and croissants.  We can only speak french during our lessons so we did place the order in french.

You probably noticed how beautiful the croissants are.  Well let me tell you they are fantastic!! When I commented on how good they were to our friend, Jean Paul, who lives in Villefranche and who was a chef, he said they are made from brioche dough.  I then started to research the difference.  Here is a little of what I learned.

Brioche Dough vs Croissant Dough

Except for a difference in the liquid component, the ingredients in brioche dough and croissant dough are basically the same – milk, butter, salt, yeast, flour and sugar. 

The difference yields a tender crumb with brioche while producing a flaky crumb for croissants.

For brioche, the liquid in the dough largely comes from eggs with a small amount of milk. This has the effect of producing a more cake-like texture when baking is complete.

In contrast to eggs as the liquid component, croissants have nearly twice the amount of butter and use milk as the only liquid. In conjunction with the way the dough is layered, a croissant will have a much crispier exterior. 

After reading the above, you can see why both croissants and brioche are wonderful.  Jean Paul was right the croissants at Le Surcouf were moister and not quite as flaky as a normal croissant, but they are fabulous.   

Villefranche has long been a fishing village.  Unfortunately there are only a couple of fishing families left down from over 40 at the peak.  However, we still get to see the fishermen go out every morning and evening and spread their nets.  We walk past this boat almost every day sitting at the quay.

It has seen better days and needs some TLC, but it is a true working boat.  We are the lucky recipients of the hard work of these fishermen.  Virtually all restaurants in town serve some kind of fresh fish all the time.  Here is a filet de loup (sea bass) thanks to the Villefranche fishermen.

 

I am on the French Riviera so I should not be surprised that from time to time, I run into movie stars.  The other day I was lucky enough to have lunch with Audrey Hepburn who naturally was incognito.

I should also note that the pétanque season has started, and I have not yet lost a game.  In this photo you can see my perfect form.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal