Villefranche-sur-mer Winter 2026 - 3

 Dear Friends,

The weather in Villefranche continues to be unseasonably cold and rainy.  Keep in mind the cold weather here is 60+ degrees warmer than in Minneapolis.  We had a very nice break on Monday (two days ago) when the sun came out, the wind died down, and the temperature out of the sun was over 50 degrees which meant that it felt great.  We took advantage of the great weather and walked along the sea to the Darse, an actually working marina and ship building and repair area.  We ate at La Baleine Joyeuse (the Joyful Whale).  It is just a shack that contains the kitchen and a place to serve from.  All the seating is outside right on the water.  We had seared tuna with rice and salad as well as a small glass of rosé. 

Unfortunately, the nice weather did not hold and yesterday and today have been cold, rainy and windy.  Nevertheless it is fun to watch the surf which is up.

Believe it or not, the restaurant, Espuma, just behind the crashing waves is open for lunch.  Espuma translates from Portuguese as foam or froth - very appropriate.

The weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow so we are heading to Nice for lunch on the beach there with some Canadian friends.  It is also supposed to be nice on Friday so we are planning on lunch with some other friends at Le Mayssa Beach restaurant which has a magnificent patio overlooking the bay.  We need to enjoy every nice day.

After this forecasted nice weather for Thursday and Friday, the forecast shows rain and cold for the next five days.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer Winter 2026-2

 Dear Friends,

Yesterday when I started this blog it was rather cold (49 degrees ) for the Côte d'Azur, although not by Minnesota standards (-13 degrees ).  So since where I am is 62 degrees higher than where I live, I really can't complain.  Nevertheless I will, it has been cold and rainy for a long time.  I need to see the sun.  In Minnesota this time of year we get a lot of sun.  Of course that is when it is the coldest, but at least it is sunny.  The forecast shows a couple of sunny days in the next week but no temperature above 50 and still plenty of ran.  Happily as I finish this blog, the sun is shinning although it is just 46 degrees with a high forecasted of 48, but tomorrow looks nice.

Despite the weather, we have had a couple of adventures that made us smile and one that makes us sad.  First, there is a new creperie in Villefranche, Chez les Gourmands, and it is close to our apartment.  It is just one year old and run by a nice woman who greets you, answers your questions, takes your order, cooks the crepes, serves them, clears your place and wishes you well as you leave.  We have been there three times now.   Here is the review I wrote on Trip Advisor:

    My wife and I stopped here for lunch today. It had been recommended to us by friends so we were not         surprised to find  a wonderful spot for a casual lunch. It is very small and the owner/waitress/chef             made us feel very welcome. The menu consists mainly of galettes (buckwheat crepes) with various             cheese, ham, eggs, etc. as well as omelettes, plus sweet crepes with a variety of fun fillings like                 bananas, chocolate sauce and whipped cream or simple ones like salted butter and sugar. They have            wine, a wide variety of teas, coffee and soft drinks as well. I had a galette with emmenthal, ham and         mushrooms. My wife had a ham and cheese galette. Both were served with a small amount of lettuce         with a very nice vinaigrette. We each had a glass of wine. For dessert I had a crepe with bananas,                 chocolate sauce and whipped cream. My wife had just the basic salted butter and sugar. We finished         with a coffee. Everything was great!! The total bill  was 44 euros, and we left a 4 euro tip. We will             certainly return to this restaurant.

                                     A galette with ham and cheese and a small salad that is very healthy.   

                                              

                                                                                                                                                                       While the two above are not healthy.

The next adventure was sad.  One of our favorite reasons to go to Nice was to go to a very small casual restaurant called "Oliviera".  It was run by a Palestinian who has lived in France for a long time.  Here is a review I wrote on Trip Advisor several years ago:

    My wife and I had lunch here on a Wednesday in February. We were strolling around the old town of         Nice and happened upon this wonderful restaurant and olive oil store. The owner spoke perfect English     but as soon as we spoke in French, he asked which language we preferred. He was the chef as well as         chief olive oil salesman. He was happy to tell us as much as we wanted to know about the various             olive oils as well as the various dishes on the menu. He was a perfect host. The interior of the                     restaurant is casual but charming. The menu changes but has clearly labeled vegetarian and meat                 dishes. We split two dishes. We started with Aubergine Oliviera. It was chopped eggplant, cheese,             olive oil and other delights that was served with slightly roasted red peppers in olive oil and could             be put on some of the fabulous warm baguette that was on the table. Next we had the Lasagne                     Butternut. I have never had such perfect lasagne. The pasta was great. In addition to the small cubes of         butternut squash, there were cranberries, spinach, cheese. Notwithstanding the ingredients it was light         and you could taste and savor each flavor. We had a total of three glasses of wine and coffees at the             end. The total including tip was 70 euros. A great price for such a wonderful meal and experience.

Unfortunately, a combination of his age, health and Trump's tariffs forced him to retire.  Most of his olive oil sales were to the US.  He was anxious about his retirement because much of his life revolved around his restaurant and olive oil business.  We were able to secure a reservation the next to last day he was open.  We shared the restaurant with other regulars.  I wrote about the conversations we had with some of the other diners that day here.  It was a sad ending of an era.  Here we are saying goodbye to the owner and the chef.

The third adventure shows how some good things can endure.  You probably remember the 2017 Women's March that featured the Pussyhat.

We were in Villefranche at the time, and Jane wanted to knit Pussyhats.  We went online to find a knitting shop in Nice to buy the yarn and other supplies.  We found Aux Belles Laines (Beautiful Wool).  They had lots of beautiful yarns to choose from and were very helpful.

To make a long story short, we are expecting a new grandchild in a few days.  Despite the five-year gap between our soon to be second youngest grandchild and our soon to be new grandchild and increasingly arthritic hands, Jane is determined to knit a sweater for our new grandchild just as she has for all the others.  So off to our favorite knitting store in Nice, we went.  We found great yarn and some needles.  The sales clerk also helped us find a pattern in a catalogue, but rather than make us buy the pattern, she told us to take a picture.  We now have all we need to create a new sweater.  It is just the execution that we have yet to accomplish.  In this awful time when our hometown, country and world are falling apart, it made us feel good to see that there are still stores and people who are there when you need something.

Here are a couple examples of grandchild sweaters:

He will be 13 in a few years.

She is now 5.5 years old.

There are three other sweaters in existence, but they are so old I don't have access to the photos today.

Between the time, I started to write this blog and finished it, the Trump fascist goons have murdered a second innocent person in our city, they are lying about what happened, demanding that we believe their words rather than our own eyes and are defaming the victim, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, just as they did to Renee Nicole Good.  All the members of the Trump administration from Trump on down as well as all the Republican sycophants in Congress and all Americans who sit by and watch this fascist takeover or our country are complicit in all that Trump is doing including murdering innocent people.

Resist!

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer - Winter 2026 - 1

 Dear Friends,

We arrived here on January 1, two weeks ago tomorrow.  We were delayed 3 hours leaving Minneapolis, arrived in Amsterdam 3.5 hours late, missed our connection and arrived in Nice 5 hours late.  But we arrived and were happy for it.  We were both sick when we left Minneapolis and are just now starting to cough less.  We hope to be at full strength soon.  

It has been colder than usual here, but in the last few days the weather has significantly improved.  Today the skies are a beautiful blue, there is a slight breeze, the temperature is officially 58 degrees, but with the warm sun it feels warmer.

Nevertheless, we are heartsick about what is taking place in the US and particularly in our home of Minneapolis.  We feel detached from the reality that our children, grandchildren and other family and friends are experiencing.  We don't want to be there, but feel that we should be.

The conversations that we have had recently with strangers reflects the broad range of views of what is happening.  The other evening we had a discussion with a Brit who lives in France now that was very difficult for us.  We did not know him.  He was clearly anti-immigrant regardless of where they were migrating from and where they were migrating to.  He claimed that England had become "Muslimized".  We were not sure what that meant, but it was clear that he felt that Muslims who had immigrated to England were ruining the country.  He may have missed the irony that he was an immigrant as well having immigrated from England to France.  But privileged white men often miss the irony of their positions.  Of course, he was clear that immigrants were destroying the US, a feeling that I am sure the native Americans would agree with now as they did over four centuries ago.  

Our conversation with strangers yesterday was entirely different.  We were having lunch at one of our favorite casual restaurants in Nice.  The owner is Palestinian and very familiar with the United States.  This is the last week for his restaurant and olive oil selling business.  The US tariffs have had a huge negative impact on his business, and he is of the age where he certainly deserves to retire.  Most, if not all the people in the restaurant were long-term customers like us and were sad to see the end of this restaurant and olive oil store.

We and two other tables were leaving all at the same time and all wanted photos with the owner and the chef.  One family was from France.  They spoke beautiful French but also perfect unaccented English.  The other table was a couple from Switzerland whose French was passable, like ours, and whose English was good.  I suspect that German was their native tongue.   While the languages were varied, the sentiment was the same - Trump is destroying the world.  In a conversation full of English and French, we each enumerated our complaints about Trump.  The others were all very sympathetic when they learned that we were from Minneapolis.  It seems that most everybody here now has heard of Minneapolis and Minnesota.  The Swiss woman was really upset that Trump was heading to Davos.  We asked her to please keep him in Switzerland.  She did not want him.

The Côte d'Azur is a very conservative part of France.  While most of the expats and non-French people we know who visit here for several months a year are liberal, there are also those with whom we will never agree.  When your world view is based on us v. them, black v. white, immigrant v. native, etc. compared with we are all human beings, it seems impossible to find any significant common ground.

Thank you for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal