Today we went on an excursion to Antibes. It is, in fact, easy to get to Antibes from Villefranche because you just take the train without any changes or transfers. We, of course, made it a little more exciting.
The train station in Villefranche no longer has a person in residence. You buy your tickets from a machine, one on each side of the tracks. You must also "compost" your ticket, that is to say put it in a machine that puts a date and time stamp on it to show that you have used it. If you are caught on the train without a composted ticket you are in big trouble. To help out, the machines can be used in several languages including english. We indicated that we were starting in Villefranche, that we were going to Antibes, that we wanted a return ticket, and that we were not entitled to any special discounts. I then inserted my credit card, first in the wrong slot and then in the correct one but by that time the machine was mad at me for putting it in the wrong slot. So I pushed every button labeled any variation of annul. The machine refused to relinquish my credit card, and we could not get a good enough hold on it to pull it out. We were trying to take the 10:13 train and the next one wasn't until 11:13 and of course we had not allowed enough time for any problems to occur. At this point panic struck and I yanked the credit card really hard and to my amazement it came out. I then went through the entire sequence again, happy that nobody was waiting behind me as there is only one machine. We got our tickets, immediately composted them and the train arrived about a minute later.
We found nice seats on the upper deck and settled in for the 40 minute ride. About half way a conductor appeared to check tickets. We were overjoyed to be able to show him our validly purchased and composted tickets. The man in front of us was not so lucky. He had no ticket. At first he pretended he didn't speak french, but the conductor switched to english. The conductor was not happy. The man had to pay 50 euros for his ticket, ours were 6.
From the train station, it is just a short walk to the marina for the small boats. It was quite a picture with the snow capped mountains in the background.
We wandered through the old town and came across a butcher shop. We read the sign in french first and were surprised that the english sign did not translate it directly. Can you spot the difference?
The correct translation of the first line below the logo is beef - horse - pork - veal - lamb. You can see that the butcher does not want english speakers to know that they can buy horse meat in this shop.
We proceeded to the Picasso Museum which is in an old castle right on the water where he had had a studio. While I am not much of a fan of his later works, I can always find something to like in his earlier periods. In any case the view from the terrace facing the Mediterranean is wonderful.
The museum was also nice enough to place a couple of eyes for a backdrop for a photo of my wonderful ophthalmologist and wife.
We returned to Villefranche on the train without incident. I should note in case it escaped you that the weather is perfect here as are the colors.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
