Villefranche-sur-mer September 2017 - 2

Dear Friends,

As I am typing, I am scratching the sand out of my hair.  The last few days have been unseasonably windy.  During the periods where the wind is strong, they have been sustained force 5 or 6 and today we saw gusts of at least force 7 on the Beaufort scale.  Force 7 requires spray coming off the waves.  Unfortunately a couple of days ago, three boats were lost one in the marina and two in the bay.  One was rescued off the beach with only mild damage but the other two were lost.  Of course this wind is nothing like the hurricanes back home.  Being hit full blast by even a force 7 wind (28-33 knots) is frightening.  I cannot imagine what 185 mph would be like.  Fortunately, the wind generally settles down in the evening so I can enjoy the view of the bay from our balcony.

The wind has kept us from swimming but really nothing else.  Saturday is market day so we spent an hour or so walking among the various vendors of all things from fruits and vegetable to clothes to mattresses.  We did some provisioning for a few days with asparagus, avocados, strawberries, bread, ham and a sundried tomato pâté.  The man who sells the pâté has many types, all of which are great.  Normally, we get more than one kind and then never finish all that we buy so this time we just got the sundried tomato one.

Once we were properly provisioned, we went home for lunch and then decided to walk to Beaulieu (a couple of miles each way).  We said we were going to get some items that are not available in Villefranche like hair gel for Jane's sister, white out to correct the errors in our French homework and shoe inserts.  All of those items plus food, wine and everything else is available at the Super U.  However, before we went to the Super U, we stopped at the Gran Caffe (no I did not misspell it, it is Italian).  In the winter I have a chocolat chaud because it is probably the best in the world although when we go to Paris we will try the chocolat chaud at Angelina which some people say is the best.  We will see.  But this time Jane had chocolat chaud which was not at its best (not thick enough), and I had un verre de rosé and a delicious sugar cookie with chocolate.  I suspect the chocolat chaud was not up to par because it is out of season, and it is unfair to describe the cookie I had as a sugar cookie, but you will have to travel to Beaulieu to see for yourselves.  The wind was still disrupting the beach in Villefranche when we walked home.  You can see the waves crashing into the beach chairs and umbrellas.

Saturday night we were invited to have dinner with our French tutor and her family.  She has two children ages 2 and 4.  The 4 year old is within a month of our youngest grandchild.  It was fun to talk with them in French as their French was only slightly better than ours.  Our tutor and her partner were perfect host and hostess, and we had a great time and a wonderful meal.  We spoke both French and English, but I have to admit by the end of the evening we were tired and speaking exclusively English.  We will long remember the wonderful evening and their warm hospitality.

Today, we slept in and after breakfast headed to St-Jean-Cap Ferat for lunch.  The walk takes us along  the bay for Beaulieu past the house that used to belong to David Niven.  On the landward side of the walking path, you pass villas of the really, really, really rich; and on the seaside you see yacht after huge yacht anchored in the bay.  In the marina are the smaller boats of 150 feet and under.

There are restaurants lining the marina.  Fortunately the marina was in the lee so the wind was not constant, but the gusts swirled around and knocked signs and menus over with some regularity.  We chose a restaurant that had a menu we liked and a table in the shade.  They were very busy and warned us that it would be slow and it was.  But what did we care, it was a beautiful day, and we could look out over the marina full of beautiful boats or up at the hills behind Beaulieu and see the very tall bridge leading to Eze.

So about three hours later we began our walk home.  The full impact of the wind hit us as we were walking by the beach in Villefranche and a gust hit us from behind.  Fortunately it was from behind because I think the sand would have blinded us, and we would have fallen off the sea wall, if it had hit us straight on.  The good news is despite the big wind and swells coming into the bay all the boats seem to be holding, but we are very happy that we are in our apartment and not bobbing around in a sailboat in the harbor.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer v.8

Dear Friends,

We continue to enjoy our life in Villefranche.  Today's post covers a variety of topics with no particular connection except that they are all part of our wonderful adventure.

First of course we must discuss food.  Unwittingly we have been sampling the wide variety of salade de chèvre chaud available in the various restaurants in and around Villefranche.  There are several ingredients that are essential to une salade chèvre chaud - lettuce (your choice of variety), small pieces of bread and of course warm goat cheese.  Beyond that, do what you will.  Here are three examples of salade chèvre chaud that we have had since we arrived in Villefranche.

The one above is, I think, my favorite.  It is from La Grignotière.  In addition to the required ingredients, it has red onion, that wonderful mustard vinaigrette dressing and the best part, pesto on top of the warm goat cheese.  The toast in this salad was perfect.  The bread had not been toasted when the chèvre was put on it.  The toasting occurred at the same time as the cheese was heated.  The bread under the cheese is not toasted at all, and the rest of the bread is golden brown but still soft.

The next one is from La Taverne d'antan in Eze.  The special ingredient for this salad is that there is really good syrupy balsamic vinegar heavily drizzled over the warm goat cheese.

The last one is my least favorite, but it was also the least expensive.  It comes from Les Palmiers.

As you can see there is less cheese and lots more lettuce.  Nevertheless, it had three special ingredients - walnuts, honey and lardons, all of which added great taste.

But we have not just been eating.  We also had a great adventure last Wednesday.  We decided that we would visit the ancient hilltop town of Eze.  It is a tourist heaven and generally priced accordingly, but for some reason nobody goes there in January so many of the art galleries and restaurants are closed.  Our adventure began when we decided that we would rent a car for the day.  We could technically have visited Eze by bus, but they run every hour and 10 minutes or so, and we could only have visited Eze.  We reserved a rental car online on Tuesday night.  Wednesday morning we took the bus to Nice to the port and changed to the tram to get close to the car rental place and walked there.  They had our reservation and our car.  In a mixture of French and English we got all the instructions and started our trip to Eze.  To make my life easier, I took the way I knew rather than the most direct route.  As a result we had a wonderful drive along the coast.  We stopped at one point to take in the view.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day and the sea was quite tranquil.  You can also tell that the land rises very quickly from the sea.  We arrived at Eze without any problems.

The plan shows the area of the old city which was started sometime in the 1200s.  Only pedestrians are permitted.  It is quite a climb to the top but well worth it because of the views.  Also there is a wonderful cactus garden there.

It is a beautiful old town with narrow streets and surprises at every corner.  The best part for us is that in January it is virtually deserted.  The cactus garden is wonderful because of all the amazing varieties of cacti.  Here is one that we liked because it represents the renewal of life.

Since the top is about 700 meters above the sea, the views are spectacular.

This picture is looking back along the coast toward Nice which you can see very faintly in the distance.  The first point that goes out quite far is Cap Ferat.  It is the point that separates Beaulieu from Villefranche.  The second point is Cap de Nice which separates Villefranche from Nice.  Hence these two caps form the natural harbor at Villefranche.

After walking around (more like up and down) Eze, we drove to another picturesque hilltop town, La Tourbie, which is about 650 meters above the sea.  The road from Eze to La Tourbie is really great if you love switchbacks and narrow roads on cliffs.  The views are also fantastic.  We thought we might see the Roman ruins, but it being January they were closed.  Nevertheless, we got a picture.

We drove back to Nice and since we had come from La Tourbie, we arrived in a different part of Nice.  Amazingly enough we filled the car with diesel, found the car rental place and returned the car with no damage to us or it.  We had a great day.

In addition to walking along the sea and up and down hills, I get my exercise playing patétanque (aka boule) once a week on Saturday mornings with a bunch of expats.  We are not very good nor are we anywhere as serious as the French are, but we have fun.  A very important part of our game is kibitzing.  The game is simple to understand but difficult to play well.  A player draws a circle in the sand to stand in and throws a light small ball (la chochonnet) which then becomes the target.  The team with one of its balls nearest la chochonnet gets a point for each ball that is closer than any of the other team's balls.

The guy in the foreground with the small green ball (la chochonnet) in his hand is the only French person in the group.  This group included 2 from the US, 1 Australian, 1 Scotsman and 1 Canadian in addition to the sole Frenchman.  This picture is from last week when only one woman came and she came late.  This week the group was expanded by 3 women (2 French and 1 Canadian) and the Scotsman was replaced by another American male.

After Pétanque, Jane and I went to the Saturday market where we bought some beautiful tulips, some homemade soup, two wonderful homemade tapenade type toppings, one was made with tomatoes and one with onions.  That same guy also makes his own olive oil, so we got some of that as well.  We then took a long walk along the sea before having lunch outside where we (and everybody else) were serenaded by a guitar and fiddle duo playing swing music.  

When we returned to our apartment, we understood yet another difference between January in Minnesota and January in Villefranche.  Here is the view from our balcony when we returned.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal