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

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

 

Villefranche-sur-mer Fall 2022 - 2 The Saturday Market

 Dear Friends,

Today was the last Saturday market for us for this stay.  We go to this market each Saturday to provision for the week ahead and to enjoy the ambience.  There are stands that sell fresh vegetables, cheeses, charcuterie, flowers, paella, roasted chickens, olive oil, tapenades of all sorts, flowers, clothes, jewelry, etc.   We are so used to going there that we forget to take pictures, so you will have to be content with the "after" pictures.  

In addition to the market itself, we take the opportunity to stock up on other necessities.  By the time we are done, we are laden down with supplies.  Fortunately, the market is at the l'Octroi level so we walk uphill to get there and then it is all downhill once we are loaded down.

Upon arrival at our apartment, I look like this.

The wine and milk are in the backpack, the fresh meat is in the small bag in front, the TP and fragile vegetables are in the maroon bag in front and everything else is in the white sack on the side.  Once inside the door, it is only 36 stairs to get to our apartment.  

I should be as strong as a mule and have calves like watermelons.  Here are photos of the goods from each of our stops.  The first stop was for fresh vegetables.

All that for just about 12 euros, and she threw in a little parsley to add taste and color to our meals.

Our next stop was the charcutier/fromager.  Today we just bought some ham because we bought way too much cheese last week.  We can't help ourselves because it all looks so good.

It is just sliced ham, but it is really good, and it comes with a big smile and an attempt to sell us multiple other things.  We have learned (sort of) not to fall for buying more than we need.  

Those were the only two stops at the market today.  Normally we would have bought a few roses or other cut flowers, but we forgot.

We went to the "Petit Casino" which is a chain of grocery stores.  There are two in Villefranche, both of which are quite small, but that is where we get necessities such as everyday wine, milk, eggs, TP, creme fraîche, etc.  Here are the results of this trip.

The white wine is one we often buy, but the red wine is a new one for us.  The name "La Chasse" means the hunt.  Unfortunately, it is also a word used to say flush the toilet - tirer la chasse.  In this case we hope it is referring to the hunt.

There is a wonderful artisan, organic baker who is open only on certain days, including market days.  He doesn't have baguettes, but he has many other wonderful bakery items.  His loaves of bread are too big for us to use up before they go bad.  He kindly cuts the loaf in two so that we have just what we need.

He told us the secret to keeping his bread fresh for several days.  You keep it in the brown bag he gives you, wrap it in a dish towel and keep it in the refrigerator.  While the crust gets quite hard after 4 days, the inside is still very good.

Next stop is Picard Surgeles.  It is an amazing chain of frozen food stores.  Everything that we have had from this store is great even though it is frozen.  We still prefer fresh, but we always need ice cream and frozen berries for breakfast.  Today we threw in a frozen provençal vegetable casserole.

We wish that Picard would expand to the US.

Our last stop today was the butcher.  He is closed Sunday afternoon and Mondays so we try to buy a couple of dinners from him on Saturday.  We like him and his meats, but we also often walk to Beaulieu (2 miles each way) to go to Les Halles a wonderful butcher there.  Today we got chicken breasts and a big pork chop.

We have a gas grill on our balcony, so we will grill these.  It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

We love to eat out, but with produce and meats like these, staying home for dinner is really enjoyable.  Oh and in case you are wondering what we will do for the rest of the day.  Well, I will spend some time sitting on the balcony reading.

 Then we will take a walk on the beach and a swim in the ocean.  The high today is mid-70s, full sun and a slight breeze.

This is the view of the beach from our balcony.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer 2022 - 6 A Dinner Party

 Dear Friends,

During the time that we have been coming to Villefranche, we have met many wonderful people whom we are lucky to call our friends.  Even though we have a healthy fear of COVID, we try to meet with these friends outside or in small groups.  The other day, we had a dinner party to which we invited 4 friends.  We had a wonderful time.  

One of the fun parts of having a dinner party is planning, buying the food for and cooking the dinner.  Readers of this blog may remember an ill-fated dinner party a couple of years ago that is now universally referred to as the flying chicken dinner party when I let the chicken provençal fly out of the oven and onto the floor.  That history is recorded here.  Since this was our first dinner party since the fly chicken dinner party, we wanted it to be successful.

After planning the meal, we headed to Nice to do the shopping.  Our first stop was the Cours Saleya.  It is a wonderful market in Nice, known for its produce as well as flowers.

The only problem is which of the many stands, you should buy from.  They are all fantastic.  If you try to figure out which one has the best tomatoes that day at the best price and then who has the best artichokes at the best price and then who has the best raspberries at the best price, you will go crazy.  Unlike the much smaller Saturday market in Villefranche where we go every Saturday and have our favorite vendors, we are just occasional visitors to Cours Saleya, so we have no favorite vendors.  You really cannot go wrong.

After we got all the produce we needed, we headed off to find cheeses for the cheese course.  We came upon a fromagerie that we think was fairly new because we had not seen it before.  

The owner was very welcoming and professional.  He took time with us, both by speaking French all the time and by explaining our different choices.  We told him we wanted three cheeses for a cheese course.  He suggested a creaming cow cheese (Saint Félicien fermier lait cru), a less creamy chèvre (Rouelle) and a hard cheese (comté).  We also got some roquefort too because you can't really stop in a cheese shop and not get some roquefort.  Here is a photo of the owner explaining our choices to us.

Our next stop was a wine shop.  There is plenty of wine for sale in Villefranche but no real wine shop.  So we stopped at a Nicolas shop in Nice.  It is a chain wine shop in France, but very good.

I know something about French wines, but I have no idea about which vineyard, etc.  The person who helped us was perfect, he understood what we wanted, didn't try to sell us anything grossly expensive and spoke french too.  We got some champagne that was bottled under the Nicolas name.  It was great.  We then got some Chablis and some red Burgundy.  Both were on sale which put them in our price range.  All of them were great.  It is so nice when the people helping you are trying to get you what you want and can afford.  

That concluded our shopping for Nice.  We were hungry, and it was close to lunch time, so we decided to have a quick lunch at Chez Papa, one of our favorites for lunch in Nice.  Unfortunately, it was closed; but as is often the case there is a suitable alternative nearby.   We saw Posto 17 just down the block and thought we would give it a try.

They weren't quite open yet, but the owner welcomed us.  The only menu for food was on the blackboard.  You can see the prices are quite reasonable.

Jane and I each ordered the rigatoni sauce tomate maison - burrata.  It was perfect for a quick lunch.  When Jane asked him what was in the homemade tomato sauce, he almost gave her the entire recipe.

There was a separate menu for drinks.  I only include it here because from time to time we come across translations or the use of English words that are not quite right.  If you look under Cocktails, the next to the last drink is "Sex on the Beatch".  We thought that was a unique spelling.

Jane finished with a noisette (espresso with a small amount (a nut) of milk).  At this restaurant it came with a small cookie which served to keep the drink warm - another cute touch.

We felt a little like pack horses as we made our way home.  When we arrived we were faced with the issue of where to put everything that we had acquired.

We found room for everything although the refrigerator was overflowing.

All of that shopping was on a Sunday.  The party was Monday night.  On Monday morning, we headed to Beaulieu to get the chicken.  Yes, we were trying chicken again, but this time it was chicken Lucia on the grill with less chance of flying chicken.  The final stop on for our shopping was at our favorite boulangerie, Chez Marie-Claire.  Chez Marie-Claire is not far from our apartment.  She has of course bread, baguettes and pastries.  But she also has wine, eggs, butter and sandwiches.  Here is a picture of Marie-Claire as she was packaging the cake we had bought for the party.

The cake was absolutely beautiful, but we forgot to take a picture of it.  The taste of the cake was even better than its beautiful presentation.  This picture of the last piece shows what a perfect cake it was.  

The crust is a light chocolate graham cracker.  The light brown filling is a chocolate pots de creme (only lighter than what we usually make), the next comes a thin layer of something like blueberry syrup that is the consistency of jam, followed by a layer of a light, fluffy layer of blueberry pots de creme and a top layer of blueberry icing.  The great thing was that all the calories had been removed.

We finished the meal with a small glass of "menthe".  The best way to describe what we refer to as menthe is to think of limoncello only made with mint.  Our favorite local restaurant here, Le Serre, offers limoncello after dinner, but sometimes if Marie has had a good crop of mint, Sylvie will turn it into menthe.  Fortunately for us Marie had a good crop of mint, so we were able to buy a bottle of menthe from her to serve at the dinner party.  While we made a pretty good dent in it we did not finish it off so we can have some for ourselves from time to time.

                                                       

In the end a good time was had by all, and thankfully our French lesson for Tuesday morning was cancelled.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

For the chicken we went to our favorite butcher in Beaulieu.  He is a young man and takes his time with us and is a true butcher.  Unfortunately, I did not get a photo.

The last thing on our list was bread and dessert.  For that we had to go to our favorite baker in Villefranche.  We got a couple of baguettes for the cheese course and a beautiful chocolate and blueberry cake.