Villefranche-sur-mer fall 2021 - 2

 Dear Friends,

When we are in Villefranche, we try to be as French as possible.  There are two metrics that we use to see how successful we are.  So far this trip we are doing pretty well.

The first metric is whether or not people we speak to in French respond in French or in English, particularly in a real conversation.  It doesn't really count if you just say "bonjour", "ça va?" or respond with "ça va et vous?"  So far this trip we have been doing quite well, and today was a super day.  Right before we left Minneapolis Jane got a new glasses prescription but did not have time to get new glasses.  Today we went to the optical shop in Villefranche.  Jane found a pair of frames that she liked, decided on the various add-ons and discussed the prescription in detail with the very nice optician all in French.  He only uttered a couple words of English.  Although the sign on the door said that he spoke English, he clearly preferred to speak French.  I was very proud of Jane. 

 

As an aside, he was a really good optician.  Since Jane is an ophthalmologist, she knows when an optician is really good.  He asked all the right questions.  He showed her in trial frames the difference between her old and new prescriptions, and talked with her about potential changes in the progression based upon how she was reading using the prescription.  I should also say that the price was incredible.  The new frames and the lens with transition to dark in the sun, etc. totaled 508 euros, and they will be ready in less than a week.  So the moral of the story is - if you need new glasses and you want to have them done well for a great price, come to Villefranche.  His shop is right on the main street of Villefranche, Avenue du Maréchal Foch.

Jane is not the only one with a success today (although her's was much bigger than mine).  I went into a store looking for a hat.  It was a tourist store.  After exchanging pleasantries with the owner in French, we proceeded to discuss my head size and the fact that the style of hat that I was looking for was too small for me.  They never once uttered a word of English.  I consider that a victory.

By coincidence, we ran into our French teacher as we were looking for a place to have lunch.  She invited us to join her.  She was waiting for her partner.  Since they are young parents, we were afraid that we were intruding on a nice date that they could have without their children.  She assured us that was not the case so we joined them.  Her partner is also a French teacher.  Needless to say, we spoke French the whole time, and still were able to have a normal conversation.  I wanted to do my best because I wanted her partner to see what a good teacher she is.  So that was another success.

The second metic is doing things that the French who live here do.  In this regard, buying glasses counts as a big victory because it is an everyday, non-touristy thing to do.  In addition, we have now received our first packages from Amazon ordered from amazon.fr versus amazon.com and delivered right to our apartment door.  How much more French can you be then to have Amazon deliver to your apartment in France (even if it is a rented apartment).

I am afraid that despite these recent victories, we are not really fooling anybody that we are French.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer fall 2021 - 1

 Dear Friends,

We are back in Villefranche-sur-mer.  We last left Villefranche on February 29, 2020, not because of COVID but because it was our scheduled departure.  We finally returned last Saturday, October 2, 2021, 19 months later.  I am very happy to report that this wonderful little town has survived the pandemic quite well all things considered.  All of our friends, all of the shops and restaurants that we frequent and all of their employees have survived and are now open.  There are of course even in this paradise anti-vaxxers, but in general the population went along with the stringent confinements imposed by the government.  While in Minnesota, we closed the schools and kept the bars and restaurants open, here they kept the schools open by closing the bars and restaurants and otherwise greatly restricted the ability for the virus to spread.  In addition, the businesses and employees were paid by the government to enable them to survive.

Now things are open, but with restrictions.  In order to go to a restaurant, bar, concert, movie, etc. you must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test.  Our CDC cards work, but I am happy to report that we have now received our pass sanitaire which is a QR code on our phones which proves our vaccinated status.  The system works quite well.  Before we got on the airplane in Minneapolis, we showed our CDC cards.  We never had to show them again to be granted entry into France.  When we have been asked for our pass sanitaire we have shown the CDC cards and have been admitted.  It takes just a few extra seconds.

The rule is that you must be vaccinated to go to a restaurant, bar, etc. and that the establishment is to ask to see your pass sanitaire.  We have only been asked to show our card at one place.  The other places all knew us so did not ask.  You do not need the pass sanitaire for stores.  So you can shop without one, but you must wear a mask.  In this little town that rule is generally followed, although there are a few people who wear their masks below their noses.  We have not yet ventured into Nice so it may be different in a big city.  All in all we feel quite safe here as the number of cases per population is dramatically less than in Minnesota and the rate of vaccination is higher.

So now to make you jealous.  We arrived Saturday at about 1.  It was 75 degrees, sunny and a nice breeze. We immediately donned our bathing suits and headed to the beach.  On the way we stopped at a nice restaurant just at the beginning of the beach called l'Espuma for lunch.  We sat outside, of course.  Here is the view from our table.

For lunch I had a salad with ham, burrata and tomatoes.  It was even better than it looks in the photo.

After our lunch we took a nice swim in the ocean before returning to our apartment to unpack and get ready for dinner.  As it was our first evening, we had dinner at Le Serre, our favorite restaurant.  We were as usual welcomed as old friends and enjoyed a wonderful pizza and salad.

We were a little late getting up on Sunday due to jet lag and went straight to the waterfront for a quick pain au chocolat, yogurt, jus de fruits and café.  

But then it was time to get back to real life, such as it is in paradise.  So we went to the butcher, the regular grocery, the baker and the green grocer to provision.  Here is Jane with the green grocer.  His stall is kind of a dugout so sort of outside.  In this picture he is modeling the mask wearing method which we call "sous le nez" (under the nose) in this case in the extreme.

All of our shopping resulted in a wonderful dinner of steak, vegetables, potatoes, wine and dessert.

On Wednesday, we did not have our french lesson, so we decided to walk to the Villa et Jardins Ephrussi de Rothschild.  here  

It sits on Saint-Jean-cap-Ferrat.  If you look south from the villa across the gardens you see the Mediterranean all the way to Africa.  If you look west, you see the bay of Villefranche, and if you look east you see the bay of Beaulieu.  It is an incredible spot with a fascinating history.  The gardens are different in every season but always beautiful.  

We had lunch outside.  Here is Jane at our table.  

I had my favorite lunch, seared tuna with Chinese noodles.  

It was followed by the raspberry meringue with fresh raspberries.  Sorry in my haste to eat it, I forgot to take a photo.

Unfortunately, we had a sad experience last Tuesday.  We walked to Beaulieu for lunch and some grocery shopping.  We had lunch at our (formerly) favorite lunch place in Beaulieu.  After finishing our very nice lunch, the owner who recognizes us as frequent visitors over the last several years came over to chat. We have chatted before but never about politics.  

We were talking about how France handled the pandemic which led to our saying it was important for the government to take care of all the people as it had in France but unfortunately had not in the US.  After telling us that he only cares about his family, he proceeded to say that all those people from the former French colonies in Africa come to France and take advantage of the system.  He is Italian so he is an immigrant to France.  In addition when he was 13 his family moved to NYC where he spent most of his childhood as an immigrant.  He said that France was being taken over by these immigrants, obviously differentiating between immigrants like him who are white and immigrants from Africa who are black.  He also said that the US was being destroyed by the Mexicans and that soon the US would be a bilingual country (like that would be a bad thing).  His comments were amazingly straight forward and racist.  We were appalled at him as well as at the fact that we didn’t immediately cut him off and leave.

Then it got worse as he gave us his philosophy about why he was not vaccinated.  First, we were amazed that he could run a restaurant in France and not be vaccinate or even have a pass sanitaire.  He claims he never gets sick so why get a vaccination and that his smoking probably helps to prevent him from getting COVID.  His doctor who has not been vaccinated agrees with him.  Obviously, the “you should get vaccinated for the good of others” argument was not going to work.  Jane simply told him that she was a doctor, that his facts were wrong and that he should get vaccinated for himself and his family (he has a wife and three small kids-he is mid 60s).  We wish we had been more forceful and immediately left.  Unfortunately, we let shock and politeness stop us from doing what we should have done.  He was taken aback when Jane told him he should get vaccinated and changed the subject.  

To change the subject he told the story of the  "immaculate reception".  He was just 13 at the time, and he went to his first American football game, cheering for the Steelers.  When Franco Harris made the amazing catch, the crowd went wild and thousands of Italian flags appeared.  He was very pleased to see them.  Then Franco took his helmet off so that it was clear that Franco was black.  He said to himself, "what kind of Italians do they have here?  I need to find another team."  Neither Jane nor I have ever had a conversation with such an overtly racist person.  What a sad and depressing experience.

Anyway, we need to find a new place for lunch in Beaulieu.  It will be particularly difficult for me because after searching all of France, I determined that the best chocolat chaud is at the Gran Café.

Well it is time for our afternoon stroll by the sea.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Villefranche-sur-mer 2020 - 4 Flying Chicken Dinner

Dear Friends,

We have been enjoying our time here in Villefranche as usual.  We have had a couple of unusual adventures, though.  One Saturday, we took a cooking class in Nice from Rosa Jackson.  She has a school in the old town of Nice called, Les Petit Farcis.  She has a variety of courses including many trips.  You can learn more here.

We met Rosa at the Liberation Market.  We had never been there and were blown away by its size and the scope of the food products.  Our goal was to purchase the ingredients for the lunch we were going to make for ourselves (with lots of help from Rosa and her assistant), but we also got a great feel for the market.  We had our choice of many different fish including all of these.

Sea Urchin

Skate Cheeks

Turbo

Sea Bass

We decided on the sea bass, and the seller filleted it for us immediately.

The market also had an incredible assortment of vegetables and herbs.

With our bags and bags of supplies, we took the tram to the old town of Nice where Rosa's kitchen is located.  Everything was ready for us to begin our lesson and our preparations.

We started by preparing the ingredients for the pumpkin soup.

While it was cooking we moved on to preparing the vegetables we would have with the aioli we also made.

Carrots

Turnips

Purple brocoli

Once those were ready to cook, we had to prepare some pancetta for the soup.

The soup tasted even better than it looked, and I think it looked great.

Then it was time for the fish course.

The preparation is easy since it was perfectly filleted when we bought it.  You coat it with coarse salt for 20 minutes, rinse the salt off, dry it, sauté it in olive oil and voilà.

You serve it with the potatoes, vegetables and saffron aioli, and everybody is delighted.

Then comes the cheese course.  The strange thing in the middle of the biggest piece of cheese is a fig.  It was great.

In our spare time as we were preparing the other ingredients, we made a fruit salad to have with the cheesecake we made.  This cheesecake was made with ricotta so it was much lighter, and it had no crust.

What a wonderful day we had.  We learned about how to go to a big market and select ingredients.  We learned how to cook a delicious meal.  We ate a fantastic lunch.  Then we had to go home and take a nap.

Thinking that our market and cooking skills were at their peak, we decided to have a dinner party for some of the friends we have met here over the years.  So we planned the meal carefully - just a small amount of cheese, crackers and olives, followed by roasted chicken with fennel and clementines accompanied by rice, and roasted romanesco and baby tomatoes; and for dessert Montana Mom's Dynamite Cheesecake with fresh berries.

The day of the party arrived.  I had forgotten during the day before that the cheesecake need to rest for 12 hours in the refrigerator before being served.  I made part of it the night before and added the topping at 7 in the morning so it could have the full 12 hours in the refrigerator.

After breakfast we had our detailed shopping list, and many bags to carry things in, so off to Nice we went.  You may know that they are having nationwide strikes over the changes that President Macron wants to make to the retirement plans.  Normally you know a day ahead if the railroad or buses are going to be on strike the next day.  We were relieved when we saw the train running in the morning.  When our bus got us to the Port of Nice, we got off to transfer to the tram.  The first sign of trouble was that people were riding their bikes on the tram roadway.  Well, there was not a strike that day, but there was a protest in the middle of Nice so the tram was not working.  It is a very long walk from the port to the Liberation market so we decided we would go to the Saleya market which is in the old town and only about a 15 minute walk away.  It is also a great market.

As we walked through the old town, we bought some spices and herbs.  Then we added a bottle of champagne and limoncello.  When we got to the market, we added the clementines, fennel, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, lemons, shallots, onions, romanesco and flowers.  On the way back to the bus, we stopped at an incredible cheese store for some wonderful cheeses.  By this time, I was feeling the weight of all our purchases which was confirmed when the cheese guy said I was a pack horse.  However, we weren't done yet.  We still needed the chicken.  So we stopped by one of the better known meat markets.  Now we were fully loaded down for our walk back to the bus.  Fortunately, there were seats on the bus, although with all the bags we were overflowing ours.

Once we arrived home, we set the table.

It looked beautiful even though we had to mix and match some napkins and silverware.  We then prepared the vegetables and the roasted chicken with fennel and clementines.  I even took time to arrange the fennel and clementine slices in an attractive manner in the big pyrex casserole.  The great thing about this chicken dish is that you put it in the oven and take it out 45 minutes later and serve it.  There is no fussing while the guests are looking.

The guests arrived.  One brought some homemade crackers (made from an old baguette) and a paste of squished olives.  Everybody smelled the delicious chicken dish so didn't eat too many hors d'oeuvres.  Finally the time came to serve dinner.  I went to the kitchen, opened the oven door and was very pleased to see that the chicken was nicely browned and the dish looked great.  I pulled the oven rack out part way, admiring my work, when all of a sudden the shelf tipped up and the casserole slide silently but unstoppably to the floor.

Notwithstanding my disappointment and embarrassment, I am proud to say that I did not utter a single bad word.  Our guests enjoyed a terrific vegetarian meal.  We finished off the hors d'oeuvres, and had a nice plate of rice, tomatoes and romanesco.  Our guests were very understanding, but one commented that the rice and vegetables would go great with chicken.  Of course we finished off the meal with the cheesecake.  I have to say it was great cheesecake despite the fact that some of the ingredients called for by the recipe were not available.  We have never found graham crackers in France.  At Jane's suggestion we substituted some ricotta for a third of the cream cheese, making it perfectly light.  Everybody enjoyed it thoroughly.

So all's well that ends well.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal