An 8:30 taxi pickup meant no crazy early morning rush. We arrived at Terminal 5 at just gone 9 for a 11:30 flight. BA had sent me an email containing a new service. You remind them of your flight no and they tell you your gate number. Well it worked correctly the first time, we’ll see how it performs into the future.
A ¾ hour delay meant we arrived in Nice later than we expected. We drove straight to Leclerc in a car that Maggi hasn’t stopped complaining about since she first saw it. According to her size matters, and this gigantic vehicle affronts her.
Once we completed the shopping we climbed the hill in this very large automobile emptied the contents of bread, additional shopping and our luggage. Maggi cooked a very competent mushroom risotto with a salad. We had been grumpy with each other all day.
I turned the telly on to find that we couldn’t receive BBC 1 or 4 despite having paid €150 to an engineer to reposition our satellite aerial following a storm earlier this year.
When he presented the bill he clearly stated that reception would be erratic and we needed a larger dish in order to receive reliable coverage for all channels. I think the days of satellite to are numbered. We need to switch to reception via the internet. Let’s see what we can do. I don’t want to pay €1000 for a larger dish.
I watched a part of Newcastle’s 4-1 victory over PSG before I fell asleep. I went to bed at more or less halftime. Maggi had retired 40 minutes previously.
Rubbish moving
We had arranged for Ben to come over to help us take the rubbish from our second bedroom down to the dump. He arrived just after 9. He had previously threatened to appear at 8 am. The earlier time would have been embarrassing as I didn’t wake up until quarter to 8.
Anyway we managed to fill up Ben’s van and drive to the dump and get the whole process finished by 10:30.
For the first time that I can remember I came back to the house and took off my work clothes and did some yoga from Adrienne. Normally that if I don’t do my yoga exercises directly after breakfast then I don’t do them at all. Today, was, therefore a big exception.
A bit more messing around the house and then a quick salad lunch before heading off to Leclerc to buy a few provisions for the evening meal. On the way back we popped into the local garden centre where we bought a small begonia and plumbago. Maggi planted these in the evening while I had a short siesta.
We ate the prawns we had purchased earlier in a sauce with courgettes and rice. The meal was excellent. A bit of fruit for pudding and then some 70% dark chocolate that I didn’t like.
After clearing up the dinner stuff I sat outside in the cool night air enjoying sitting on the balcony, something I would never dream of doing at home.
A short trip to Italy
After we had nipped up to Gamm Vert where we bought 3 plants and some earth I had a quick dip in the pool.
Madeleine and Tom arrived in order to take us to the small village of Dolceacqua. The village is just north of Ventimiglia and is probably best know because Monet came here and drew a picture of both the ancient castle and bridge.
We enjoyed a very pleasant lunch at CasaeBottega. It surprised me that Tom had the vegetarian menu, it even shocked Madeline. I started with an egg and Gorgonzola dish that was brilliantly tasty, a combination of the smooth egg and the tart like cheese worked perfectly. My main course consisted of salt cod and a gazpacho of red fruits. This dish was too sweet for me, although it was well executed. I finished the meal off with the traditional tiramisu which thoroughly enjoyed. I’m sure the Casa E Bottega far outshines all the other restaurants in Dolceacqua.
The village itself had many visitors, most of them had arrived by coach so you’d find a group of Germans, following a band of Dutch, all crossing the ancient bridge in single file.
We walked up the back streets after our lunch and passed an old man sitting in his workshop stripping eucalyptus branches suitable to be exported to Holland. The scent of the leaves drifting out from his room sent shivers through me. No wonder Koala Bears want to eat the leaves all the time. I guess their breath smells wonderful. From our exporter we walked on and back down to the river where we watched a digger machine clamber down the river and then proceed to move stones and vegetation around in some kind of random order that was difficult to understand. We left him to it after watching for about 15 minutes.
The journey back proceeded without any incident. Madeleine and Tom dropped us off at our house. They had a beer, well Tom did, and looked at the updates we had made and then left us to mess around for the rest of the evening. I must say I enjoyed the day.
I do think that Madeleine is over egging her bad leg and taking a crutch with her whenever she walks anywhere. I noticed a few times that she walked without the need for any support. Perhaps when we next see them, some time in December or January she will have jettisoned the stick and will be back to walking normally.
Saturday 7 Oct
Now that I have confidence that I can do my yoga after first thing in the morning it has opened up new opportunities. This morning we rose fairly late and then went straight out to Leclerc. We left the shop by 9:15. It meant we completed our shopping and didn’t have to spend our time in a massive queue.
From Leclerc we popped into the nearby garden centre and Maggi bought another plumbago.
Back to La Colle where there we had time for yoga and the remainder of our ablutions. A bit more messing around and then off to try and buy a new rug for the kids room at Habitat in Antibes.
We found Habitat about to close down. I’m not sure if the company is folding like its UK namesake or whether only this store will disappear. As I entered I looked up to see a quote from Terence Conran about beauty and usefulness. Perhaps a chain of stores based on the creativity of one man will never survive the death of the founder.
We did buy a couple of things in the adjacent Decathalon. I picked up a new pair of walking trousers and Maggi bought some yoga pants.
We then drove to Villeneuve-Loubet and stopped off at Park Vaugrenier which is between Antibes and V-L. From there we drove on to our favourite car park for a swim. Luckily we found a parking place and spent 90 minutes on the beach. Swimming in the sea felt exhilarating. The temperature had dropped since we last swam here back in early September. In one way it made the experience of swimming in the cooler waters much better. There is obviously a limit to the drop in temperature that makes swimming enjoyable.
We came back to the house and spent a normal evening watching, Manchester United scramble a victory. Following that England just scrapped past Samoa in the World Cup and finally Ireland thumped Scotland.