Maggi and I had to entertain ourselves from the time Mel left on 23 August until Gill, Mark, Jane and Garry who arrived on 2nd September. Some of the time we spent putting together and refining the web site locallives.uk, but we did also get out and about a fair bit.
On the Saturday August 24th we lunched out a Villeneuve-Loubet at Au Garcon Boucher. The sort of place you wouldn’t mind going to if you lived locally, but you wouldn’t make a detour for. After lunch we wandered back to the car and watched the boules players. They were incredibly friendly and approached us to chat and shake hands. I think if I had boules with me I would have joined in.
Funnily enough, unlike bowls in England the game attracts players of all ages.
On Sunday the 25th we drove up to St Jeannet and walked around the old village which is sat on the side of the Baou De St Jeannet. The weather throughout this period drove Maggi insane. She found the heat overbearing.
Everyday the thermometer hit 33º C. Desperate for a drink after our short tour of the village we sat down at the noisy local cafe and found it run but two surly women. We did get a drink but it wasn’t served with any care.
Monday 26th
We embarked on our trip to Italy to the small town of Taggia a couple of miles from the coast and no more than 1 hour from La Colle. Our objective to buy some oil to bring back to the UK. We found the shop recommended by Madeleine and Tom and bought 4 litres and stiffed it in the car. We then had a short walk around Taggia which needs a lot of tender loving care.
Whilst in the olive oil shop we asked the manager to suggest a local fish restaurant. She recommended La Lanterna in Riva Liguire situated down at the coast from Taggia.
We found the restaurant easily, but parking in the small town of Riva Liguire is not easy. We wandered around for awhile until we found a road with 3 parking places together. Joy!!.
La Lanterna had not properly opened when we arrived. The family sat eating their lunch time meal and asked us to wait until they had finished.That presented no problems for us because we were just happy to escape from the midday sun. We had a very tasty but simple meal in this taverna. The local fish in a white wine broth brightened up my taste buds. While we ate our lunch a few locals came in and had a starter, a pasta dish and a main course. We left full and happy after only two courses. We have become weak in our old age.
Tuesday 27th
A trip to Nice and we end up having lunch at the socca bar in the middle of the old town. Even though we arrived around 1:30 the queue to order your food still stretched back 50 yards. It took about 40 minutes before we received our food. In addition to the socca you can order platefuls of fish and vegetarian dishes. As usual we over ordered and I felt full at the end.
I won’t go again, while the socca tastes good and is very fresh everything else associated with the dinning experience is poor, long queues, uncomfortable seats, bland uninteresting side dishes.
Wednesday 28th
I felt grotty and lethargic all day and loafed around the house being miserable. I was sorry I wasn’t making life much fun for Maggi.
Thursday 29th
Now that I felt better we decided to take a trip up into the hills to visit Cipières. Maggi thought she had visited the village before with Adam. When I arrived at the heart of the commune I realised that I had been before with Harry a few years ago. We wanted to have a coffee and spoke to a couple of the natives who said, ‘no chance’, which disappointed us.
We continued our tour around this pretty little village. We wondered what jobs people do who live in such a remote spot. It certainly isn’t a tourist destination,
We did pop into the only restaurant in town to ask about a coffee. Brusquely the owners said no.
From the village we headed towards Gourdon where we stopped for a quick coffee at the Auberge du Gourdon. By this time we started to get hungry and began to think about places to eat. I suddenly remembered the Jasmins restaurant in Bar-sur-Loup so we headed that way.
They had places and a very reasonable priced lunch time menu. I started with the treat of their recommended cocktail and we had our best meal of the holiday so far.
The setting, overlooking the valley of the Loup, the service and the food, all at a very affordable price make this the food highlight of our trip.
Friday to Sunday
Quiet nondescript days, including a disappointing trip into Nice a short drive to Villeneuve-Loubet Plage. One highlight came when we discovered Grand Frais, a place to shop for food. For so long we have used the local Leclerc to buy all our food and domestic items. However, it’s always busy, takes ages to get through checkout, parking can be difficult and leaves your car in the boiling sun. Grand Frais on the other hand, located perhaps a mile further from the house, has good food and parking is underground and there has never been a problem checking out.