Tuesday 24 May 2022
The four guys turned up round lunchtime and we all walked down to St Eloi for lunch. As we didn’t arrive until 1:15 we didn’t need to book. I invariably choose the dish of the day, except, when it’s chicken, but they had sold out. Instead I selected the “cheval” which raised a few eyebrows in the party. Everyone else picked the hamburger option.
After lunch messed around at the house and in the evening we eat out at our summer kitchen. In the middle of the meal a downpour struck.
In the picture above you can see me sweeping the water off the yawning. I worried wether the weight of the rain would damage our new covering for the summer kitchen. The mobile roof held up well, but the quantity of rain that settled on the yawning amazed me. The storm didn’t last all evening and good time was had by all.
Wednesday 25 May 2022
As all our guests enjoy a walk we planned a major march for the Wednesday of their visit. We drove to Le Bar sur Loup and parked. We intended to walk long the side of the gorges of the Loup until we reached the Chemin de Paradis. However, my guiding let me down and we followed the road to the Chemin. One can only describe the Chemin de Paradis as a steep climb. It leads to Gourdon where we wanted to each lunch at the Auberge du Gourdon.
When we arrived at the village we found the restaurant closed. We tried another nice restaurant but that was also closed and so we ended up at the top of the village at a joint where we had eaten before. Our previous visit had left us disappointed. However, there seemed no other choice. Anyway I along with 3 others ate very rare beef brochette.
Naturally we all found the descent much easier. We hd to take shelter along the way as another heavy shower hit us. We waited for about 15 minutes under a overhanging rock until Matt decided it was time to leave. Like sheep we all followed him and were thoroughly drenched within a couple of minutes.
Another very pleasant afternoon in the pool and a snack in the evening in the summer kitchen.
Thursday 26 May 2022
While Helen made a work call for one of her boards the rest of us walked to St Paul de Vence. It’s not terrible far but does involve several steep rises and falls. On our way a passing stranger suggested a route that was not as precipitous. We took his advice, but it meant walking along the main road, which was not as pleasant as we would have liked.
When we arrived we were all desperate to have a drink so we immediately sat down in the Cafe de la Place.
The cafe is such a good place to people watch as well as have a drink. At this time of year St Paul is so busy with tourists that there is a constant stream of visitors to gaze at and comment upon.
We returned via the direct route and discovered that our stranger had been correct and this path was pretty steep. There are further ascents and descents on the way back in addition to the major slope up to St Paul.
We eat our lunch outside again in the summer kitchen.
We had booked the Atelier de Saveurs in La Colle for our evening meal. We wandered down just before 8 pm and didn’t leave until 11:30. I only had two courses, a dish centred around asparagus and a fish meal. I was not enamoured. We had had a few drinks before leaving but despite that Mark ordered a Pastis as an aperitif, and Matt joined him.
The whole meal went on for too long and then we had to withdraw cash from the nearby ATM as they claimed their credit card machine wasn’t functioning.
27 May 2022 Rileys and Jones fly back
Our guests had booked to fly back at 8 pm sox we had quite a bit of the day together to enjoy. Helen kindly cleaned her bathroom before the Jones left. We all drove to Nice and parked at the Place de Massena. After a walk through the Promenade du Paillon, passed the erratic fountains and children’s play area we arrived at our restaurant Babbo Mio. Everyone enjoyed their meal. I had a spaghetti pesto dish with prawns which tasted great. They served it with too much pasta for me, but Matt was around to eat up my left overs ( after he had finished his large pizza. Our guests very generously bought our meal for us.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Nice old town.
Around 5 pm they decided they need to head for the airport and we left them to do a bit of shopping and charge up the car at Carrefour.