We dedicated much of the last few days in La Colle to preparing to entertain Jilly and David Best and Madeleine and Tom for lunch on Saturday 12th September.
Wednesday 9th
Before that we drove up to Vence to the Puccetti agency and told them we wanted to go ahead and become our sole agents for selling our house. Of course, that also meant we didn’t want to use Florian and his team from La Belle Pierre agency. Florian took the rejection as a professional should and said if our other agent didn’t work out he would be happy to work with us in the future.
That done we had a very quiet day messing around in the house.
Thursday 10th
Our major shopping day for food and wine occurred on Thursday 10th. We drove down to Grand Frais to buy the food. Maggi had thought long and hard about what to serve on the Saturday. She finally settled on Gazpacho as the starter and we bought that followed by 2 salads, one with chicken and the other with scallops. the third course we also bought, a raspberry tart.
In the early evening we drove down to the coast and walked along the front near Villeneuve-Loubet Plage where Maggi had a Aperol Spritz and I had a non-alcoholic tomato juice. The weather had cooled down by now and walking had become pleasant especially around five when we sauntered along watching the occasional swimmer in the sea. All the time we had spent in La Colle not once did we take a sea dip.
Friday 11th
We decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch out and drove over to Bar-sur-Loup and the Jasmine restaurant. When we arrived the proprietor/chef told us that today was Aioli Friday, and therefore we had no choice for our starter or main course we could only choose the dessert.
What an utter disappointment the meal became. The plate arrived which consisted of boiled vegetables and two pieces of fish, salmon and an unknown white fish. It looked like an overgrown school meal piled high with the vegetables with the two fishes stuck on the edge. I’ve never liked overcooked green beans and these abounded, the other co-habitants didn’t suffer from the same over enthusiastic cooking but failed to offer anything other than sheer boredom. I left about half the food because I couldn’t face another mouthful. The dessert of rice pudding only faired a little bit better.
We left the restaurant with our tongues full of the taste of oil and garlic.
Saturday 12th
We opened up the summer kitchen for the visit of Madeleine, Tom, Jilly and David. Preparing for their arrival took up most of the morning, cleaning up the kitchen which we hadn’t used all through our time in France for this holiday and then laying out the table. We filled up the fridge with drink and butter etc. so we didn’t have to keep running back to the kitchen.
Jilly and David arrived first and I like there company so we had a few minutes with them before Mad and Tom arrived. The lunch was pleasant enough. I had music playing in the background and everyone heartily ate the food that Maggi presented.
David seemed to get itchy feet about two hours after his arrival and they left about 3:30 while Madeleine and Tom stayed on for a fair bit longer. All very pleasant.
In the evening I watched Arsenal play and win 2-0 in a tight match against Sunderland away from home.
Sunday 13th
We met up with Claire and Martyn in Cabris for lunch at the L’ Epicurean for probably our nicest meal of the holiday. We all decided to have a main course and a dessert rather than a starter. I choose the vegetarian risotto which I thoroughly enjoyed and followed this with the peach soup. Both dishes had plenty of flavour and I didn’t get bored with the risotto which is always a danger.
Both Martyn and Claire seemed in a good mood and chatted freely despite Claire’s ongoing health problems. She wore a wig which contrasted specactulary with her natural curly hair but overall she looked fine, although she had lost a bit of weight.
We left them and decided that rather than going home we would make a quick detour to Saint Vallier-de-Thiey which we haven’t visited for a long time. We parked up and wandered around this old town set upon the Route Napoleon which he took after his exile to Elba and his return to Paris. We didn’t stay long but it extended the day.
Monday and our return to UK
First thing Solange and a colleague arrived so that we could sign the house sale mandate and so they could take pictures of the house etc. That process took about an hour after which we finished our packing so that by 11 am we were more or less prepared for departure, however our plane didn’t take off until 20:40. We took a tour of the village and had a coffee down at St Eloi.
We returned to the house and had a lunch of all the left overs and then messed around until 5 pm when we packed the car and drove to Leclerc to fill p on diesel and then headed to the airport. We had to give the car back with the damage I had inflicted on it and then made our way to the lounge. The place was fuller than I’d ever seen it before and we just managed to grab two seats together. We stayed there until take-off time and had a very easy flight back.