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  Day 3419 (Monday) 19th October 2026. This is a small town north of Nice and this is   Mandelieu-La Napoule.   All you need to know about shopping at French food markets Customers choose fruit and vegetables as they do their shopping on stalls at Noailles Market in Marseille (Photo by BORIS HORVAT / AFP) No stay in France is complete without a visit to one of the country's famous food markets. Here's what you need to know to help you navigate them like a local. Rows of stalls packed with seasonable vegetables, delicious meats, cheeses, pastries and wine - French markets are a great way to sample the French lifestyle at its best. Here's a list of things to know to help you navigate them like an expert.   A hundred new markets are created in France every year. Approximately one hundred new markets are born every year in France with communities using them to revitalise city centres, according to a 2016 survey. And while there was a period of time when consumers were b...
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  Day 3418 (Sunday) 16th October 2026. This is Villefranche and Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat and this is the monastery Ile Saint Honorat, an island off Cannes. Huw found this horrible story the other day - I hadn't realised we had tsunamis in France The Nice Tsunami, 1979 Actually a rather nasty incident; when a landfill being used to build the Nice Airport collapsed, it triggered two large waves which delivered death and destruction to the French Riviera. The area around Nice in the South of France is the Mediterranean playground of celebrities, billionaires and European royalty, boasting miles of white-sand beaches, sparkling ocean and 300 days of sunshine a year. Yet, on October 16th, 1979 disaster struck this beautiful coastline. Six kilometres from the city centre, the international Nice Côte d’Azur Airport was being expanded into a two-runway, three-terminal airport that would cover 3.70 km2 (1.43 sq mi) using mostly reclaimed land. Plus, a new municipal port was being added. At 2pm...
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  Day 3416 (Friday) 16th October 2026. This is Antibes and this is Fort Alban between Villefranche and Nice. Here are the rest of the idioms… Level 2 Idioms: Moderately Bizarre 16.”Ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère” Literally, it says: “Not to go there with the back of the spoon”. If you’re trying to figure out what this means, stop.   It’s a bit difficult to guess, but what it means is that there is no half-measures with a certain person. Like, he/she is an all or nothing type. 17.”Noyer le poisson”   Yet another animal-related idiom, but this means to evade an issue. But the literal meaning? “To drown the fish“. 18.“Parler à tort et à travers” It means to babble or to yammer but the direct translation states “to speak wrongly and crosswise“. Yeah. Crosswise talking. Whatever that is. 19.”Prendre entre quatre yeux” The exact meaning is “to take someone between four eyes” but the logical meaning is to have an argument with someone. 20.“Manger / sucer les pissenlit...
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