Day 115 (Saturday)

Got the usual poulet roti at the Saturday market and spent a few hours in the sun and at around 3pm so set off for our walk around Cap Ferrat.

And this is the route we took.

 

The weather wasn’t as perfect as usual but the temperature was very pleasant for such a walk. We cheated a little and caught the bus 81 to Beaulieu and started off there where the path starts is next to the magnificent five star hotel Royal Riviera near Beaulieu beach where you can stay the night for a mere £379.

The path goes above the beach and the views are really spectacular, it’s a shame the sky wasn’t its usual brilliant blue because the photos aren’t as good as usual but as I said it was perfect weather for a long walk.

The first house we came upon was wonderful without being totally pretentious like a lot of them are.

We were thrilled to see a plaque on the wall telling us that we were in Place David Niven and read that he lived in this very house from the early sixties until his death in 1983.

We walked to the delightful little town of Saint Jean and bought a bottle of rose to have with our poulet roti baguette for a very early dinner and saw this delivery vehicle.

All over this area there is a lot of art on many buildings and I love it…

That isn’t real ivy and that window isn’t a window, although why have a sea-facing wall without a window is a mystery to me but it looks great. We easily found the next stage of the path thanks to Huw’s marvellous map reading skills and were very surprised that this part of the walk wasn’t beautiful!

There were a number of derelict buildings that look like they might have been bars or shops but most of the graffiti was tasteful!

After not too long we were approaching the end of the Cap

and around the corner we came upon the lighthouse (le phare, the same name as our local expat bar) it was so great to see it close up. This is the lighthouse that we can’t see from our terrace because of our neighbours’ olive tree.

Just before the lighthouse we spotted a rather splendid hotel

‘Perched at the very tip of Cap-Ferrat, the poolside Club Dauphin is ideal for private parties in a discreet setting. Entertainment for the evening might begin with a water ballet during aperitifs, and end with a spectacular fireworks display. Music may be played until 2:00 am.

An air-conditioned glass funicular whisks you down to the seaside Club Dauphin, overlooking the famously beautiful swimming pool of the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, A Four Seasons Hotel.’

For one night this would set you back €1, 050!

As soon as we’d rounded the end of the Cap the views improved enormously – in fact they were absolutely stunning and these amazing trees are called umbrella pines.

We found the perfect little spot to have our picnic but we had to rush it a bit because time was getting on and we had arranged to meet Olivier and Audre at 6.30pm. it was our first meeting with our new French friends and we didn’t want to be late.

 

It was quite exciting to see Villefranche from this side but our view was marred by a shitty cruise ship – yes they are still coming in almost daily. Every day as these monstrosities prepare to leave they have stupidly loud announcements and play crappy music. Over on this side of the bay the music was even louder than on our side. I’m amazed the rich folk over here put up with it. As well as noise pollution they also they pollute the air with black billowing smoke coming from the massive funnels when they restart their engines.

There was another rather ugly ship in the bay, which we have seen before. It appears that the smaller motor vessels are transported here at the beginning of the summer and now they were being taken back to wherever they come from on piggyback on this transport ship – talk about fair weather sailors – surely the biggest thrill of yachting is being out in the open sea not just gently bobbing on anchor in a bay? 

We got to the end of the pathway and hit the road and there were two ways we could go but no signposts. Huw decided we needed to go up and then turn a sharp corner to find the bus stop. For once he got it wrong and we ended up doing quite an unnecessary hike up a hill and when we did find the bus stop we had just missed a bus and had to wait over 15 minutes for the next one so yes we were going to be late – bugger! I hate tardiness and this was an important meeting – our first French friends! I emailed Audre explaining what had happened and she said it was no problem, phew! We were half an hour late and they thought it was hilarious that Brits could actually be late! They had brought two other women with them, Ann from Paris and Katy an English teacher (she’s French.) We had a lovely hour and a half with them (they were going out in Nice at 8.30pm) making plans to meet to go to Olivier’s gig together in two weeks time. Olivier was very helpful giving me employment agency details in Monaco and Katy told me that there is definitely a need for my expertise in dyslexia. In fact while we were together she got an email from a parent asking for some extra support for his 13-year-old daughter – maybe this is my breakthrough. All in all it was a very pleasant day rounded off beautifully in the company of these very interesting, very entertaining French people – we have arrived!

We stayed for one more glass and on the way home we saw a busker that we’ve seen before and Huw stopped for a little chat and we discovered that he was from Germany originally but had spent most of his life in the States and frankly he just wasn’t a very nice man – we won’t be speaking to him again!   

When we got to our back gate we were over the moon to see the smallest gecko in the world.