Day 325 (Saturday)

Got up earlier than usual for a weekend because today is the big sightseeing tour. James and the ladies came to ours for a coffee at 10am and then we set off. The plan was to go to Saint Paul de Vence as Sue’s sister highly recommended it to her so I was delighted because it’s one of my favourite places in the world. Then we were going to go up to the Grande Corniche to admire the magnificent views and then go down to Monaco to see the ridiculous Casino Square. There was some pretty heavy traffic in Nice but after that it was plain sailing. Huw drives like a local and the visitors were very impressed. We had some difficulty finding a parking space and finally parked in an underground multi-storey car park.

The first port of call was to the washhouse; we must have walked past this a hundred times but didn’t realise what it was. It’s great to think that the local women used to gather at these buildings every week to do their laundry and catch up on all the gossip. It’s even better to know that Villefranche will be restoring theirs soon.

 

 

We had a lovely walk in the old town and Huw wouldn’t allow any lingering or shopping until we reached the lookout point. He was very firm about this telling us that the shopping could wait till the way back.

This is the lookout point

This could only be seen in France

On the way back we stopped to take some photos and to admire the shops

I really like these ones of the boys

 

I couldn’t resist it and bought two more bars of Provence soap then we found a shop we’d never been into before and it was gorgeous full of homemade jams, sweets and nougat. The staff were super polite and we had free tasting of all sorts of jams and Huw’s favourite was rhubarb and vin chaud (mulled wine.)

I was very entertained by the name of this shop

We called into the bar with the gorgeous view that we’d been in before but sadly the terrace was packed and there was a huge queue waiting for a table. We tried to get a table in the restaurant that has been converted from a church but they didn’t have a table for five.

I was quietly pleased about this because I wanted to eat in the Café de la Place where the whole town plays boules. It was pretty packed but we found a table and leapt at it. We honestly didn’t see the groups of five men patiently waiting to be seated. Most of us had croque monsieur with frites and Kay had a salad washed down with an icy cold beer. I was chuffed to find the Fanny behind the curtain that Iain had told us about.

Tradition has it that if you score zero at boules the curtains are opened and the player has to kiss her bum!

We got back to the car and set off back down to the coast to find the turnoff for Eze and the Grand Corniche and we were soon climbing up the mountain. I had no idea that Sue suffers horribly from vertigo and the higher we went the more uncomfortable she got. We stopped at the usual lookout points and she couldn’t even get out of the car. It’s so sad that she missed out on these wonderful sights.

We went back down to sea level and Sue became her usual chirpy self again. We gave up on the idea of going to Monaco because Huw had been driving all day and was exhausted, the rest of us were pretty knackered too and it was getting late. We found a parking space in Beaulieu and walked to David Niven’s house and along the way we were surprised to see a line of empty mussel shells all along the coast.

Beaulieu was looking even more stunning than usual

 

 

As we were approaching David Niven’s house the ladies got very excited and it was great to see their enthusiasm.

They all took lots of photos and I love this one of James pretending he lives here.

 

We went shopping in Super U for tomorrow’s surprise beach picnic  for Kay’s birthday and it wasn’t easy to hide everything. The picnic is to be on Villefranche main beach with a few expats friends, so James and Sue had to buy some supplies without giving the game away. We had planned on having a BBQ on our terrace tonight but we were too tired. Instead they came and had a beer and some crisps and called it a night. As a thank you gift they gave Huw a pot of that wonderful jam and me a sprig of lily of the valley.