The Water and A Walk

It was a beautiful day today.  Sunny, with a cool breeze.  We had our usual petite déjeuner of pain au chocolat, along with ham and eggs today.  A successful France/U.S. collaboration, I think.

One of the celebrities making a home in Villefranche is Tina Turner.  We'd been on the lookout for her at the market and around town, but no luck.  We checked the Internet for pictures of her house, and discovered that we could see it from our balcony.

Here's Rick taking a photo.

Stand on the roof tiles and peer around the privacy screen.  Easy!

Tina's house, just up the hill

We checked day and night to see if there was any activity at her place,  but she must have been out-of-town.  Next time we'll coordinate things better.

We spent the morning shopping and doing laundry.  Honestly, the view from our place is so wonderful we could just sit on the terrace and look at it all the time.  The water is turquoise, with sailboats bobbing gently in the waves.  Canoes and kayaks cut across the bay.  After dark the little power boats start bringing people from the sailboats in to shore for dinner.  There is always something to keep an eye on.

Harbormaster Rick, on duty

After lunch Rick was determined to swim in the Mediterranean, so we grabbed the beach towels and walked down to the beach.  On the way through town we walked by a group of three older ladies sitting on folding chairs in the cobblestone lane, enjoying the afternoon. 

The breeze was cool, but there were still people swimming, sunning, and playing in the sand.  We each took a turn in the water.  It was cool, but not icy cold.

Proof that Rick went swimming in the Med

My turn

 We decided to go out for dinner, to a little place we'd walked by a few times.  Le Serre seemed like it was busy every night, and had tables out on the little cobblestone street as well as inside.

I had a tomato mozzarella salad as my first course.  The tomato and cheese were stacked on toasted slices of baguette, and then warmed in the oven.  Beef stew with ravioli was the main course and then chocolate cake for dessert.  Rick had a pizza.  They've named all of their pizzas after states in the U.S., having nothing to do with the toppings on them!  The food was wonderful.  The entire restaurant is run by one woman in the kitchen and a younger woman waiting on all of the tables.  They were dealing with about 15 tables, and they were hustling!  Rick wanted to go into the kitchen and offer to help.

The next day dawned sunny, so our plan was to go to Cap Ferrat and walk another of the Sentiers du Littoral, the walking trails.  We finally got smart and checked the bus schedule online before going out.  We were early enough that the bus wasn't too crowded.

The harbor at St. Jean Cap Ferrat is full of fancy boats.  Rick's been frustrated looking at all of the sailboats in the harbor near our place, and never seeing any of them actually put their sails up.  I'll bet they have the same problem in St. Jean! 

We walked around the harbor and headed toward the shore, where we imagined the trail would start.  This time we did the Pointe Saint-Hospice walk, which was 3.8 kilometers, almost flat, and rated as easy.  Sainte-Hospice is a little peninsula off the east side of Cap Ferrat.  The trail was a paved pathway, all along the shore, sometimes at beach level and sometimes slightly above.  The shoreline is rocky for a good part of the coast.  There are lots of walls and fences on the inland side of the trail, since there are lots of very private estates on Cap Ferrat.  Paul Allen, formerly of Microsoft, has a place here.

Looking toward the mainland from the trail

Trail around Saint-Hospice

Rugged coastline on Saint-Hospice

After our walk we stopped in St. Jean for lunch at the Cadillac restaurant.  I had Salade Niçoise.  It was good, but we have such a great recipe at home, that nothing, even here in the area of its inception, compares. Here's the recipe, from one of our local papers, The Everett Herald.  We usually use seared fresh tuna, rather than the traditional canned tuna. 

My favorite part of any meal

 
Back at the apartment, all was well.  Everything in the harbor was operating smoothly, so Rick could turn his attention to dinner. 

We had a great pork roast.  It's amazing what Rick can do with the few seasonings we have here.  At home we have a kitchen full of spices, 8 different kinds of vinegar and fresh herbs from the yard.  Here we have salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, herbes de Provence and some thyme.  And every dinner tastes great!

We leave for home in 6 days, and we've got a few more things on our "to-do" list.  Stay tuned!