Today we mention Menton

Question: How many chocolate-filled croissants did Rick and Kathy eat on their vacation?
Answer:  None of your business!

I hope we don't go through withdrawal when we get home!

Today we decided to take the train to Menton.  We looked up the train schedule online before we walked down to the station, which was luckily not far away.  Bus #100 is actually the recommended way to get to Menton, since the bus stops are closer to the part of town that tourists enjoy, but bus #100 is also the one that is always packed because it goes from Nice to Monaco, and on to Menton.  We'd rather walk from the train station than be crammed into another bus!

Menton is the French town just five miles away from the border of Italy, along the coast.  Monaco separates Menton from the rest of the towns on the French Riviera, and in fact Menton was part of Monaco up until 1860.  We expected a small, sleepy fishing village.  We were surprised to find a big, bustling city that some compare to Nice.  We didn't notice the kind of crazy traffic we'd seen in Nice though!

We happened past the post office, and I had a letter to mail, so we stopped in.  By now we were aware that people buy cellphones and minutes at the post office, and also deal with their utilities there.  I wasn't surprised when we were confronted by different counters on every side of the room, with signage meaning absolutely nothing to us.  I had no idea where to buy one stamp!  Luckily there was a customer service agent wandering around checking to see if people were lined up in the right place.  She extracted us from the line we were in and took us over to a special counter where she sold us one stamp.  It was unclear where we should mail the letter, so I had to go back to her for advice.  She directed me to the mail slot around the corner.  She didn't speak any English, so this was all done by pointing, nodding and shoulder shrugs.

If you're not from Menton, the Alpes-Maritimes, or France, you must be a stranger! 

We walked part of the pleasant promenade along the beach, and made our way to the Vieux Port - the old port. 

The promenade along the beach in Menton, the Bastion built in 1636 is now the Musee Jean Cocteau

View of the marina and the hills from the restaurant

We stopped at Gordon B, a restaurant overlooking the harbor, for lunch.  We knew we were having leftovers for dinner, so we went a bit overboard for lunch.  Rick had calamari to start, and then gorgonzola chicken for his main dish.  I had a seafood salad with scampi.  I tried the molten chocolate cake for dessert.

Molten chocolate cake with a hint of lemon

Lunch was great, and from there we headed into the center of town.  We found a pedestrian area full of cafés and shops.  I was surprised to find a few shops and a candy store devoted to products from the Brittany region of France, which is about as far away from Menton as you can get!

I've been following a blog by David Lebovitz, an American dessert chef now residing in Paris.  Not surprisingly, he often writes about pastries.  One of his blog posts was devoted to Kouign Amann (I think you pronounce it 'queen aman'), a buttery pastry from Brittany that caramelizes as it bakes.  It looked amazing and I hoped we might be able to taste one either in Paris or when we were in Brittany at Mont St. Michel.  We never happened across kouign amann, until now!  Here they were, all wrapped up and pretty, in a shop in Menton.  I had to try one.  It was indeed a buttery, caramelly, flaky wonder.  Read more about it on David's blog, here.

The mini kouignettes were dee-lish

Buttery, flaky, caramelly Kouign Amann

The display outside of a store specializing in honey products

Walking back to the train station we went through one of the garden areas in the middle of town.  There is so much more to see here that it'll be on our list for a future visit.

Gardens in the middle of Menton

We took the train back to Villefranche.  Rick, ever vigilant, noticed a rather large sailboat in the bay.  He was able to discern the name of the boat with my monocular, and looked it up on the internet.  It turned out that this boat, the Vertigo, was 220 feet long.  The mast looked as high as the boat was long.  It's the second largest privately owned sailboat in the world, with twelve staterooms.  The original owner was Leonardo DiCaprio, but he sold it to Rupert Murdoch.  After dark we could see the launch coming and going.  Who knows who might have been in the village for dinner that night?

The 220-foot Vertigo

All I know is that we had the same view, at a fraction of the cost!

Tomorrow we're off to the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Cap Ferrat.