Boog's Blog

Tuesday.

First stop, St. Paul de Vence, one of the oldest medieval villages on the French Riviera.  This, and the nearby museum, is so spectacular that a special edition of the blog is required.  Both the old city and the museum, a museum that counts for several museum visits.

First the museum, its history here:  https://www.fondation-maeght.com/en/

Mostly outdoor spaces with very large pieces.

A view inside, a lovely space also with large pieces.

And from the special exposition, mostly works of this type but many in carrera marble.

The town is just too preciious to describe.

The donjon is 12th century origin, the eglise is from the 13th with some additions.  No flying butresses, therefore small windows.

Nave,

Roman arch which unsurprisinly needed a metal rod brace

As we visited in the rain and the streets are old cobbled rocks and that the town is built on a steep hill it did not surprise us that it was slippery, We brought out the walking sticks.

The city is surrounded by ramparts and our first thoughts were to Monty Python throwing sheep over them.

Saturday. Sun seems to have returned for the near future.

Stopped in juan les pins for a tartine and pastry. Curved crossant, best we have had. Made in the boulangerie. Curved ones are disappearing replaced with the easier to make in high volume straight ones.

Some belief that the straight ones are of mass production Korean origin.

KB in the pins.

The beach at Juan Les pins

And now Antibes. Old Town in the background.

We have a corner suite, 2 bedrooms,2.5 baths and giant bacony.

Another view

Dinner: grilled sardines, Dover sole. Both to perfection.

Sunday, market day as all days except Monday.

Plus lots of food and soap etc.

There was a long line to try this. Made in a flat pan in a word fired oven looking like an unadorned pizza. The make brought his wheeled over and sticks of wood.

Art shot above.

Picasso spent significant time in this area. Naturally there is a museum of his works, mostly flat but a few sculptures.

Above,outdoor terrace with some sculptures. That and QB possibly squinting in the very strong wind.

Dinner was a break from seafood and fish each evening. Lebanese.

Monday. Heavy and heavier winds,a continuation from yesterday.  Museums and many shops closed on Monday.

Lebanese lemonade.

Wednesday Rain promised and delivered. All day. Often quite hard.

Passed through St maxime on way to laundry in frejus. Expensive but clean and well maintained coin op.

Corniche de l’esterele. Beautiful if one could take eyes off the curves. Similar to the big Sur road with steep drops and hairpin turns. The cornice runs from St. Rapheal to just outside of Cannes.

First pic where the climb begins.

We have entered the alps maritimes. Big waves along the coast. Very windy day. Kite surfers and wind surfing heaven.

Decided to head up to Mougin, very famous for its eateries and art shops. Old hill town with spectacular views. We went there many many years ago and thought we might try and get lunch this time. Silly us.

Another laundry. Not nearly as modern as the coin op.

Mougin, too late to eat. High hill town with one lane road we took. Not the best choice. Settled for a croque.

Bar at the Carlton. Seven waiters when they needed but two. Very overpriced but a nice place to sit. We had salades as the rain became torrential. Nice place to sit and watch the rain. Second shot, from room.

Thursday. Rain all day promised. Woke up to a break from the very heavy downpours over the evening.

The view. Yes the view. We came to this hotel for the view. Many years ago when United Airlines used to offer half priced coupons to stay at hotels we had a similar or same roon. Sitting in the Med at that time was a sail ship with a black ship with a black sail which then and even today evokes memories of The Three Penny Opera song.

Surfing above.

The hotel has not changed much. Then it was charming, now a bit annoying. WiFi functionality is an upgrade, coffee capsules are charged for, heat not available, electric plugs have not been upgraded (bad locations and no usb), no modern lighting. Fortunately we read electronically so reading a book is less of a concern. But…. the view is great and the sound of the waves crashing is wonderful. Good euro shower. Overall we will not immediately check out though it was discussed.

Many choices

A relaxing day of investigating shops and restaurants.

Before a very fine plateau,scallops with risotto for QB. Good people watching along the main drag.

Friday. Rain gone.

QB had done a George pointing out the repair and maintenance work not done in this old classic hotel. Chips, cracks in walls, loose stuff, old plumbing.

Not cheese… but sure looks like it.  We stopped to admire the cheese.

The croisette is being redone and modernized with a wider beach area.  Project will take until 2020 or longer.  Do not come here if you want to bathe or swim in the main area.  Closed as is obvious.  The beach is open and crowded in the old town area.

Below, lunch in the room.  The piece in the middle is a craquelins, a brioch dough with caramel coating.  As good as it sounds.  Some bert cheese and apples.  Madelines, for later, in the bag. 

Front of the hotel plastered with TV show signs.  Monday mipcom starts (we never heard of it) where 7K to 10K global TV business and entertainment folks will converge.  According to the concierge all hotel rooms are fully booked throughout town.  If we had tried to come next week we could not have.  Entry to the show/convention: 1400 Euro.

QB looking pleaseed with her moules frites.  KB, not pictured, equally pleased with the plateux.

Monday, awoke to loud noise. First I thought it was delivery trucks running down the cobblestone road right outside of our old town hotel. Nope. Thunderstorm with very heavy rain. We just stayed in bed and enjoyed the sounds and the break from the bright sunny days.

New labeling system tried below.

Another view.

The above view was supposed to be a sea view. When we booked we booked a sea view but we found out that the room with the sea view a bath not a shower. Had to change rooms. My balance is OK but not yet back to where it was pre-op.

Still life breakfast in hotel room.

To the linguists reading this: identify the second language. Much of the signage in town is dual language, especially on the buildings.

Evening on the sea

Grilled sardines and moules au four

Tuesday, bright sunny again.

On our way to breakfast we ran into an interesting market, mostly a fish market under a “ponche”. We are staying very close to another ponche in the Hotel de la Ponche. This marks where the old port was, before the yachts got too big to berth there. Hotel, we learned, was made famous by Bridget Bardot and her closest friends staying here.

Took a stroll out along the coast through the cemetery, likely some of the most expensive plots to be found. Lovely setting.

At one beach we stopped to buy a bottle of water to take away with us, a very small Coke size bottle, 3 euros. Yep, not a typo. The seller spoke good english, surfer dude type, and then eventually asked if I was familiar with Ripple (the crypto currency). He has some.

And then to dinner.   Simple omlets with some sides.

Saturday,trip to one of the southern iles.

A subtropical isle not too dissimilar to Tresco off the coast of Cornwall.

Breakfast on the island.

National Park, visit by boat or yacht (we took the boat) and spend the day hiking, sightseeing and of course eating. 300 permanent residents. Isle closes end of October. Two other ilse are possible, but one not so much, Isle de Levant (take your cloths off when you arrive) was rejected by one of us.

Naturally the Porquerolles coast has a calanque or several. Hike out past the lighthouse if you visit. Walk carefully on the island as there are people, bikes, electric bikes all scooting around.

Local beer as well.

Sunday. 100 percent chance of rain today. First of several rain days in the forcast.

Kavenaugh, raw political power of the minority. As the Post pointed out senators from a minority of the population, with a president with minority support rammed through a political operative opposed by the majority. Best we can hope for now is a four four court after an impeachment of Kanvanaugh, A four four court cannot make major political decisions.

Back to our regularly scheduled trip.

Sunday to St. Tropez via some smaller towns.

First stop: Bormes de mimosa, a very old hill town. High up with great views. Acquired local navettes.

From the hills to the sea, La Lavandu, a Beach resort town.

For the night, St.Tropez. while eating in the port area QB mentioned that the yachts are larger in Newport and in San Diego.

Very heavy rain as we sat in a brasserie, in the back, feeling like Toulouse Lautrec.

Yachts just visible in the back.  This observation not like Toulouse’s

In Hotel La Ponche right on the port. Old town hotel modernized for guests but not for business. Fits us well for a few days here.

Thursday. Hyeres via Cassis with a stop at the Basilica de Notre Dame

First, a moment of grief for the soon to become “predator” Court; no longer the supremes.

The Basilica, possibly the number one tourist attraction in Marseille,is located about 500 feet above the city. Beautiful striped building with an impressive chapel.

Met four young women, who like Elizabeth, get together each year and travel somewhere. Went to the same schools but now live in France, Italy, UK and Portugal. We shared places to go. Their recommendation was Azores.

Short ride to the very cute and charming Cassis. Recommended by Rick Steves a good place to see a less traveled calanque city.

Windy roads and some navigation challenges took us to Hyeres where we are staying in the Casino hotel, once,in its prime, a very grand hotel. Prime was in the 19th century.

Requisite dinner pic. Duck in Hyere.

Friday

We are in a casino with a hotel attached. Once a grand hotel, 19 th century. Enormous room, enormous balcony, modern bath, retains shabby 20th century decor and furniture. It best days are past but still a good visit.

Balcony in morning light.

Breakfast in a small beach town, l’ayguade where a fine bakery was to be. Good coffee, just ok croissants but an excellent setting. A walk by the sea.

Typical Italian salad for lunch. Restaurant ran out of melon,of course.

Dinner in les salins. Old style fish place, excellent! Fish soup, 12 huitres, QB had giant gambas.

Above, not ours, at next table.

Wednesday, warming up.

Booked a three calanque boat tour. One of the “things to do” in this busy but not overly touristic city. The calanques are the watery coves in the southern part of the Park National des Calanques. We had hoped to hike there but access and terrain made it a far better choice for us to take a boat excursion.

Calanques

Dinner at Toinou, cafeteria style. Excellent seafood.

Sunset vieux Port

Monday. Train to Marseille.

Nothing especially interesting. Eurostar to Nord, then Rer to Lyon gare. The server on Eurostar liked the Gazpacho so we gave her a glass during meal service.

Below is QB packing in the morning.

Tuesday. Walking all day, touristing.

North African market, old Port and more. Nine miles.

Wonderful diversity of people. North Africans, Arabs, Euros. Few Asians.

More of this interesting area.

Vieux Port with basilica which is on Thursday’s schedule.

Interesting cathedral de la major. Closed.

Old City

Charite, used to house 1000 homeless before it became a museum area. Wonderful stonework.

Royal bouillabaisse. Before and after.

Saturday

First, more on my Supreme Court thread. Might be time for local executive (executive branch) to generally ignore the Court rulings unless the Federal Executive sends in troops, physical or other strong enforcement. As regular readers know I believe that the Court was never intended (Hamilton, 19th century historical view that the House was the predominant political and democratic body with its two year turn over) to be so powerful. Now that the Court is just another political body it should be treated as such, one of three as part of the checks and balances.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Mostly chores during the day, getting ready for Monday’s departure.

Dinner with Rachael at Noize. High end French restaurant in Fitzrovia. Good but not excellent. Fantastic bread, a few very good dishes but some just ok. Far better quality and service at Brasserie 108 where we could not find fault with any dish or service. I even called over to speak to the manager to tell her.

S

Sunday, “tea,” Taiwan style at Xu Teahouse. Our third visit to Xu this trip.

Four types of tea.

Hong yu,yellow,cold, sparkling. Notes of apricot.

Assam oriental beauty and strawberry. With ice cube.

Yeh fang,oolong, very mild.

Cooked Pu’er, post fermented. Good for digestion.

And pizza Chez Bobby

Thursday – a planned rest day.

Not so much, more wandering. Covent gardens area after a breakfast at Gails.

QB acquires a treat

A wedge of the bread. You might not have guessed.

Equadorian drinking chocolate.

Dinner at an outstanding place. Everything we had was excellent.

Brasserie 108. Cod, monkfish, chips, broccoli, negroni,bok choy and other fixings.

Friday, cooler, much but another blazing bright sun.

After Paul’s for breakfast wandered up to the British Library. Noisy, very noisy walk along Marlybond Road with buses and sirens and kiddies…..

The exhibit we wished to see does not start until october so we will have to return there, probably on the 30th.

Instead we saw the treasures of the BL. Wonderful exhibit, Magna Carta, illustrated manuscripts from many sacred texts (all major religions), historical documents (such as the letter from Victoria to Gladstone where she says she agrees with him and is also against women rights).

The cafe area where many go to read, except now instead of books piled high on carousels it is nothing but computers with their included materials. Quite a change.

Asked the staff if I could get a copy of the Treasures exhibit. “Well, there is an abridged version in the exhibit shop, too much stuff for a book”. So, I ask, what about a digital version, lots of room there for items and pictures etc. “Good idea but has not been discussed”.

Dinner with Bobby, now sufficiently recovered.