Mark waded out into the water to take this shot of our beach and the hotel. Definitely a slice of heaven!
What a trip this has been! From the cities in the very north of France, through Normandy along the English Channel and two weeks in Brittany, down The Atlantic coast to the beach at Biarritz, up into the center of the country and then the Alps. Finally now we’re down on the Mediterranean, the French Riviera. The vacation of a lifetime, except I’ve probably had a few of those in this lifetime.
I first encountered the Mediterranean nearly 50 years ago when I sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar in 1974. I loved it then and I love it now. There is just nothing like the color of the sea on a bright sunny day and then you add to it the great cultures and cuisines and landscapes you find everywhere. It’s pretty heavenly and kind of begs the question: why doesn’t everyone live on the Mediterranean?
The walk from our hotel into town. Not a bad view at all.
From our lovely boutique hotel in St Paul de Vence it was only maybe a 20 minute drive to the Nice airport where we dropped off the car before catching a train up the coast to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. (The French, if you hadn’t noticed, are apparently seriously fond of dashes….) Once we got here it was mostly just beach time.
One highlight was the walkway from our hotel into town. It was maybe a 20-minute walk but on a pedestrian path right along the coast. Mostly shaded, walking past a couple pretty impressive mansions, but always with the stunning view of the Mediterranean and the many yachts that congregate near a port. The other highlight was that our hotel had a small private beach with loungers and umbrellas that made for some very relaxing afternoons.
The private beach and the sea
The only downside to the stop was that we really struggled to find good food, about the only activity that could compete with the beach. There was some good food at our hotel but one, it was at best hit or miss, and two, it’s kind of boring to just eat at your hotel. We went to one little family-owned restaurant that’s been open for nearly 40 years, a place called Captaine Cook, and while the food was OK it was in a spot with no breeze or air moving and at 85 degrees that was just too hot. Another place practically rushed us through, though again the ambience was nothing to keep us lingering anyway. On our last night we finally found a good restaurant right on the port, but otherwise the pickings were slim. On the up side though our hotel made genuinely good martinis so that was always worth looking forward to.
Pretty much every restaurant we went to during this trip had burrata and tomatoes on the menu. This, on our first lunch in Cap Ferrat, may have been the best of the lot – and the best dish we would have for a couple of days!
Mark at the cute but HOT Captaine Cook with a pretty good fish bisque
Having a little pre-dinner drink in the town plaza. If you look at the open windows right above my head you can see – and Mark certainly noticed – a white kitty lying on the window sill.
When he zoomed in to take this picture I assured him it just too far away and would look like hell. Sometimes I’m just dead wrong.
While the food here wasn’t great, we did have some amazing oysters, a type from La Rochelle that our friend Shideh had recommended. They were every bit as good as she’d suggested.
Mark on our walk into town
The port. Apparently people like boats here.
My eternal vision of the Mediterranean
Loved this trip!