Villeneuve Loubet Plage 3

Friday, 24th October, 2008

At one stage last night I was wondering what day it was, as I was drifting off to sleep. I have to say that I didn't know, and it took me quite a while to figure it out. The only way I could do it was by knowing that we arrived here on Monday, and I then had to try and figure out what we had done since then each day and add the days on. Eventually, I got there but only by checking this morning was I really certain.

What, I am trying to tell you is that my general concept of time is no longer as important as it was. My life was ruled by a watch for many, many years. When I stopped working, I stopped wearing a watch and don't have one with me on this journey. Time is all around me, and I don't say that it isn't important, but I am trying not to be ruled by it anymore.

The way it is important, is how it relates to others, here in France for example, most things close for lunch. So, if we turn up for something around lunchtime it will be shut. We do that quite often. We need to know when it is a Saturday or Sunday, again because of access to things, also because things will be busier in the sort of leisure / resort places that we look to spend time.

Anyway, thought I would share that with you.

I have just noticed that our car was registered 18th October, 2007, so it is now over a year old. We have taken to calling it “The Beast”, in a nice way, of course.

Not sure, what the plan for today is. We talked about doing Biot, and Grasse, both of which are inland.

We had a very slow start to the day, and left around elevenish. We decided on Grasse, and headed off inland.

We saw an Intermarche supermarket sign along the way and stopped for provisions.

A supermarket is a bit like the toilet, if you see one, use it, you never know when the next one will come along!

We did our usual and headed for the centre of Grasse, then found an underground car park. This one played no classical music.

Grasse is one of those very old towns, built on top of a mountain. It isn't small, but has obviously grown over the years and the buildings intertwine with each other. There is no room for a car to drive through most of the streets at ground level and sunshine hasn't reached down for centuries.

We stopped for ready made ham baguettes from a little street shop and ate them while looking around the town.

Grasse has a history relating to the perfume industry and claims to be the world centre of perfumery. We visited the perfume museum and were initially very confused, because it had a contemporary art exhibition and we really wondered if we were in the right place. As we went further along, It turned into what one would imagine a perfume museum to contain and then it was alright.

The Museum contained historical artifacts relating to perfume, from the Egyptians and many other cultures going back centuries, and stuff right up to the present day. It was free entry, so not a bad deal and we spent a good hour maybe two, wandering around.

We came out of the Museum and looked in some of the shops. We had a coffee and croissants at a cafe “La Croissant Rose” and then headed for the car.

This place had steps, but we managed not to do too many, especially after yesterdays adventures in Monaco.

Grasse is a lovely place. It is has a very real feeling, but has a fascinating air about it. With lots of ups and downs, streets and alleys that you turn into, not knowing what might be round the corner, and a feeling of overall history. The town has it's perfume story, but is not up itself and seems to mix both the old and the new, well.

On a clearer day the views down below, I imagine would have been very scenic, but the clouds where in the way for us today.

We found the car, and took the long way back - in other words, we got lost - and eventually made it back to base.

The weather was overcast, it had rained first thing, before we got up, but the temperature was still in the twenties.

The provisions we had purchased, led to a Spanish Omelete, with fruit for dessert.

We then did a little internet surfing for accommodation at our next destination.

Our current plan is to do Villefranche sur Mer and the Ephrussi Villa on Saturday, have an easy day Sunday, packing the car, doing some washing, etc. Monday we have to leave about nine and have decided that we are now heading for Italy, we may do a place called Menton, as our last French visit.

We have looked at this end of Italy and found a place called Imperia, just along on the coast and will see if we can adjust ourselves to Italy from there.

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