Villeneuve Loubet Plage

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Monday 20 October, 2008

This particular Premiere Classe was slightly different from the normal style on the outside, but the rooms themselves, much the same. We ended up with a good sized room, because of the shape of the Hotel. Also with a view of the sea and the airport, much better than the usual industrial estate.

We left the Premiere Classe about 1030, and headed off towards Nice. We are cruising the French Riviera and of course, are now on the Cote D'Azur.

We passed through Nice, the coast road is extremely busy. It is three or four lanes of traffic both ways and just seems to be constant. The French driving is up to it's usual standards, with the mopeds and motorbikes darting in and out of the traffic.

Then through Villefranche sur Mer, with the St Jean cap Farat on our left and came to Beaulieu sur Mer. We were looking for the Greek Villa, Beryls, which we had read about.

We saw the brown sign for the villa and parked in Beau lieu sour Mer. Across the road we bought some croissants and pain tau chocolate, for our breakfast, and ate as we walked towards the villa.

It was built around 1902, in the style of an ancient Greek Villa, by the Theodore Reina ch and was lived in by him and his family, until the late 60's.

The building is beautiful, stunning and is a truly amazing place. I am not sure how much the place actually replicates an original Greek Villa, but it is a remarkable building. It is now owned by the French state and is a museum.

Essentially, I would describe it as a folly. One of the questions I asked myself is why? Why would you build a Greek Villa in France? At whatever date and time this place was built, it would cost a fortune. Simply because the building isn't normal would add significantly to the build cost. and the furniture and fixtures and fittings were all created in a style or shape of something original that was in a museum somewhere in the world.

Anyway, I'm not knocking the place, because it really is something. I guess the Spinach's had a shed load of money, and had to do something with it.

We left Beau lieu sour Mer and headed back towards Nice, looking for a supermarket and our home for the next few days; The Reveille Ferne. Just in case your French isn't quite up to scratch, by the way, it means Old Farm.

We found a Meant Casino and stocked up on a few supplies.

Arrived at The Reveille Ferne about two fifteen got checked into our little chalet, a pest Trianon, number C 1 A. I unloaded the car and Pat prepared our usual lunch. Ham, Cheese, with a French stick, some olives. Grapes and Banana for dessert.

The lady in the campsite office gave us a “welcome pack”, which included some tourist leaflets of the area, but more importantly a bottle of Ros, straight from the fridge, with the label of the farm itself. Pat enjoyed a glass with our sandwiches.

As we checked in, a police siren was heard in the background, we just gave each other a look.

After settling into the chalet. we went for a little walk, cussing out the area. We managed to find an under path to get the other side of the railway line that runs along the coast and onto the beach. The beaches round here are very stony, no sand. We watched the planes landing at Nice airport in the distance and generally watching the world go by.

We returned and lazed around, then had our dinner. We had bought a ready cooked meat dish from the deli counter, at the supermarket, but on closer inspection we weren't to sure what it was, and neither of us took to it. We had plenty of pasta and some salad and vegetables, with grapes and banana's for dessert.

We sat outside in shorts and T-Shirt, with the temperature about 18°C, it is great to be able to do this in October. We didn't get much chance to do it in July and August at home!

Nice is the fifth largest town in France. We have yet to hit the centre, but both of us have decided that we would rather see what appears to be much more interesting places around.

We have done the Nice promenade, which runs for miles and driven along it a couple of times now and nothing further appeals enough for us to want to spend anymore time there. The coastal part is a mixture of styles and some of the buildings are very colonial and in general the city appears very cosmopolitan. Pat describes it as a place where everyone goes to retire, because of the nice weather.


Tuesday, 21st October, 2008.

The campsite has a heated swimming pool, so Pat is going to try that first thing. Then our plan is to visit Cannes and Anti bes for the day.
The pool was being serviced when Pat went down, so no swimming today.

We left the chalet about 1130 and drove to Cannes. We found the usual underground car park with the classical music. Cannes was extremely busy, partially due to a cruise ship tendering off the port, The “Brilliance of the Seas”.

The beach at Cannes was sand and very picturesque. But to be truthful, it wasn't for me. We stopped at a little Cafe and had a Paganini and sausage & pasta, for a snack.

We ambled around the port area and beach for a while, walked a little through the shops, found a small supermarket for supplies and then moved on.

In Anti bes, we again found the underground car park, with classical music. We were in the town centre and the car park exit came straight out into the shops. We again ambled for a while, found the Tourist Information office and decided to visit the older part of town and the port area.

The Marina area was pretty big, and after wandering around, seeing lots of reasonable size yachts and boats, went through to the next area, and although, we thought we had seen big boats before, there was a row of about fifteen big, big ones. They were very impressive and a lot of them seemed to be having various maintenance done. Still further along was a really big one, the name was difficult to make out, but looked like it was from somewhere like Saudi Arabia.

We walked back and left the town about five thirty, rush hour, but made it out in one piece.

Given the choice between Cannes and Anti bes, I would go for Anti bes. I think Cannes chic is a lot newer than Anti bes. Anti bes has just a little more style.

Our purchases from the supermarket included some local cheeses and pat, so we had a smörgåsbord of a meal, with salad, olives, and a French Stick. Fruit and cakes for dessert.

By the way, we sat outside to eat our tea, and wore shorts and T-Shirt all day. (Not ¾ length trousers, Sandy)

A couple of days ago, when I accessed the BBC News website, I read about a beach in Jamaica, that had gone missing, apparently all the sand had been “rustled” and the Jamaican Police thought it was probably someone in the Tourism Industry, because beaches are big business! I had read the article out loud to Pat and I have to say it is still causing us endless amusement, especially as we are currently near to beaches very often, and the subject is continually referred to.

We completed 2000 miles on our journey today.

Wednesday, 21st October, 2008

Four weeks have now gone by.

Planning for an easy day. Catching up with some washing, maybe some swimming.

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Photos

Cannes
Pat on the beach