South of France, Cote d Azur

really, where should one begin?
Have spent the last few days pottering on the island of Porquerolles, by bicycle even - must be 35 years nearly since I rode a bike, but it is still possible :)
A couple of days on the c Cote d dAzur with my niece Steph - we looked at millionaire boats and their owners in St tropez but really they were not our type - not nearly literate enough. But seriously, the amount of obvious wealth is staggering; and the fact that all the lovelies have to hang out on the decks of their boats so that the hoi polloi passing by can see them is almost too much! discretion is not a term which I imagine to have much currency in this area........

We cruised through Monaco in the mercedes ( always nice to be in a good car, evidemment!) but also found it not to our taste! However Menton, another story, very pretty place. Alas through poor preparation _- or perhaps just lack of time on our parts - we had failed to look up the address of the Katherine Mansfield villa; what was really interesting was that no-one we asked knew anything about her, despite my perfectly fluent explanations; Not even the Kiwis we found by the beach knew about it.........;I should have phone JoEllen or Lloyd, but alas.......

We dined in italy, in ventimiglia - I realise that sounds wonderful but in truth it,s half an hour from Menton! still, it was pretty nice: there was a duo playing songs, and they specially played Hava Nagila for a visiting diner from - wait for it - Libya! alas, they realised that it was not Libya; nor a libyan song even; but Lebanese! when the realised their mistake they quickly compensated by playing an Arabic melody§ Steph and I were tempted to request Bella Ciao but it was already 11 pm and we were sleeping in Nice..................

Nice is lovely, particularly the old part ( see pictures on Picasa please, ask David for the link) and we also went to the Chagall museum which was fabulous;, literally;

I have learned some great French expressions - hope I can find ways in include them in conversation when home, but I am not sure - it is not every day that you find the need to say that something "pue de fric" ( st Tropez) or that someone farts higher than his bum, meaning has ideas above his station!
Anyway, enough! off to Casablanca tomorrow, will be intersting to see how one deals with Ramadan and tourism§