Sunday 11th September - Enjoying the French Riviera
On Saturday 3rd September we sailed from Aregai in Italy to Menton-Garavan in France and stopped there for two nights. Apparently, Menton was a favourite resort of Queen Victoria and many other well-known “Brits”. On the second day we visited the cemeteries which overlook the town and have many well-known graves – one being of William Webb Ellis. He is credited with inventing the sport of Rugby and the 200th year of his birth has been marked by a special statue and a memorial plaque with the captains of all the international rugby teams.
The graveyards also provide a superb view over the beach, marina and frontier. On Monday 5th, we passed Monaco and Elizabeth decided we should ask for a berth (as well as poking our nose into the port entrance). They quickly referred us to Fontvielle (next door) who indicated that they were “complet” so we carried on to Beaulieu (spelled the same but pronounced differently from the UK south-coast sailing destination) and were surprised how difficult it was to find available berths. (We had already had a hint of this at Menton-Garavan.) We presumed that now the popular holiday season had now finished then marinas would have plenty of space. However, this is not true and we had to wait two hours at the fuel berth while the capitainerie at Beaulieu decided if they had room for us or not. They finally took pity on us and allowed us to stay there for three nights. Although the almanacs indicate how many berths each marina has and how many of those are available for visitors, we think that many of these berths have now been allocated to permanent berth-holders and the numbers available for passing travellers has been seriously reduced. During the holiday season, many berth-holders are away and these spaces are available for travellers; now the holidays are over all the berths are filled, viz. the converse of what we had been thinking.
Beaulieu is a very pretty place with a very up-market and expensive hotel and restaurant next to the marina and only a short – but crowded – train-ride to Monaco. We visited Monaco on Tuesday and visited the famous Exotique Garden with its cacti and succulents plus a grotto with stalagmites, which were discovered when they were constructing the gardens and enjoyed the fantastic views overlooking the harbours and royal palace. We also ‘checked out’ the famous Monte Carlo Casino and the nearby Hotel de Paris (But both were too expensive to try.)
The way the houses are crowded together and the multi-level buildings have a flavour of Hong Kong.
On Wednesday evening we attended a musical concert at the Anglican church in Beaulieu – a flute and string quintet – and it was very enjoyable. On Thursday 8th we left Beaulieu about 10 am. Round the Cap Ferrat was Villefranche and we thought we might try there but no luck, they were full. Next came the old harbour of Nice but they had two yachts already on their waiting list and were not willing to include us. The next marina was Saint Laurent du Var which is behind Nice airport – with its runways extending into the Bay of Nice. They thought they would have space but asked us to call back in two hours so that they could confirm. By this time a very gentle breeze had blown up so we decided to sail, very sedately, along the beautiful beaches stretching the 5 or 6 miles from old Nice to the airport. The sea was a beautiful deep blue up to 50 metres off the beach where it then turned into a bright turquoise.
The capitainerie allocated us a berth for two nights, suggesting we ask again on Saturday morning if we wanted to stay longer. On Friday we cycled into old Nice and explored the old town, castle and harbour. There is a cycle path along the entire length (6 miles) of the Promenade des Anglais.
Fortunately, a space was found on Saturday morning so that we could extend our stay for a further 3 nights at Saint Laurent and we went swimming on the nearby beach. On Saturday evening, we caught a bus into town to join in the Festival of the Old Port. In the company of about 25,000 others (Elizabeth reckons 10 times that number!), we were able to enjoy the free entertainment provided by the street parade, the four large stages, the decorated boats and the many street artists, including a flag juggler. I did admire the thoughtfulness of the local cleaning authority who had engaged the young man to follow the horses.
Elizabeth leaves me and Eliza B on Monday afternoon and flies off to organise her conference in Kuala Lumpar for three days. Sailing friend Richard arrives on Tuesday so we can explore more of the coast and give Elizabeth the challenge of catching up with us on her return on Friday. Ron. Ron & Elizabeth HOWARD Eliza B, Moody 36 (1998) + 44 7768 816 579 + 33 (0)6 11 66 79 08 http://blog.mailasail.com/elizab |
