119. Planète Cannes

12th February 2011. 16km this morning in a coxed quad sculler.. (running total: 434km) The outing finished up as a race over the last kilometre or so with an VIII sculler from the club.. which we could and should have won. Ah well..! 

19th February 2011. Last Monday we loaded up the car, stowed the pooch in the back and left a dripping wet Bayonne for a few days away in Cannes, in the south east of France. Looking at the route the day before on the Michelin web site, I'd been surprised to find it was 820kms (509 miles) - a bit further than I'd thought - about a 7 or 8 hour drive.

The road paralleled the Pyrenees at first which unfortunately were completely shrouded in rain, low cloud and mist. Our route took us south of Toulouse straight to Narbonne where we turned north east for Montpellier, past the sprawlopolis that is Nîmes, then across the Rhône to Arles (Van Gogh country), Salon-de-Provence, Aix-en-Provence and then through the Provençal hills, with their mimosa blossoms, to Cannes - which was also dripping wet! Here's a live webcam feed from Cannes.

And here's a picture of Cannes as we might have seen it - had it not rained continuously for the duration of our entire stay! Some very attractive traditional wooden yachts here..

Walking through the narrow rain-swept streets of the United Blingdom, many world-famous brands were in evidence in the glitzy shops - Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Prada et al. Exotic cars also prowled the streets, splashing past in a non-stop parade - Porsche Panameras (for those for whom an 'ordinary' Porsche simply isn't enough), convertible Bentleys and monster blinged-up Audi 7 4x4s with Gulf State plates. There were a few old sixties bangers around too - some had well restored bodywork - and none had their husbands with them!

To escape the umbrella-tangled streets, we walked out to the marina one day to look at some of the mighty luxury private yachts (ships?) that were moored stern-on to the quayside. I noticed in one yacht broker that one of the smaller ones was available for charter on a daily basis for 6,000€ a day! Meanwhile, the real monster yachts cost around a million euros per week - but to me they lack any kind of appeal. Yes, honestly.

We had an excellent lunch at Le Caveau 30 one day. This restaurant with a thirties theme is well situated on La Croisette. (Note the profusion of mirrors for those who are never satisfied with their current lunch partner!) Their lunch menu (edited in 2023: now 35€) is highly recommended - I had the oysters and then the St Pierre (John Dory) with a bottle of Bandol rosé.  

After 4 days of continuous rain, we returned to God's own country (aka the Pays Basque) yesterday as the sun finally emerged.