So it is day two in Cannes.
We were up fairly early and went off to have a shower. We are unimpressed. The French really know nothing about
providing good facilities. The
showers and toilets look nice enough with new tiles and the like. However, for a huge marina there are
only three toilets and two showers for each sex. Also you have to pay for the showers. So we go in and both of us have the
same experience. The showers start
hot and then go icy cold and sometimes go tepid. Not good. But
we are finally not members of the great unwashed.
After breakfast we go shopping.
There is a nearby market.
It is quite nice. Lots for
flowers to begin with and then wonderful fruit and veg. But we don’t need much, so we just buy
a couple of things to make up food for the day. Tomorrow we will go on a
fasting day and buy some fresh fish for dinner before we leave here.
After shopping it is back to the boat to put things away and then we go
off to the old town to do a bit of the pedestrian walk. It is a bit of a climb, but I am sure
that is good for the both of us.
Then back to the boat for lunch.
I make us salads chevre chaude.
We don’t want too much to eat because we are going off to smart dins
tonight.
We spend most of the afternoon in the cockpit of the boat soaking up the
sun. I am finishing my fourth book
since we came out. I will have to
download a lot more to keep me going.
The building work is still going on all around us in readiness for the
film festival. There are white
tents all over the place and in particular in the marina. They even have the signs for each of
the huts saying which film group the stand belongs to. They don’t seem very advanced and there
is only 5 days to go!
We also find it hard to understand how this marina is allocating
berths. They have put us on the
end of a pontoon which is in the middle of renovation. There are great gaps in the planking
and no water at our end. There are
tons of spaces further in, but by the afternoon all the end berths near us have
been filled. Even more peculiarly
in the middle of the afternoon a Frenchman comes up to our boat and asks us is
the marina has told us to berth in this place. When we tell him they have, he says this is his permanent
berth! When we tell him we are
leaving tomorrow he is not too bothered, but we can’t understand how the port
can make such a mess of berthing.
So evening comes and we are off for our first really posh meal. We have decided to go to a one Michelin
rosette restaurant called Le Parc 45 in the Grand Hotel. I want to look a bit smart, so I would
prefer to wear nice shoes.
However, I am worried about walking half a mile in high heels with my
knee. I decide to wear my silver
flatties to walk in and take my high heels to change into when I get
there. That all goes well and when
we are just across the street from the restaurant I change my shoes.
We have booked a rather early spot and there is no one in the
restaurant. So we decide to have a
cocktail each first. It is all
very nice until Richard manages to spill his nearly full 18 Euro drink all over
the table! I told him earlier that
the glass seemed to tip up easily, but he didn’t pay heed. What a mess. At least it didn’t go all over my clothes or his, just the
table. They clean us up and give
Richard a new (if rather smaller) drink.
Dinner is very nice. We
wind up eating the least expensive menu, but enjoy it. A fish dish, then chicken done three
ways, with morilles, and a desert. There are
nibbles with the aperitif, an amuse bouche and a pre-desert. We are having a good time. I stop at the ladies before we leave
and decide to change into my flat shoes, when disaster strikes. In my bag I only have one flat
shoe. I have managed to lose the
other. We look under the dinner
table, but it is not there. I must
have failed to put it in my bag when I changed on the way in. We look at the seat where I changed but
there is nothing there. This is a
real fag. I liked the silver
shoes, although they are quite old and really owe me nothing. However, more importantly, they are all
I have to wear in Oslo. So I will
need to go shoe shopping tomorrow morning. Well, there are a lot of shops here. I must be able to find a pair of nice
flat shoes. We shall see.
It is now getting late and we must be up early tomorrow to buy food for
dinner and a new pair of shoes.
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