Good enough to eat?

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it? But it's not... These cakes are for sale in a flower shop!

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Assez appétissant n'est-ce pas? Pourtant ça ne l'est pas ... Ces gâteaux sont en vente dans un magasin de fleurs!

'Allo Robert' - the Wondrous Chaos

At 'Allo Robert' the fun is in exploring, searching, wondering what will be around the next corner. Here you can see just one tiny section. The shop iself is spread out in many different directions and on two floors.

My sort of shop and the owners are SO nice and friendly too. They were closing for lunch and I'd lost the lens hood of my camera. They helped me look, turned on lights that had been turned off, delayed their lunch and then I found it where I'd put it for safety...gracing my forearm like a bracelet. Duh!

'Allo Robert' - Waiting

I wish someone would give this old horse a home. He's lost a leg but it's there - hanging off the frame. He's waiting...waiting...waiting...

'Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.'

~ Alfred A. Montapert

'Allo Robert' - the Old Bottles

We're back at the brocante shop, 'Allo Robert,' to see a row of old bottles on a windowsill. Through the not too clean window we see a little of Menton's glorious colours.

The smaller photo - taken with flash which I generally don't choose to use - shows more clearly what was once in those bottles.

'A Ricard, anyone?'

'Allo Robert' and the Mynah Bird

Just up the Castellar road from the Nouvelles Galleries is a place of wonders. 'Hello Robert' sells brocante and antiquities.

Once inside, you have to fight your way through furniture, piles of antique leather suitcases, a couple of cars, tables, fairground figures, ancient bicycles, rocking horses galore, old tins, statues, paintings, it never stops and of course it's fabulous.

The ground floor seems to extend forever, most is undercover but at the far end it's open to the elements and that's where you'll find old tiles, decorated pots, garden furniture, bird cages and loads of plants, even a small grotto with running water. Tucked in a corner at the foot of a staircase is this mynah bird who talks but is marginally impolite at times! He also wolf whistles to make you feel beautiful and screeches when you walk up his escalier (stairscase).

The Lion (No Witch) and the Wardrobe

A dress shop in the pedestrian street of Menton.

'Some journeys take us far from home. Some adventures lead us to our destiny.'



~ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S.Lewis

A Mug or a Bus Ticket?

A mug for 1 euro. Seems so cheap, doesn't it?

But you know, there is something else you can get for one euro that is even better value. A bus ticket! You can take a bus anywhere in Alpes-Maritimes for 1 euro and the Alpes-Martimes is a big area - you can visit Nice, Antibes, Cannes, Grasse, Mougins, Vence, Vallauris, Roquefort-les-Pins and of course all the places nearer to Menton like Roquebrune and Sospel and Monaco.

Good value, I'd say.

Stubs

Sign outside a shop on Avenue Edourd VII.

'You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.'

~ Stan Laurel

The Wooden Balls

Tiny balls made of wood and perfumed and for sale in the pedestrian street of Menton. Perfect to put in your wardrobe, chest of drawers or in the car. When the aroma disappears, you simply douse them with a few more drops of perfume.

Note the bowls - these are a typical design and colour of this region.

A Menton Christmas - Where art thou, Mother Christmas?

Not a sexy Mother Christmas outfit (although doubtless that too) but a display to show off jewelry for sale in the small Wednesday market of Carnoles, near to Menton.

Where art thou, Mother Christmas?


Where are thou, Mother Christmas?
I only wish I knew
Why Father should get all the praise
And no-one mentions me.

I'll bet you buy the presents
And wrap them large and small
While all the time that rotten swine
Pretends he's done it all.

So Hail to Mother Christmas
Who shoulders all the work
And down with Father Christmas
That unmitigated jerk.

- Roald Dahl

This poem was published as a charity Christmas card to benefit the wonderful Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London.

A Menton Christmas - the Moose

'Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing "Embraceable You" in spats.'

- Woody Allen

A Menton Christmas - a Little TOO Perfect?

Is it the European Union's fault? All fruit must be of a specific size - and of course tasting of absolutely nothing?

Well no, as you have doubtless realised, these are all CANDLES...for sale in a shop in the pedestrian street of Menton.

A Menton Christmas - Mother and daughter

This is Frederique (you met her last year) and in the photograph below, you see Emilie, her daughter. Both delightful and look at those gorgeous eyes that twinkle with life.

Frederique owns the beautiful gift shop in Gorbio - but at Christmas, it's closed and she takes over one of the stalls in the Menton market. The owls you saw the other day come from her stall.

Don't you just love the 'bride' Frederique is holding?

A Menton Christmas - the Owls

The Christmas Market near to the Bastion always has some great gifts - how about an owl!

They are for sale at La Cave de Gorbio, one of the many shops in the Christmas Village by the Bastion. You'll find great Christmas gift ideas here.

Autumn - the French Lesson

One way to learn French...and needing no translation! This tile is for sale in a tourist shop just below the Old Town in Menton.

A surprise amongst the beautiful artisan-made gifts you can buy - obviously Menton caters for all tastes...

Summertime in Menton - the Beach Vendor

The man who sells everything...dresses, shirts, scarves, swim-wear and sun hats. In his right-hand, he's carrying a home-made display case (you can see the cardboard and string) which is crammed with sunglasses and watches and probably a lot more besides.

He trudges the beaches for most of the day. Hot work I'd think with everything he's carrying, not to mention the weight of the hats on his head.

All the guys who sell sunglasses and watches are of North African origin and wear glorious flowing robes. Some try selling counterfeit watches and sunglasses. In Menton, but particularly across the border in Ventimiglia. Usually a cat and mouse game between them and the police. Whether this seller has counterfeit goods in his display case, I don't know. Probably not - he'd not be able to run very fast with that lot, would he? In any case, there are one of two of these sellers I see regularly so they probably have the relevant licence. Or the police turn a blind eye.

Christmas Fair - La Cave de Gorbio

This is Frederique - and below you can see her shop in the Christmas Fair of Menton, which is set up between the sea and the market. I have a particularly soft spot for Frederique because she lives in Gorbio, where I live. She has the only shop in the village apart from the grocer's shop and she's worked incredibly hard over the years to make her business a success. She's always smiling - just like this. Christmas is her big time, when she always hopes to make the majority of her money - obviously she has far more visitors to this shop than come to the village. The small figures you see in front of her are santons. Tomorrow I'll show you santons from another stall in the Christmas Fair and will write about them then.

A gift for Aunt Mary?

Visiting Menton and want to take a gift home with you? No problem. In the pedestrian street you'll find soaps, candles in the form of fruit, Herbes de Provence, lavender - in bunches or wrapped in fabric sachets ready to hang in your wardrobe, tablescloths in a provençal pattern, olive oil containers, weird looking dolls made to cover a toilet roll (!) and much much more.