The Carpet Shaker

We are way up the top of the Old Town of Ventimiglia where many people still do things the old way.

Street Theatre - Wandering into the Action

This enchanting child (and her father) wandered onto centre stage and so became part of the action for a brief moment in time.

Last day at the Street Theatre so let's finish with a girl inside a pile of old tyres. Why not? I think she represents a girl who is drowning.

Thanks so much to everyone who has followed this series.

Street Theatre - Flags

Here are some of the younger performers having great fun on bicycles, bouncing on balls and running around with the Italian and French flags.

Almost done with the kids' Street Theatre. There are loads more photos but it's time to move on. So last day tomorrow or perhaps the day after - and then onwards - so many other things to show you.

Street Theatre - Smiles of a Summer's Day

Faces - ready to go. The girl above is about to put a piece of chewing gum in her mouth. The girl on the left - a cigarette.

The girls below are simply putting on a smile.

Street Theatre - the Girl in Blue

This piece of street theatre is about a girl (the actress in blue) who is teased/bullied/ostracised by the confident girls in the last photo. She falls apart and has a breakdown. The scene above shows her shortly after her arrival at a psychiatric hospital.

Street Theatre - Isolation

This young girl sat on the bollard for well over an hour, sometimes texting, sometimes just staring into space, yet never seeing - always totally isolated from what was going on. Look at the girl on the far left of the top photo - she has noticed her and perhaps her isolation.

'If isolation tempers the strong, it is the stumbling-block of the uncertain.'

~ Paul Cezanne

Street Theatre - the Italian Teacher

Somehow the teachers kept control of their adolescent students.

'No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.'

~ William Osler

Street Theatre - Lipstick

'Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.'

~ Gwyneth Paltrow

Street Theatre - the Audience

'Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.'
~ Alfred Hitchcock

Street Theatre - the Dying Sea

This is the ending of a piece of theatre about the Mediterranean and about the sailors and fishermen who have died in it. It was in Italian which I don't speak, but we had sea and sirens and death. I think this young girl represents the death of the Mediterranean but then again, I could be completely wrong...

Street Theatre - the Italian Boy

Each year in May around 1000 children and young people descend on Menton to entertain - and make us think - with street theatre - song, dance, mime and drama. They are part of a Franco-Italian organisation from Liguria and the Piedmont in Italy and from the Var and of course from the Alpes-Maritimes - our area. So come with me and enjoy a few days seeing what they got up to.

This young man is Italian and he and his group were really good actors. The first shot was taken whilst he was hanging out with his friends - most were preparing their make-up. The shot below shows him in performance with his group - at this moment they are in a psychiatric hospital.

The Rotten Clementine

Take a Provence bowl with a raised pattern in the base. Place within several Menton clementines. Wait a few days - perhaps a week or so - and when just one is left in the bowl - but be sure to choose the day when you really fancy eating it, when you've no more fruit in the house, then - pick it up and find the lower half has rotted. Voila!

The Blue Bottle

Have you seen white wine in a blue bottle before? This is called Out of the Blue - unusual to see a French wine with an English name. This is a Côte de Provence - shared at La Pergola some weeks ago with the lovely Nathalie from Avignon in Photos.

Les Poupées

One of the best bric-a-brac markets takes place from time to time near to the Stade at the end of the Sablettes beach. This stall had a display of old dolls - poupées in French.

The Bicycle

This is part of the regular Sunday market that sells antiques and bric-a-brac in the Place aux Herbes and in square below.

Perhaps this man should have bought a bigger bike!

High Heels

Photographer, model - and those shoes - at Cap Martin.

The Individual

The story starts in the photo below, where all the children are in one group on the Sablettes beach. Then this gorgeous little boy takes off by himself. An individual in the making, wouldn't you say?

Heels

He may need a sanding machine to deal with those heels but at least summer is here - well it was on the day I took this - and yes, looking out over the sea, it looks as if today will be a good one too. Hope yours is.

The Late Colomba

On the back of the bike is a Colomba. La Colomba is a panettone (a light Italian cake-like bread) in the shape of a dove, sold in Italy and of course in Menton at Easter. Easter has gone and so they are being sold off cheaply and before they are past their sell-by date.

You can buy them filled with candied citrus, topped with almonds or there's a version with chocolate - all delicious and particularly good with a sweet liqueur. And if your panettone gets stale, why you toast it!

The Cobweb

There's beauty everywhere in Menton and the surrounding villages. Here's a little niche above a door lintel in the medieval village of Gorbio - a spider's web joins the faces of the monk and the child he holds in his arms. Note the date on the lintel - 1659 or is it 1689 (hard to read)

The Birth of Venus

We're in the gardens of the Palais Carnoles, one of Menton's museums. The gardens contain the largest collection of citrus in Menton and that's saying something in the city of citrus. Many sculptures are displayed in the garden - here is The Birth of Venus by Oreste Conti.

Brocante - Triplets

Yesterday Barbie dolls, today the boys. Maybe they should meet?

'Sufficient unto the day is one baby. As long as you are in your right mind don't you ever pray for twins. Twins amount to a permanent riot; and there ain't any real difference between triplets and a insurrection.'
~ Mark Twain

Mademoiselle Barbie and Monsieur Richard

Rejected Barbie dolls at the Brocante in Menton last Sunday. Perhaps I should have bought them for Richard who has a fun blog 'Barbie of the Day.' Dressed by Richard who is a real Fashionista, witty words by Richard (often reflecting the politics of the day), his Barbie lives in Villefranche-sur-Mer, which is just along the coast from Menton and believe me Richard's Barbie lives the high life of the French Riviera and Monte Carlo. Do click on the link to take a look.

After the Waves - the Digger

Clean-up time on the beaches. The digger is scooping sand back from the sea and replacing it on the beach.

Compare the last photo to that of yesterday. You don't really expect to see a digger as you look through a restaurant to the sea.

The damage to Menton was minimal though even tho the papers said otherwise. Nice and Cannes suffered far more. One Menton restaurateur I spoke to said he'd lost 30 beach chairs and had a few more damaged. Many restaurants were already open, others will open today. Life is almost back to normal on the Sablettes. Click HERE to see how high the waves were Nice!

Calm before the Storm

A man suns himself on a beach chair. This was taken in mid-April and is as it should be in Menton - a normal, glorious day. Sunny, as it will be today and should be tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow - but two days ago the Côte d'Azur was battered by incredible freak waves from Menton way down the coast, the worst between Nice and Cannes. Strangely, there was little wind, these were simply freak waves, referred to in one of the newspapers as a 'mini tzunami,' which is perhaps an exaggeration but all the same, scary.

Waves as high as 10 metres (33 feet) battered Nice and Cannes. This is unheard of in the Mediterranean and especially in May. In Cannes, where the Film Festival is due to open shortly, some 20 restaurants were damaged and several cars overturned. In Nice, not only the beaches were closed but also part of its famous Promenade des Anglais. Happily no one was swept away although one women sustained a fractured leg. In Monaco, Larvotto Beach was battered with the sea coming right up the beach and into the restaurants, dragging the tables and chairs out to sea. In Menton too, damage to restaurants along the Sablettes.

All bad news at the beginning of the season.

Click HERE to see Larvotto Beach and damage in Monaco.