Joyeux Noel!

'In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he's a circus clown,
We'll have lots of fun with Mister Snowman,
Until the other kids knock him down.'

Happy Christmas everyone! - and thank you so much - my esteemed fellow Daily City Photo bloggers - for visiting Menton DP and Monte Carlo DP - for your comments, your encouragement and help and most of all your friendship.

(Photo taken in the Jardin Bioves, Menton - where the whole area has been made into a Christmas Wonderland for children. )

Christmas Fair - rain!

This was yesterday - the Christmas market in the rain. You can just see one of the steeples of the Old Town in the misty background. Today, happily, the rain has gone away, the sea is dark blue, the sky clear and bright - and the market traders will hopefully have a better time of it. It's unusual to have rain here at Christmas. Normally, you can eat Christmas lunch on the terrace but this year it's rather chilly for the south of France.

Tai Chi

This gentleman isn't worried about last minute shopping for Christmas. He's not worried about the rain either. He was totally concentrated - oblivious to passers-by as he did his Tai Chi this morning. You can see Cap Martin in the background.

Give a dog a bone...

This Brittany spaniel is waiting outside the kitchen entrance to a restaurant at the base of the Old Town. I can only imagine his owner works there or is delivering something. Give the dog a bone!

You can see what a beautiful face this dog has by clicking on the link.

Christmas Fair - Santons

Santons are small figurines made of terracotta and can be purchased painted or unpainted. They are used to build nativity scenes and are a traditional product of the Provence area of France. Menton has its own santonnier with an atelier in the Old Town.

The santon comes from the Provençal santoun or 'little saint' and the figures became popular during the French Revolution when the churches were closed and the larger traditional nativity scenes in churches prohibited. Smaller figures began appearing in homes and quickly gained popularity.

Apart from the standard figures and animals associated with the nativity (including elephants and camels), there are countless other santons depicting traditional characters from Provençal village life, including the motley fool, the miller and the blind man.

You saw a different style of santon in yesterday's post.

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.

The mystery of the finger nails

Do blow up this photograph and take a look at what the lady has in her hand. She's is in the middle of cutting the man's fingernails. Now I find this rather strange. Here they are sitting on a nice bench by the sea - by Le Bastion, in fact, not far from the main market area. Is this the place to cut fingernails? I have tried to think this through. I don't imagine they live together else surely, if he needs someone to cut his finger nails, then they'd do it at home. And why can't he cut his own fingernails?

Anyone got the answer to this?

Plage du Golfe Bleu - 5

These guys swoop about and land relatively quickly. I had to rather rush up the beach not to be in the way - so apologies for chopping off the top of the parachute in this photograph. Once he had landed, he immediately turned to face the opposite direction (see second photograph) - so the wind would allow his parachute to collapse onto the beach in a way that made it easy for him to roll up.

If you missed the earlier postings, you can read more on these paragliders who take off from Mont Agel HERE.

If you'd like to see a beautiful golden retriever walking the beach - and later being calmed by his gentle owner whilst one of the paragliders landed, please click on the link.

Plage du Golfe Bleu - 4

Almost there!

Waves

Another photograph from yesterday. Today's Nice-Matin talks about a 'spectaculaire coup de mer' - with the wind reaching 125 kilometres per hour. That's unusual for us, hence front page news in Nice-Matin today!

In fact, today's weather, whilst still cold, is wonderful. Bluest sky again, hardly any wind, so tomorrow - back to the beach in Roquebrune and those paragliders.

Brrrrrr...

You were promised a paraglider landing on the Plage du Golfe Bleu but as you can see there's been a hiccup in the weather. (I'll show that photograph another day). This is for anyone who thinks Menton always has perfect weather. Today it is very cold with a bitter wind. There's snow on the mountains above Gorbio and as you can see the road along the sea has been closed to traffic.

Plage du Golfe Bleu - 3

The reason I came down to this particular beach was to photograph the paragliders landing. You may recall I posted some photographs a while back, under the heading Come Fly with Me - those were taken from one of the roads above. Do come back tomorrow and the next day to see a close-up of a landing.

In this photograph you can see some guys packing up their parachutes ready for the long hike back to the van that will take them way, way up to Mont Agel for another flight. Getting to the beach is a hike. You park near to the railway station of Roquebrune-cap-Martin, you walk down a long flight of steps and then under the railway lines and alongside what looks like it was once a river until you get to the beach. And those parachutes, once packed up into rucksacks, look very heavy to me.

Plage du Golfe Bleu - 2

Messing about in boats...

Plage du Golfe Bleu - 1

Forget the Christmas shopping! Come and spend a few days on the beach. This is the Plage du Golfe Bleu at Roquebrune-cap-Martin - that's the Pointe of Cap Martin in the distance. Menton is the other side of Cap Martin. Monte Carlo is behind us.

I drove down to the beach this morning because I wanted to photograph some of the paragliders landing - and whilst waiting, just enjoyed the beach. Come back for more tomorrow, won't you?

Christmas Fair - Honey

The Christmas Fair is a great place to buy gifts, the majority of which are created by artisans. You'll not find mass production here. Many stall holders are specialists - here you see part of the honey stall.

Which flavour of honey do you prefer?

Telethon 2007 - 2

Another event put on by the Pompiers of Menton. I love the idea of being able to whizz down the rope from the top of the fort called the Bastion, which was constructed in 1636. Would you like to do this?

You can see the Firemen on top of the Bastion securing the ropes ready for the day's events.

Christmas Fair - Pots

You want a pot? Look no further. Come to Menton. Every December the area near to beach and the Bastion is covered in pots of every shape you could dream of - they come from north Africa - I think probably Morocco and are part of the Christmas Fair which is over to the right of these photographs and which I'll show you another day.

You can see Cap Martin in the distance in the first two photos and in the third photo, you'll recognise the steeples of the Old Town.

Téléthon 2007

Téléthon 2007 takes place today. Tonight there will be a programme on television to raise money for charity.

The other day I noticed these great mounds of sand had been dumped on the beach. Today I know why. The firemen of Menton were responsible for the sand and today they are giving disabled children very bumpy rides in their 4 x 4s. Whether or not the children you see in the front seat are disabled or not, I don't know, as this ride took place before the official opening.

Rue Longue - 7

This restaurant, A Braijade Meridiounale is at the restored end of rue Longue. Do click on the link to read more about this restaurant. I've not eaten there, but intend to rectify that soon! The menu sounds delicious. You can see a different shot of this restaurant in yesterday's post (on the left) which shows you its location in rue Longue, not far from Porte Saint-Julien.

Rue Longue - 6

Today we are looking back at the Porte Saint-Julien you saw yesterday. In this part of rue Longue the road works are finished and I see Father Christmas is attempting to get in on the right above the sign Le Palais des Princes.

Le Palais des Princes was built in the 15th century for Jean 1er Grimaldi and was totally restored in 1650 by Prince Honoré II of Monaco. The building was a replacement for the ancient citadelle which was destroyed in war. Later, in the 18th century, its use was transferred to the Palais Carnoles, which is now a museum with a beautiful garden specialising in citrus. This is over the other side of town and I'll be taking you there one of these fine days.

Tomorrow, we'll look at a restaurant in rue Longue.