Hold your nose and jump!
This lovely building is almost on the beach. We are in Latte which is a village between Menton and Ventimiglia. (I often come here to shop - there's a really good supermarket with great pasta and well-priced good wines).
We are stretched out on deck - it's time to people-watch.
Like us, these two boats have just tied up together. The photo below shows them just before they did so - and the small photo (click either photo to enlarge) shows what they did next - swim!
We're almost there. In fact the trip from Menton to Latte, which is where we will drop anchor, is only about 10 minutes from Menton. Here we are passing La Mortola and the Hanbury Gardens, one of the most beautiful gardens in an area famous for its gardens. We'll visit it one day, I promise. Click on the smaller photo for a better view of this beautiful house.
The Via Aurelia, an old Roman road, runs through the gardens which were created in 1867 by the Englishman, Sir Thomas Hanbury and has a collection of 6,000 plants. It's now managed by the University of Genoa.
Trivia: about a television series called Rosemary & Thyme, which stars Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris. Caroline Hanbury, who still lives in Villa Hanbury, allowed the house and gardens to be used for this detective series about two lady gardeners. Her terrace was dug up and a restaurant created for the filming - afterwards, it was restored as before. Along with other friends, I spent one evening as an 'extra' in the 'restaurant.' If you saw that instalment of the series, and knew what I looked like, you'd see me calling for the waitress! I seem to remember getting paid 100 francs for it too. (well, I still have my Equity card!)
The perched village you see high up to the left of the photograph is Grimaldi Superiore.
Tomorrow we drop anchor just around the bay.
We're off! We've left Menton behind - you see the Old Town on the left and the Port of Garavan, where we boarded, towards the right (you can see the red and white lighthouse, which is also in the smaller photo to the left). We are already in Italy.
We fly the Red Ensign. It is apparently etiquette to also fly the flag of the country you are in, so the small French flag, normally on the other side of the boat, has been taken down to be replaced by the Italian flag for the day.
Buongiorno Italia! Hold tight - we're going quite fast...
You don't often bump into a sheep in the walking street of Menton. This one, with its Nike symbol (see lower photo) is apparently used for publicity. It's called Woolite. The name surprised me because I know Woolite as a British product for washing wool. I looked in my cupboard and what is my French product called? Yes, the same - Woolite. It just sounds different said with a French accent!
As you can see in the photograph to the right, this sheep (or rather lamb) is fixed on its owner, running through the streets behind him. I've seen this before when I featured a sheep in Gorbio, who slept in the owner's bedroom.
You can click on the smaller photographs to enlarge.
No one may mention roast lamb or mint sauce...
Stop Press: Since publishing today's post, I see Woolite's owner has left a message with a link. Thankyou! So please click on THIS LINK to read more about this lovely sheep. You can even see Woolite in the sea!
The wedding is over. Life goes on. The telephone directories were delivered a few weeks ago - not an easy task for Crystelle - Gorbio's pretty young post lady. The village is steep, little roads branch off in all directions. Hard work lugging a load of annuaires, I'd think.
Here you see an old door to a cellar - one that looks as if it wouldn't be easy to open. Come to think of it, some of the services offered in the Yellow Pages might just be rather useful...but I hope not. I love this old door. Notice the door step - simply a tree trunk.
The small photo shows telephone directories outside a house, located higher in this perched medieval village.
