Wish You Were Here...

Menton has sandy beaches and pebble beaches. One advantage of a pebble beach is that sand doesn't stick to your sun cream.

The Three Wheeler

So many cities have bikes for hire and now it seems Menton does too. Naturally, we have to be different - ours is a three-wheeler. Probably much easier to ride too.

"Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving" - Albert Einstein

Ma ville est Tango - Ageless Beauty

Waiting to dance, which she did as you see in the small photograph.

I so admire women like this. No longer young but she's not given up. She dresses beautifully, she wears carefully chosen jewellry. She hasn't had a face-lift, she doesn't have dyed hair, she wears a touch of makeup. She is the natural feminine beauty she is.

Of course it would be better if she didn't smoke.

Ma ville est Tango - the Sandals and the Shorts

Hmmmm...perhaps this guy forgot to dress?

Having said that, much of the fun is that anyone can get up and tango and several guys, wearing shorts and sandals, did just that. This gentleman, in fact, was rather good at it and partnered several ladies.

Ma ville est Tango - the Shoes

You've arrived in Menton and you've no tango shoes? No problem. Walk over to Esplanade Francis Palmero near the Bastion and you'll find several tents displaying dozens of pairs of shoes, hand-made in Buenos Aires. You'll also find tango CDs, and every sort of tango memorabilia you could wish for.

Ma ville est Tango - It takes Two...

"What worries?" I'm just here to dance! Tango is one of the great wonders of Argentina"

- Alberto Pajesz

Place du Cap, Menton

Ma ville est Tango - Apero Time

It's summer, it's festival time and this weekend it's Argentinian Tango! Buenos Aires comes to Menton. This festival gets more and more popular each year. The organisers spend a month in Argentina choosing the dancers and teachers who will come to Menton. And people, from all over the world, take their holiday in Menton to learn, to dance in the streets, to watch the experts. There are concerts, spectacles and lessons.

Every evening (apero time) between 5 and 8 p.m. anyone can come and dance at the Place du Cap.

Stuck Up

Look left, look right, you'll see something to surprise you on market days in Menton. Here we have two almost life-sized figures, made of papier maché, I presume.

I'd love to know their history. Yes I know, I should have asked but the market was closing and the owner of this stall was busy packing up her van.

They'd not been sold.

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.

The Pastis Water Bottles

Sit at a bar in France, order a pastis (anisette is a sweeter version) and it will be served with one of these bottles filled with water.

Pastis is the great aperitif of the south, a delicious - and strong - aniseed flavoured drink, which when mixed with water goes cloudy.

Pastis was first commercialised by Paul Ricard in 1932, 17 years after the ban on absinthe.

At any vide-grenier or bric a brac fair, you'll find these water bottles which are now collector's items.

Lust for an Oyster

A plate of oysters at Restaurant Le Lido in Places aux Herbes.

The Photo that Wasn't Meant to Be

Yes, I know it's a rather grainy photo, but I want to tell you its story. I was sitting in a bar at Place du Cap, with a glass of rosé and taking the odd photograph. This man came up to me and asked if I'd taken his picture. I hadn't. I'd noticed him, that's all. I assured him, 'No, I've not taken your photograph, I was photographing something behind you.' And I told him about this blog. Then he said, really rather aggressively, 'If you want to take my photo, then you must ask.' No, no, that's OK, I don't want to take your photo, ' I said.

He went away.

Five minutes later he came back and said, 'You should ask if you want to take my photo,' so we went through it again, I reiterated I hadn't taken it and I didn't want to take it. Then he said, 'Well you can take my photograph if you want.' I nearly fell over and would have done so had I not been sitting down. 'You mean you'd like me to take your photograph?' I said. 'Okay, then,' he said.

And so I did.

I was sitting down, he was standing up leaning over me, the table was shaded by an umbrella and anyway it was dusk - hence a rather grainy photo.

Apologies for lack of comments. I am going thru a lousy bout of flu that seems to be going on forever - and have only been up to posting the blogs. Hope to be back on track soon. Meanwhile, thankyou so much for your comments.

Roost

Dusk. Pigeons roosting at the foot of the Old Town.

The Arabian Horses - the Plastic Bag

When a horse is being presented to the judges, there is always a handler outside the ring with a plastic bag on the end of a flexible pole. This gets whipped about to get the horse's attention and perk him up. It makes quite a noise too. Some handlers bang on the bars of the tents.

The Arabian Horses - Layan Al Khalediah

This is the filly that slipped her halter - please read yesterday's post. It took a while for her handler and others to get a halter onto her and for me to regain composure and take a photograph!

As you can see in the last photo (the first I took after she galloped to where I stood) her handler very gently - and from the side - puts a temporary halter on her. After about five minutes, when she'd settled a bit, this was changed to the gold show halter you see in the smaller photograph.

It's no surprise this filly is treated so carefully. Her name is Layan Al Khalediah and she was World Champion Filly in 2007, she won the 2007/2008 Dubai Gold Cup and is the 2009 Las Vegas World Cup Supreme Champion Filly. She is bred at the Al Khalediah Stables in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and is owned by HRH Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

The Arabian Horses - the Escapee!

Thirty seconds after the photo (below) was taken, this beautiful filly, who belongs to a Saudi Prince, slipped her halter. Notice, in the smaller photograph, how the handlers in the ring approach her very slowly, so as not to scare her.

But it didn't work.

I was standing in the far corner of the ring, inside the barrier, no one near me. Suddenly, she kicked up, looked me in the eye (or so it seemed) and galloped towards me.

As she galloped, I quickly moved behind the barrier. She stopped a metre in front of me and started to eat leaves from a plant that had fallen in the wind.

For what happened next, come back tomorrow.

The Tour de France starts today in Monaco. Please click on Le Tour de France at Monte Carlo Daily Photo.

The Arabian Horses - the Holding Ring

This beauty waits in the holding ring.

The Arabian Horses - the Tattoo

The Arabian horses were in Menton recently for the prestigious Mediterranean & Arab Countries Arabian Horse Championship show.

I think this lady loves Arabians, don't you?

The horses have Vaseline put around their eyes and on their muzzles to apparently emphasize their features.

In the smaller photo - taken at dusk - you see where the show is held (the stade) in relation to the beautiful Old Town of Menton. The horse you see is in the holding ring.

Theme Day: Empty

Moules! Empty mussel shells at Restaurant le Balico in Menton. They were so good!

The shells appear to be black until you take a flash photo and then you see the beautiful blues and pearl colours on the interior of the shells.

Note: Since posting the above, sadly Le Balico has been sold and is now under new management.

Today is once again Theme Day in the City Daily Photo community. To see how bloggers from all over the world have interpreted today's Theme, please click here to view thumbnails.

The Massage

Once a week I go to see Bruno, my kiné - (kinésithérapeute = physiotherapist). I lie on the massage table, look up and there is this print...

Claude Serre, who died in 1998, was a well-known French illustrator, with a somewhat black sense of humour.