Patricia Sands

Author

French Riviera

To market, to market …

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If it’s Friday, it must be France…

Bonjour mes amis! Let’s go to the daily market in Nice. Whatever you want, they have! If you are a photo junkie like me, go crazy!  We can hang out and browse, conduct a little retail therapy, and then chill with a beverage of choice at one of the cool cafés bordering both sides of the market while we watch the action.

Speaking of beverages, you might want to take a minute to have one while you watch this slideshow. I hope you enjoy the trip.

First we’ll take the train into Nice and hop onto a quick and quiet tram down to Place Massena. Then we simply dive into one of the enticing laneways leading to the Cours Saleya in the old town and voila! When we’ re finished there, it’s simply a walk across the Boulevard Des Anglais to the Promenade so we can park ourselves beachside. You’ll be glad you came with me!

Did you notice the action at the mushroom stall? The customer chooses a mushroom and the vendor slices it open to show the quality. Those were some serious champignons!

Are your speakers on?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2gEJ_fiIbo&feature=youtu.be

Do you like to spend time at the fresh markets where you live? Have you taken way too many photos of vegetables like I have? Where was the best market you visited? 

A roadtrip to Gourdon

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

My plan was to have you join me for a roadtrip to one of our favourite destinations when we had friends visiting. The perched village of Gourdon has, as the sign says, a “Panorama Grandiose” … say no more. The view is worth the drive and the drive is a treat in itself. There’s a great spot for the usual espresso stop while you enjoy the breathtaking vista with the hills of the Alpes-Maritimes tumbling down to the Côte D’Azur while the Mediterranean sparkles like a jewel on a perfect day.

You’ll find more information about the village and it’s 13thC castle that began as a Saracen fortress in the 9thC if you click here. Roman ruins indicate the area was well inhabited during those times. As well as a loved destination for tourists and locals alike, hiking and hang-gliding are also popular.

The roadtrip down from Gourdon brings us back to the coast ending with a sunset from our terrace in Antibes. The photos are all mine with the exception of the fantastic shot of the entire village which must have been taken from a plane (credit is given to cometofrance.com).

I’m late getting this post up for a couple of reasons but the most important is that as I was putting together my slideshow I received a very sad e-mail. A dear friend in London, England passed away yesterday after battling leukemia for several years. She was one of those people who make life better just by knowing her – and her husband, I might add. When I wrote him tonight I expressed how they always represented to me the best that a couple could be together. I hope you know someone like that too.

So if you are wondering why I have a Beatles song as the accompanying music for this French roadtrip, it’s because I’ve been thinking about my friend Adorée.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DkfHKJqkaU&feature=youtu.be

I’ve been looking after The Adorables this week (our youngest grandchildren, ages 2 and 4) as they’ve been home sick with a nasty virus. Consequently, I am SO far behind with writing and social media, it’s staggering! I won’t even bother going into the fact that I picked up their virus, just to add to the fun! I pride myself on never getting sick so that was definitely not on my agenda! So pardon my absence, fellow bloggers and dear readers, and things should be back to normal (whatever that is) very soon. How do you deal with the unexpected glitches life throws into your schedule?

Choopy’s Cupcakes and Coffee Shop

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

I love success stories, don’t you? The reason I’m a little late posting this is because I took a few hours this evening to watch the movie The Help with my DH. As well as being an important and well-told story,  author Kathryn Stockett’s backstory about writing The Help is one everyone should hear. It’s a true success story.

She received 60 rejections over a five-year period before one brave agent with an eye for a good story saw the truth in it. Click here to read it from my archives, in case you missed it. She’s hilarious and her personal journey is inspiring to all of us who believe in our writing.

Okay, I’m getting off topic … as I do … this post is about France and it’s about success. It’s about a young couple I met in Antibes whose story also inspired me.

Meet Julie and Victor, the owners of Choopy’s,  who are natives of nearby Nice and about as sincere and delightful a young couple as you could ever hope to meet. This warm and welcoming shop is in the old town of Antibes, through a short archway off Rue de La République.

I have to admit I’m not a true coffee drinker, unlike my DH who is an espresso afficionado.

I am … full confession here … a faux-coffee drinker. I need chocolate in it . Give me a Café Mocha or a Moccacino and I’m in heaven. I appreciate how seriously the French take their café and I know it’s kind of bad manners to even think of having anything but a café (i.e. espresso) or a café crème so I had been pretending for several weeks that I was cool with that (plus a LOT of sugar). But I wasn’t.

So … Choopy’s was new and had a cosmopolitan ambiance AND they had free wifi – bonus! I wandered in one day to see if possibly they might have one of these North American aberrations on their menu. They didn’t. “Pas de problème!” said Victor with his wonderful smile. “Explain what it is and I’ll make you one.” I did and he did. Magnifique!

Julie, a beautiful and engaging young woman, is a graduate of a prestigious 5-year culinary program. Vincent has a degree in business and finance. Soon after graduation they began working. It took no time for Julie to realize she wanted to be in contact with people and Vincent knew he preferred baking cakes to crunching numbers. Their quest began to figure out just what it was they could do to make this happen.

Like so  many other young people, they packed up and had an adventure working and traveling in Australia and Bali. All the while they were on the lookout for something that might be a sign as to what sort of business they should open. It didn’t take long for the sign to appear and surprisingly it was in the shape of … CUPCAKES! 

It seemed as if every coffee shop in Australia also served cupcakes. Mon Dieu! Qu’est-ce que c’est? Who had heard of cupcakes in France?  Not many. You can find more types of pastries in France than practically anywhere else in the world … but not cupcakes!

Visiting cupcake bakeries in Australia before they left, they were convinced that this was their future.  A bit of research back home indicated only one bakery in Paris was making cupcakes. Amazing. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t enjoy a good cupcake … or two?  Julie has become a cupcake goddess and every kind I sampled through the summer was über-delicieux!

Along with the ever-changing selection of cupcakes there are several other equally delicious choices to accompany your coffee. Victor’s banana bread with it’s mouth-watering crunchy topping has already established it’s own reputation.

Lunches and Sunday brunches are also served with all ingredients fresh from the daily market. Get there early as the space fills up quickly. The word has spread and this bright, hard-working and absolutely delightful young couple are seeing their business become a most successful venture.

It was always a pleasure to stop in and see how busy they were. Their energy and commitment to their business is evident in everything they do. Customer service is their focus and after just a few months it was obvious they were becoming a very important part of the charming old town in Antibes. Never too busy for a smile and a friendly exchange, make sure you stop by the next time you are in the neighbourhood!

The strawberry cupcakes are to die for … but then, so are the chocolate … and  … um, well, the Cupcakes De Noël are out now too. Just try them all!

And ask them how they decided upon the name of their shop … very cute …

Here’s their Facebook link. Stop in and “like” them – they deserve it. Merci beaucoup!

What are some success stories that have inspired you? Have you ever done your homework, taken a big breath and begun something completely new and different in your life? Would you do it again?

Picasso’s new lease on life in Antibes …

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

In the summer of 1946, Pablo Picasso was in a good mood. The war was over and he was in the south of France with his new lover Françoise Gilot, who was 40 years younger.

Staying in Golfe-Juan, close to Antibes, through a chance meeting on the beach he was offered space for a studio in the Musée Grimaldi. A Roman fort that was rebuilt in the 14thC, it was being used at the time as a provincial antiquities museum.

Although he only used the chateau for a couple of months he was prodigious, leaving 22 paintings and 43 drawings to be kept on display in the space. As explained by Tony Myers in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian, “When he moved in, Picasso told the curator that he would decorate the walls of the castle as a thank you. But they were in a rough state of repair, and in the end Picasso was unable to fulfil his promise, with the exception of one graphite drawing, Les Clés d’Antibes. (The drawing can still be seen in the hall of the Grimaldi.) Instead, he donated the work he’d done there to the museum, stipulating that they should remain there permanently. “Anyone who wants to see them will have to come to Antibes,” he declared.”

 

 

 

 

 

When Picasso first arrived in Antibes there was a shortage of art materials – of everything, really, after the terrible years of WW2 – so he worked with what was available locally. Instead of canvas, he created backings of asbestos-cement and he used boat paint obtained from the fisherman at the port. Household paintbrushes and other crude implements replaced his usual painting and drawing supplies. Undaunted he painted with abandon, inspired by the beauty of his surroundings.

 

Wherever you go along the French Riviera, copies of paintings are often mounted on the spot where the artist sketched or painted the original. It’s an exciting feeling to know you are standing there!

I walked past this one practically every day on my morning walk. Loved it! He painted this colorful scene just before the outbreak of the war in 1939 and some have interpreted strong anti-war symbols while others see an exuberant depiction of the simple life of fishermen in Antibes. Take a look at the closeup below. What’s your take on it?

“The scene was one well familiar to Picasso, and he translated it with exuberance and vivid color into his own personal and stylized painting. He shows the spear fishermen of Antibes, in the south of France, working close to the shore, luring the fish to the surface with a lamp. Their activities have stopped some interested bystanders on the quay, two girls who pause in the languid evening to watch the outcome. One (at the right) holds a bicycle and licks at a double-dip ice cream cone. In the background on the left is the blocky form of the old castle of Grimaldi which, since the time of the painting, has become a Picasso museum.” (SI, 11/01/1960)

Are you a fan of Picasso’s art or do you look at it and wonder “What the … ?”. One thing we know for certain, the number of ways people express themselves creatively is impossible to count. Picasso is quoted as saying, “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” Would you agree with that?