Taste of Retired Life
Travelling on a very limited budget is much easier if you either A) Enjoy spending your time in less developed (and thus relatively less expensive) destinations, or B) Have friends you can stay with for free. When both of these boxes are ticked, the world is truly your oyster! And speaking of oysters, if you scroll down a bit here you'll see a heaping plate of them at a street food festival on the Côte d’Azur, where I had the pleasure of spending almost a week at the end of September - visiting an old friend and his family and getting a taste of what it's like to be a French pensioner. Spoiler alert: It's pretty awesome. There must be something to all these revolutions and strikes they're always going on about….
Paris, no filter
It's even more magical in person!
(NB: This was taken during what turned out to be an 18-hour day going from Berlin to the south of France by train, which isn't bad time for some 2000km. Although if you ever need to get some shut eye on a train, try not to contort your arm into a pillow in such a way that you pinch your ulnar nerve and end up having numbness in your hand for more than a month. Not a lot of fun.)
Gare de Lyon
Hot Take: French railways makes the Balkans look like Switzerland.
Wow, words can't describe how shambolic, inefficient and ridiculous today's (still ongoing) journey from Berlin to Hyères via Paris has been....
Welcome to the Côte d’Azur
Sometimes missed connections open up new opportunities - opportunities to sample local gastronomic delights and hang out at train stations late into the night in idyllic towns on the Côte d'Azur....
French Homecooking
No matter how much you instinctively want to make fun of the French for their mouldy cheese, once you get it in your mouth you've got no choice but to grudgingly admit that it's delicious.
And this is even after getting a lengthy explanation of how you should scrape the rind to find live worms (the longer the worms the better the cheese!), followed by a hearty round of laughter at the fact that the cheese in question is illegal in the US.
Meanwhile, the steak frites main course was perfection - much rarer than it looks in the photo, with meat that literally melted in your mouth. Mmmm mmmm!
Good times. One could really get used to retired life in the south of France....
Attention au chien
When you're perfectly posed for an ironic photo, but the second someone tries to capture the moment you want no part of it - no matter how discretely they go about it....
NB: The camera shy French feline is named Vanille and is also apparently over 20 years old - yet more anecdotal evidence of the connection between a Mediterranean diet and longevity.
Plage de Saint-Clair
The water was a bit chilly yesterday, but you could still see why Plage de Saint-Clair is considered one of the best beaches not only on the Côte d'Azur but in all of France....
Best Pizza on the Côte d’Azur
Who needs the approval of those snobby Michelin marketing gimmick scammers, when you've beachfront, moonlight á la carte pizza that can be eaten without wearing any shoes? Not us!
As an added bonus, while the made-to-order pies are in the oven, the chef will regale you with all kinds of interesting stories from his quarter-century in the food truck business.
Pétanque All-Stars
FYI, if you ever find yourself pretending to be a French retiree on the Côte d'Azur in the waning days of summer, pétanque will be an integral part of your social life, and the following tips will be good to keep in mind:
Pro-Tip #1
It's better to be lucky than good,
Pro-Tip #2
Teaming up with someone named Jean-Luc is a surefire way to destroy the competition en route to a perfect 3-0 record, including one 13-3 drubbing,
Pro-Tip #3
Don't let the fact that the aforementioned competition is almost entirely locals aged 60-96 detract from your moment of glory.
You're welcome in advance to all of the fellow aspiring fake French retirees following this page....
Hello, from the Puces St Nicolas
Hello from the Puces St Nicolas (ie the St Nicholas flea market) near Hyères! The best part of wandering around this incredible flea market for close to two hours was hanging out with my friend's 79-year-old parents. The worst part? Not actually being a French retiree, or even living on the Côte d’Azur, so not being able to buy loads of things (records and pétanque ball sets, for instance).
Aside from the various Marilyn Monroe merch, an Obama bobblehead, a hefty Lenin bust, some bamboo plates from Taiwan, a police badge from Macon, Georgia, and a newspaper from an old Ali fight, perhaps most interesting / surprising / inexplicable find was what was billed as a collection of the world's smallest champagne bottles, all of which featured the world's most famous 20th-century Austrian* and his little moustache on the label....
*Not pictured, as the proprietor of that particular stall didn't seem too keen on having his prized collection photographed.
Escapade Gourmande
When the restaurant your friends wanted to get lunch at isn't open, so you've got no choice but to spend a few hours at the Escapade gourmande (ie fancy French food festival) in a neighbouring town - trying local delicacies, drinking local wine, meeting locals and perhaps getting a bit too much sun. Not a bad Plan B. Not a bad Plan B at all. Or even a Plan A for that matter.....
Haute Trash
Paris might get all of the fame and glory when it comes to fashion, but in the villages of Provence even the dumpsters wear haute couture....
A nice little Saturday
Joie de vivre
Sailing on the Côte d'Azur? Oh, my. Well that certainly escalated quickly....
Kiss me tenderly
When you find the perfect postcard after a week spent playing pétanque….
Super cliché Paris photo incoming....
Guten Appetit
When you opt for an ironic first meal in Paris, solely to send friends back in Berlin as a joke....
59 Rivoli
A live concert taking place at Paris' famed former squat and current alternative arts centre 59 Rivoli on 1 October 2024. (Happened across randomly on the way to procure a late night gyro, after quite a few drinks in other locations, and only realised what it was after virtually retracing steps on Google Maps the following morning).
