Good Day Sunshine

When my dad finished his pancakes, he would use the side of the tines of his fork to scrape all the excess syrup on his plate to the edges and then he scooped it up, not being a wasteful man, son of the Depression that he was. Here's Estelle being a chip off the old block, trying to get every last drop of her cousin's syrup out of the pitcher. She had already licked her plate.Here's a photo for my friend Peter Huffy H. Dude, CHECK IT OUT. I know you know where this is - bas corniche, after Mont Boron. These boys were MOVE-ING - this is where they turned onto Cap Ferrat. SO jealous. And might I add there were many many troops out in force in various groups, spokes whirring, so glorious was the weather. A blur of color.
We headed to historic and pittoresque Eze Bord sur Mer for some beach time only to find the waves on this "unprotected" beach somewhat unruly and no real place to play. Behind Thomas is Cap D'Ail (the Garlic Cape - that one's for you, Mom) which is just before Monaco.
So we decided to head back to Villefranche where we knew things were more manageable.
When we arrived, here was our first sight:
okay that's not one of us but I was jealous of him so took his photo.....
It all started innocently enough. A bucket and a few toys. Estelle wanted to take off her shoes.
Then we rolled up our jeans and dabbled in the lapping surf.
The next thing you know, my family is half naked on January 25th.

Here's my new favorite person on the French Riviera: Paul Mistral ("like the wind", he said)This character, of Italian origins, was a chatty Cathy and was as friendly as could be. He and his wife were having a little picnic and insisted on us trying some of everything they had to eat. Meanwhile, he came up to my belly button. Which p.s. is sticking out now and it didn't use to. Incidentally I think he was wearing heels. But they had some amazing bread which Estelle sunk her teeth into as if she hadn't just gorged on pancakes 2 hours prior, and some kind of wacky Italian quichey-type thing with squash and rice. Whoah baby. Paul is my new best beach friend. He even had paper towels to give to Estelle (mother, you would have approved). Estelle and I walked up and down the beach whilst Thomas had some kind of crazy European discussion with this guy covering a wide range of topics. And the best part is that everyone who passed by called out to him "Hey, Paul!". We were next to royalty. Albeit it be pygmie-style.

And here's a video of the beach. With narration, of course.