Day 29 – Friday 6th April 2018
Beautiful sunny morning, walked to the Intermarche for some bread then Julie and I hopped on Zippy and we motored into town. I am much happier on French roads as I know I am not suddenly going to come across a road full of potholes or a road with tree roots sticking out of it.
The beach at Antibes
The old part of Antibes is beautiful and like all French towns has some swanky cake and pastry shops.
We pottered around the streets, in and out of a few shops and then went to the market.
I was collared at the first cheese stall and was given some gorgeous samples. I didn’t mean to buy any but I had to. I really had to. Having broken a €50 note there was no stopping me and I stocked up on olives, some pastillade tomate and a couple of pastries.
We sat down to lunch in some dappled shade by an old accordion player in a pretty little square. Fabulous.
After lunch we went exploring to try and find the beach. We settled down by the harbour wall and had a snooze. We must have looked like a pair off old winos sleeping it off. Julie has a bad back at the moment and she needed help getting up but I am not allowed to put that photo in the blog so here is some French Art
This is a work of art… No really it is…
it says so here
My Dad use to be an Art Dealer in Salford. He used to buy and sell it by the ton and deliver it by lorry; he used to have a couple of very big Alsatians to guard his gallery.
My Dad and his Dad at their Albion Street gallery in 1961
Antibes is a great place, I could easily live here and I’ve extended our stay here until the 23rd April.
Day 30 – Saturday 7th April 2018
Mixed morning, The weather forecast last night was for sun today, now it says there’s 70% chance of rain! I wish they’d make up their minds.
No sign of the rain so we decided to do the washing and clean the van floor. After lunch I went for a spin on Zippy to Cap d’Antibes. The south of France was made for motorbikes and scooters, lovely weather and great roads.
Later Julie and I went for a walk to the shops and stumbled upon a Russian supermarket. They were handing out free samples of vodka and caviar which I have to say is a considerable step up from the Sunny D and nachos promotions down at Tescos. I was going to take a picture but given current UK – Russian relations I thought best not to.
I cooked tonight, vegetable tagine and couscous with Madeleines for pudding.
I can’t decide if this photo is upside down or not
Now it’s warm enough to eat outside our neighbours are really annoying me. They own the plot next door and spend 6 months a year here. He is Australian and she is a Daily Mail reader. Everyone who passes has to hear about all the gangs of immigrants roaming the streets of London with knives.
When we first arrived and I got Zippy down I parked it with the front wheel slightly in their plot. Plant pots have now been placed there so I can’t make that mistake again!
United had a good win against the City today.
Ah diddums
Going to finish off season 2 of Count Arthur Strong tonight. Weather forecast for tomorrow is a bit grim, let’s hope they are wrong again.
Day 31 – Sunday 8th April 2018
The van was a rockin’ this morning!!!! Blowing a bloody gale outside, lovely blue skies though.
When I’m not perched 200ft above an Italian ravine in a motorhome I love stormy weather so I went down to the beach to feel the wind in my eyebrows and the sea spray on my face.
Think I’ll give my morning swim a miss today
So blowy they closed the sea road
In the afternoon I went for a walk before the main event of the day… Julie giving me my B12 injection.
Three months ago I took Julie with me so the nurse could show her how to do the injection. She followed the nurse’s instructions and gave me a painless injection. Well done Julie.
Today Julie says she can’t remember how to do it! So we had to watch a few YouTube videos to jog her memory.
Day 32 – Monday 9th April 2018
Rained all last night and woke up to grey skies. I think today is going to be a kindle day.
Star of Bethlehem
I know it’s typical English weather here at the moment but we wouldn’t see a Star of Bethlehem in flower in the SE of England until mid May so Spring is about a month earlier down here on the Cote de la Pluie.
Day 33 – Tuesday 10th April 2018
Rained all night and there was some very loud thunder about 4am. Forecast is for showers all day. Another kindle day.
About 3:30pm there was an almighty noise outside. It sounded like the end of the world was about to happen. I know there’s not much material for the blog this week but an apocalypse seemed a little OTT.
Turned out it was three seaplanes flying right over the van making a very low swoop towards the sea just a couple of hundred yards away. I quickly got my hat and coat on to go and see them in the water but they hadn’t landed, they’d circled to make a second approach right over the van again. The noise was terrific and I worried they were far too low. They never landed in the sea, they headed off towards Cannes.
Day 34 – Wednesday 11th April 2018
Fuckin’ raining again. Rained all day. I might as well have retired to Manchester, at least I’d get some decent chips there.
Day 35 – Thursday 12th April 2018
More rain and more thunder. Weather forecast says it should be dry tomorrow. Hallefuckin’lujah.
After 4 days rain I think we deserve pizza and chips and lager
Tom’s caption competition No: 1
The winner is Julie Riches….
At last you have something you can drive around an Italian city
and she wins a lifetime supply of my underpants to wash!
Tom’s caption competition No: 2
