Welcome to our neighborhood
(August 02)
Summer highlights (September 02)
Summer is over. During the first week of September, the throngs of people who had come to St. Jean for their holidays left, the morning air turned drier and crisper – still warm by midday -- and quiet descended. For this newsletter, we thought we’d describe a few summer highlights.
A few Sundays ago, St. Jean held its annual benediction of the boats. At eleven o’clock in the morning, three priests from the local church went into the bay on a small, brightly painted dive boat. (The dive boat is moored right near us. It was busy day and night all summer taking scuba divers out, presumably to the wrecks said to be found in nearby waters.) All kinds of boats from our port and elsewhere gathered in the bay, from large motor and sailing yachts to small fishing boats, and even some sunfish joined in. From the dive boat, one of the priests broadcast the New Testament story of the loaves and fishes. Then we heard instructions for forming a line so that each boat could receive an individual blessing. During the procession, one of the priests read the story of creation, in what sounded to us like the French version of the King James Bible. Our turn came just as he was telling us about the seventh day.
We had joined the gathering more out of curiosity than anything else, but we were moved by the ceremony, and happy to have our boat, Bloom, blessed by the priests, with the community present. We left right afterwards for a sail, and learned later that the benediction ended with a circling of the boats, and flowers thrown into the sea. We were disappointed to have missed that lovely ending; maybe we’ll be there again next year.
One evening we noticed a number of brightly colored and decorated old prop planes. They flew by, seemed to circle the bay and fly temporarily out of sight, and then fly overhead again. We wondered if there was an air show of some kind going on, but that wasn’t it. We found out later that these planes are a fire brigade. When there is a fire in the area, they are dispatched to scoop up water from the sea and fly it back to the site of the fire. Later, on another day, we were riding along the Basse Corniche when we saw one of the planes again, and this time we had a clear view of the sea. We saw the aircraft dip down into the water, we saw a huge splash, and the plane climbed again on its way to a fire.
We’ve done lots of swimming. While we’re in port, we simply walk to one of the beaches near us, put our towels down and head for the water. Although of course it feels cool at first, it’s really just the right temperature, buoyant and clear. The bottom drops off sharply, so we are over our heads right away and get lots of good exercise. While we’re at anchor, we throw one of our fat fenders off the back of the boat on a long line. We jump in – or, more often, let ourselves gingerly down the swim ladder -- and swim. If the boat moves in the wind or if there are swells, it’s easy to grab the fender line and pull ourselves back. We also have an at-sea version. On calm days at sea, when we can’t sail anyway, we turn off the motor, let the boat drift, throw out the line and fender and swim right in the middle of the Mediterranean. Now there’s a treat. A handy feature of swimming here is that the beaches have freshwater showers at convenient intervals along the walls at the back, and our boat has a hot-and-cold freshwater shower on the transom. We climb up the swim later and shower the salt right off.
We have had many enjoyable consumer experiences. We spent a day in San Remo, Italy, while Abby’s brother and his family were here. We had chosen a restaurant for dinner, which wasn’t quite open when we got back there, so we walked in a part of the old city we hadn’t seen before. The streets are steep and narrow – no cars at all – and the buildings, mainly residences, are closely packed and hundreds of years old. We noticed a small sign on one of the doorways indicating a restaurant. When we looked in, we saw a home-sized room, plain, with just a few tables and chairs set for diners. An article on the door, an old clipping, recommended the restaurant, and identified the building as four hundred years old. We went in, although our niece, Susannah, age ten, was skeptical. The restaurant seats only twenty and is family-owned and run; a couple and their son and daughter-in-law cook, bake and serve. (On the way to the bathroom you go through the family kitchen, which also serves as the restaurant kitchen!) We had perhaps the best Italian meal we have ever had, all home made, from the antipasti to the tiramisu and coffee. It was also one of the least expensive meals we’ve had. The proprietors treated us and the other diners like their guests. They were especially happy to have Susannah there – she got a kiss on the way out, and said she had to admit that was the best restaurant she’d ever been to. We know how to get there by boat or by train, and look forward to having dinner there again – perhaps with you.
Tom has been saying he’d like to try fishing. We were in Nice today for some shopping and learned of a large fishing store near the airport. Unfortunately, we thought, we had run out of time and decided not to go. We finished our errands near the port of Nice and were on our way to the bus stop when we spotted a fishing store, Le Fin des Pecheurs. We stopped in to the tiny, crowded and colorful shop. Abby explained to the proprietor that Tom was inexperienced as a fisherman and wanted to make a modest start. In no time this shopkeeper took out line, hooks, a lure, a weight, a gaff (optimistic, but Tom bought it) and advised Tom against all the fancy equipment, which he carried, but said could come later. He also provided some additional line as a gift, telling Tom exactly how to use it and drawing a diagram of how all the pieces fit together. It’s amazing what you can do with relatively little language and a lot of goodwill. We were so happy that we didn’t get to the big fishing store. Now Tom has everything he needs for our trip to Corsica this week, and Abby looks forward to delicious meals from the sea.
Abby’s family’s visit was a joy. Mom, Jon, Barbara and Susannah arrived in Nice by train during the last week of August, after spending a few days in Paris. Mom stayed at a hotel on the hill, with a spectacular view of the harbor, the sea and the mountains beyond. While she was here, we saw the sights. We visited the Matisse museum in Nice; the Rothschild villa and breathtaking gardens right here in St. Jean; and the palace, old city, exotic gardens and casino at Monaco, where Mom promptly lost her limit of twenty dollars at the roulette table. We spent time at the beach as well, Mom under our new umbrella and the rest of us in the water most of the time. After she left we spent a few days anchored at Villefranche, and then sailed to Menton. That’s the border town where one hears as much Italian as French, and a sign next to the port announces that Italy is 1000 meters ahead. There we found a wonderful Italian chandler, who had everything we hadn’t been able to buy locally, and we stocked up.
We sailed from there to San Remo, Italy. We had some trouble getting into our slip at the dock there. There was current and a wind and we had to try several times. A small crowd gathered on the dock, cheering us on, shouting advice and eager to catch our dock lines as soon as we would come close enough. When we finally jumped off the boat onto the pier, there was backslapping and handshaking all around, laughing and gesturing – and welcome to Italy.
We visited the Friday market at Ventimiglia, the biggest in the region. The vegetable and fruit section is vast and enticing, there are house wares, clothing, linens, prepared foods, jewelry, leather goods –everything. We bought groceries, a teakettle and some other kitchen items, and a Pashmina shawl for Tom’s daughter Vilia for her birthday. Then we tore ourselves away from everything else – until next time. After two days in San Remo, the Kligermans took the train back to Paris and flew home. One last note about their visit. Everyone had chores on the boat, because there’s always lots of work. Susannah, who has a great mechanical aptitude, was particularly adept at tying knots, noticing when a noise changed or when something else was different, and she was generally curious about how everything worked. She’s definitely on her way to becoming a sailor, if she wishes.
We think Mom particularly was happy to see us happily settled here, in this wonderful neighborhood on our beautiful yacht. She surprised us by walking many times and fairly easily over our passerelle to get on and off the boat, and she did some meal chores comfortably, it seemed, in our tiny kitchen. We think her stay was too short, and we are plotting to get her back here in the spring. On a language note, the French form their words for in-laws by adding the word beautiful to the relationship word: belle soeur, beau frere, belle mere. We think that’s lovely.
A bientot,
Abby and Tom
Copyright © Thomas and Abby Bloom, 2002
Chers Amis,