July 30th to August 13th                  The French Riviera

When we got to Villefranche, we anchored on the northeast side of the bay.  
After a few minutes a man in a dinghy pull up next to our boat.  He introduced 
himself as Steve from Lion Heart and told us he had a message from Therapy a 
boat we met in Croatia.  They told him to say hello and he then told us if we 
moved more south, we wouldn't get the swells that were rolling in.  We thanked 
him and moved shortly after he left.  We swam off the boat and then had a 
relaxing evening watching the sunset.  The next two days called for 
thunderstorms and high winds, so we decided to go into the marina.  The 
thunderstorms did come, but not the high winds in our area.  Many areas around 
us got up to 45+ knots.  

The next day Rudy went into Nice by bus to find out if we could use our French 
chip in our phone to go onto the Internet as we have done in Italy.  After half 
a day tracking someone down who could speak enough English to communicate, the 
answer is NO!!!  You need a French address to get a contract and of course, we 
do not have one!!  I stayed on the boat and washed clothes, (I love my washing 
machine!!) cleaned the stainless and the hardtop and the decks.  Later, I went 
to get my haircut and to the grocery store.  Three grocery stores deliver right 
to your boat, which is great.  You need to spend 50 Euros and that is the only 
requirement.  I have now had my hair cut in Portugal, Gibraltar, Turkey, Italy 
and France… next stop Spain.  The interesting feature in getting your hair cut 
in a non-English speaking country is you never are sure that they truly 
understand what you want.  Even though I write what I want out in their 
language, I am never sure.  The only time I was disappointed was in 
Gibraltar!!!  The hair saloon I went to in Villefranche, "Ambre" 18, Avenue 
Marechal Foch, did an excellent job of cutting my hair and right next to it was 
the grocery store "Proxi" who delivered the food to our boat.  A few shops down 
there was a frozen food store.  Since we did not turn on our freezer since we 
came back from the wedding, I only baught a few frozen pork chops.  We walked 
along the waterfront (Quai De La Corderie) and found a great restaurant called 
"La fille du Pecheur."   We ordered from the set menu and it was Fantastic!!!  
No one but the French can cook certain foods to perfection…they are duck, 
(Magaret de Cunard) which melts in your mouth, bouillabaisse, nicoise salad and 
last but not least is profiteroles!!!! And of course, their freshly baked 
baguette!!!  And their wine is Fantastic!!!



                                   Cote d'Azur

August 2nd, we left for Ile Ste-Marguerite.  It is the larger of two islands 
of the Iles de Lerins and it is where the "Man in the Iron-Mask" was 
imprisoned. (The iron mask was made out of velvet!!) They still don't know who 
he was, but there are many theories.  My favorite is that he was Louis XIV's 
twin brother.  Another interesting tale is that the Man in the Iron Mask and a 
lady prisoner had a son who was whisked away to Corsica.  To be "entrusted" in 
French is "remis de bonne part" and in Italian it is "di buona parte", and so 
the theory is that this child was the great-grandfather of Bonapart!!!  Well, 
enough of theories…  the truth of the matter was in between the two islands in 
an area about 1/4 mile wide and about 1/2 mile long, over 250 boats of all 
sizes and shapes were anchored on this Saturday along with Boundless and there 
was still room for more boats! I guess everyone had the same idea, get away 
from the heat!!! (This is the hottest summer we have spent on the boat without 
air conditioning!!!!) There was enough boat watching entertainment around us 
that we were never bored especially when this cute little French girl came by 
in a dinghy selling ice cream.  When she came around again, Rudy decided he 
wanted another ice-cream....I wonder why????

Around 6 p.m., a mass exodus began…more than half the boats left.  We stayed 
one more day and on Sunday evening, only a hand full of boats stayed the night. 
 At about mid-night, we saw another display of fireworks coming from Cannes 
accompanied by music.  The next morning we visited Napoule, Theoule and then on 
to St. Tropez.  The marina was extremely busy with many more motorboats (many 
the size of huge hotels) than sailboats!!  We looked around and then decided to 
go back to a cove that looked interesting called Bay of Canoubiers.  We stayed 
there for the night watching the activity of boats and naked people all around 
us!!!  

August 5th found us in the visiting the Ile de Porquerolles (the formal name 
is Iles d' Hyeres).  The first island (Ile Du Levant) has a military base and 
we were prohibited to anchor around most of the island and since they don't 
allow cameras onto the rest of the island, which is a nudist camp, we decided 
to bypass the island and go to Ile de Port-Cros.  We had another extremely hot 
and quiet night on the boat, swimming every couple of hours to cool off.  A 
dinghy with 5 French teenagers stopped by to ask questions and we had a very 
nice conversation.  They told us this was the hottest summer that France has 
had in a century and the heat wave have caused over 3,000 people deaths!!  I 
told them I wasn't surprised. Wherever we go, we are in the area where there is 
record-breaking weather of one kind or another!!!   She also told us that she 
had a job at the Rocking Horse Ranch last year and loved the area!!!  I told 
her it was about 30 minutes from where we lived.

The next day we went to the Ile de Porquerolles.  We rowed (Rudy rowed I 
guided) to the island and poked around. It was the first time in five days we 
were off of the boat!!  We had a great lunch and then bought some fruit and 
vegetables and went for a swim off our boat.  We have a nice breeze to offset 
the heat for a change!!!

August 7th to 8th we stayed at a marina in Toulon right next to the huge Naval 
Base.  It seems like every Friday we find ourselves in a marina so we can do 
the wash, provision and we other chores like Internet and getting this and that 
for the boat. (I usually get this and Rudy usually gets that!!!)  I went to the 
Open Air Market (Monday thru Friday) and Carrefour (the biggest and best 
stocked grocery store in Europe!!)  which were both across the street t from 
the marina.  The market was fabulous with the best produce I've seen anywhere 
and I bought one and a half dozen of the most beautiful pink roses for 2 
Euros!!!  The flowers and produce seem have been pruned of all the bad parts 
and pieces to leave the best for the customer…..isn't that nice!!!  The people 
in France have been friendly and very helpful so far.  They seem to care more 
than the Italians in keeping their streets and waters clean. It most anchorages 
there are boats that drive around ALL day picking up any debris that floats as 
well as taking trash from boats. 

more to follow........