Two wonderful days in France.  Who wudda thunk?  I've never hidden my qualms about the French but this time I must admit we only met two people who would qualify for the "seriously have a stick up their a**" award.  My old Irish friend Karen, from way back when I taught in language school here, joined me for an overnight in Menton.  Menton is right over the border on the Mediterranean coast, where the Maritime Alps meet the sea.  We took the train down early Friday morning as I had the day off.  Apart from the rain it was great.  The temps are always mild and there is that wonderful clean, sea breeze and amazing light that has attracted so many artists.  A nice change from inland city air.   Menton may be only 5 kilometers from Italy but it is different in a thousand little ways.  The food (more garlic), the wine(lighter), the clothing styles(questionable).   It is an old, old city with an ancient center that winds up the hills via steep staircases and pedestrian roads.  How these people move houses is beyond me.  The newer part of the city has a casino and dozens of seaside hotels and restaurants.  Most were closed for the season but there were enough places open for our needs.  We ate lots of seafood and drank lots of wine and shopped for Marseille soaps and Chevre.  Yesterday we walked up all those staircases to the top of the old village where there is a wonderful terraced cemetery called the Vieux Chateau.  Cemeteries can tell a lot about a place, in this case showing how long the area has been a tourist destination.  It is at the top of a high hill overlooking the sea with gnarled maritime pines and flowering vines growing along the paths.  The tombstones are all bleached very white from the strong sun.  It's gorgeous.  What a resting place.  But what I found most extraordinary were the number of foreigners buried there.  More than half the names were English or American, German, Russian and Spanish with each nationality getting it's own terrace.  Of course there were a lot of Italians as well as that area has for centuries gone back and forth between France and Italy.  Mind you these are not recent graves.  The oldest dated back to the late 1700's and only a few family tombs had recent additions.   There is a huge mausoleum belonging to a Russian prince who died in 1880 something, another smaller mausoleum for an American and his French wife sporting both flags.   I loved it.  We also visited the Jean Cocteau art museum.  I remember loving his work years ago that was nautical based colorful paintings but this time around they had a display of his theater and "erotic" pieces and I wasn't thrilled.  He was gay and liked to draw men with extremely over-sized appendages.  That was enough culture for me!

Sunset

old cemetery and eternal view

the walk to the top

view of old Menton and the port

Coming back last night we had quite the adventure.  On Saturday evenings evidently the trains coming into the cites are populated with kids from the smaller towns going to party.  At alomost every stop more people got on and they were already well on their way to enjoying themselves.  There were African guys selling dope and dread-locked Italian alternative types buying it.  There were Eastern European immigrants drinking liter sized bottles of beer and running out at every stop to have a cigarette or have a pee.  All these people were singing and yelling and generally carrying on while Karen and I and one other couple shook our heads like old people and wondered where the police were when you needed them.  I didn't feel at all threatened as they paid us no attention at all but I wouldn't have wanted to be along with that crowd.   Finally after a couple hours and multiple stops a conductor got on and started threatening them all but I think he was afraid to really do anything as he was seriously out numbered.  They all yelled at him and gave him the finger and waited for him to turn his back before lighting up another.  What excitement.  Karen looked very severe and scowled tight-lipped the whole trip.  It was pretty funny. 

We made it back safe and sound and today is rest.  xxoo me