Postcard from the French Riviera (postmarked 09 May 2008)

 

I awoke this morning on a boat. In fact, I awoke this morning on a yacht. My itinerary never mentioned anything about a yacht docked in the Vieux Port of Cannes. I admit, I am exaggerating... my itinerary consists of only two entries: my flight out of Montreal and my flight back twelve days later.

I called Nicolas two days ago.  

Allow me to remind you about Nicolas. He lives in Cannes, France. He and his father, Gérard, are my good friends, and the accountants for the Mougins project. Mougins is a village in Provence, nestled in the mountains about 15 minutes by car north of Cannes. It is famously known for the 20th century renowned painters that lived there while creating some of humanity’s most treasured masterpieces. Some fun facts: In 1924, the surrealist painter Francis Picabia built his home here. His famous friends followed, and in turn set up home in Mougins: Fernand Léger, Paul Éluard, Jean Cocteau, Isadora Duncan and Pablo Picasso. Pablo Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life living in Mougins. Picasso's studio was in the old village in a building that is now the tourist office, while the studio of Fernand Léger was above what is now the village wine shop, next to the rear of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art.

Sir Winston Churchill liked to sit in the middle of nature in front of the Notre-Dame-de-Vie chapel in Mougins to write, very close to his neighbour, Pablo Picasso, who used to come and set up his easel here.

Imagine owning a piece of this incredible history! So, it should be no surprise to learn that I decided to invest here in a brand-new four-star hotel resort, Les Mas du Grand Vallon, adjacent to the famous private golf club, Le Royal Mougins Golf Resort. And this is how I came to befriend the project’s accountants.

I told Nicolas that I'd be in Lyon for a couple of days before heading to the Côte d'Azure (the French Riviera, that is). You have but to hear yourself saying the words "Côte d'Azure" and you can without great effort imagine yourself to be a movie star, or maybe even royalty, or at the very least a wealthy tycoon, surveying the very blue, timeless, Mediterranean from your penthouse hotel suite balcony at the Majestic Hotel. Only the many, tropical, palm trees swaying in the breeze below are blocking your view of the Promenade de la Croisette. You remember that the boardwalk in Cannes is called the Croisette, don't you?

I was telling you about Nicolas, or Niko as I call him. I had the day completely free. Niko suggested that I take the TGV from Lyon to Antibes.

He'd pick me up and be my host for the day and evening. Of course, you already know about the TGV, the fastest train in the world, which clocks in at 300 km/hr top speed. What you may not know is that the Japanese have just now invented the TTGV, an even faster train, which attains the speed of up to 350 km/hr. I half-expect to read soon about the XLTTTGV. None of my French friends have heard of the Japanese TTGV. Obviously, they are living in denial.

Antibes is surely one of the prettiest French Riviera towns, with very narrow, winding, cobblestone streets crossing at odd angles, all eventually making their way down to the port and beaches. Every other address is a café-resto with its tables spilling out onto the laneways, a parasol at every other table. The famous film festival in Cannes starts next Wednesday, so even 15 km away, in Antibes, the tourists have started to occupy hotel rooms and are now jostling for seats at the better cafés, their cameras and cell phones always at the ready. I see another private jet now taking off from the local airport, climbing effortlessly. There's only one Côte d'Azure, and this explains why the rich and famous keep coming, usually on private jets, while the rest of us use Air Transat. An apartment facing the sea will set you back around 13,000 euros per square meter. Spare yourself the effort of getting out your calculator, I already did the math, a small one-bedroom flat is over $1.5 million. Next year it will be more.

 

We are passing through Juan Les Pins now as we have already left Antibes along the sea road. You've possibly heard of Juan Les Pins. Many people believe that the very popular song, Hotel California by The Eagles, was inspired by the Hotel Belles Rives in Juan-Les-Pins. The lyric, “And in the master’s chambers, they gathered for the feast” has been associated with this hotel.

In Juan-Les-Pins, most of the cafés and sandwich shops line the beach front road with lots of palm trees casting their shade onto the terrasses. It's too picturesque, really, if you know what I mean. The main shopping street is two blocks away from the beach. Close your eyes and imagine a town that has everything you could want. Really, close them... Can you picture it? It exists and I am in that town and it's called Juan Les Pins. Of course, I don't want to leave and am beginning to wonder how many new customers at work back home I will need to find to pay for that apartment on the sea.

I know you are wondering about that yacht which became my home last night. Niko, a few of his friends and I, spent the evening, first at a splendid, trendy, restaurant in Cannes, and then at a couple of clubs having drinks, and meeting new people, mostly girls, from all over the world. By 4am it was time to get some sleep. What I didn’t know beforehand is that his family’s sailboat remains docked in the marina all year long, at the ready for sailing. Rather than drive to his home late at night, likely driving over the legal blood alcohol limit, we walked 5 minutes to the sailboat and quickly fell asleep, each of us in our own cabin!

As I told the lady at the Pier I store on Sherbrooke St. two weeks ago, it's all about having good karma combined with a little serendipity.

I am wishing you a great day from your dream city and mine.