The French Cote d'Azur, or the azure coast, is known in English as the French Riviera. It is the Mediterranean coastline of the south east corner of France and includes the principality of Monaco. There are no real borders, but it is generally considered to run from St. Tropez to Italy.
"This coastline was one of the first modern resort areas. It began as a winter health resort for the British upper class at the end of the 18th century. With the arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales and to many members of the American Rothschild family.
In the first half of the 20th century, it was frequented by artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Edith Wharton, Somerset Maugham, and Aldous Huxley, as well as wealthy Americans and Europeans. After World War II, it became a popular tourist destination and convention site. Many celebrities have homes in the region."
Officially, the melting pot of the Côte d'Azur is home to 163 nationalities. Its largest city is Nice, which has a population of about 1 million people. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First of all we went to Menton. I always think of Menton as a pink city ringed by purple mountains and full of old people. There would be worse places in the world to grow very old.
Menton is on the Italian border and with a population of about 30,000 (although it seems larger) it speaks, writes and eats in both Italian and French and sometimes almost forgets who it is.
Knowing us as you do, you will not be surprised to know that we came here to visit a restaurant.
Namely Mirazur, ranked number 11 on the list of World's Best Restaurants, it sits high on a hill with splendid views over Menton and the Mediterranean.
The restaurant was host to a young American chef from 'The Willow Inn' on the east coast of America. As part of a one-night only, world wide chef exchange program, his challenge was to adapt his talents to an entirely different location and its major culinary specialities.
It was a disappointing evening however and I will not bore you with the detail.
On a brighter note, we had two nights in a charming old world hotel where everything worked like clockwork and we had air-con for the first time in 3 months on the road and 3 weeks with very high temperatures. Needless to say, we slept very well.
The grand old lady even had a wintergarden library with huge book cases, comfy chairs and lots of soothing greenery.
On the following day, our evening meal of calamari, fish and chips on the beach, washed down by a nameless Provencal red, was more enjoyable than our meal at the Michelin 2 star the night before.
You win most and loose a few, I guess. This was one of our few losses.
Onwards to Nice.
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