Beach reading, Rugby, Vintage Cuisine and Duende

Saturday we walked by the Port and round to the Promenade des Anglais, to be reminded how lucky we are by the tents of the homeless - though if you are homeless there are far worse places to set up temporary home:




We went along to the Lido Plage for beers and for M to read some stuff about getting work while I continued with Mark Leonard's "Why Europe Will Run The 21st Century" - some eye-opening statistics (more later).

It started out warm enough to be in a short-sleeved shirt, but later some mist and cloud developed and we left at about 5pm.



We walked back via Cours Saleya. The Irish pub was crowded with Rugby fans so we walked on to a pub which was just opening up, so was quiet and we were able to watch the end of the France - Scotland match, in which the French team made up for their earlier defeat by the English (not that I'm really interested). After a couple of large Leffes there we decided to have an early meal and decided the Vintage, 20, r Barillerie, looked good, so was the food and our young French neighbours didn't smoke ! They even had some Californian wine which I still tend to prefer to most French wine. M. said that one would have to get a ten year old French wine to find something as good, due to rules about French wine production.

On the way back we stopped to listen to a couple of gypsy guys, one playing guitar the other singing, some of the songs were by the Gypsy Kings, old favourites of mine.



We offered them drinks (M speaks Spanish) and then to join us inside where M got a hot chocolate for the young guy who seemed to be very cold but who sang with what sounded to me like a great deal of duende (feeling/spirit).