Life outside Camping Manjastre

We are having a lovely time, reading books and visiting places, in between helping with the grape harvest.  The black grapes that we picked last Saturday were near perfect. Huge bunches of luscious black grapes.  Ronald, one of the owners, was feeling very happy at the end of the morning, as the weigh in of the grapes at the co-operative was very promising. We will finish picking the grapes from the same vines tomorrow morning, and hopefully that will be the end of the harvest this year.  

A visit to Bormes les Mimosa last Sunday.  A very hot day.

The Sunday artisan market.  All very interesting but nothing that really grabbed my attention.  Or to entice me to part with my money.

But there was a car rally of cars from the 1950s to the 1970s.  My era. Plenty of volkswagons there.

An American police car.

Another oversized American car.

There was the usual chaos as people were trying to drive their cars out of the car park as the rally cars were arriving. The French have no patience at all, preferring to burn clutches rather than stop and wait.  They also like to keep their hands hard pressed on the horns.  What a fiasco.

We made a trip into Le Lavandou, in order to have an ice cream.  It was very quiet, even the beach was deserted.

There was still plenty of boats in the harbour.

We had a delightful lunch at a restaurant in St Clair, with our friends, Joan and Steve, and their lovely dog, Sasha.

While we were there the weather began to change, so we had a very blustery view of the beach.  We loved the blue and white striped umbrellas, which were just managing to stay in place.   There were no takers for the sun loungers though.   A day for being sand blasted, I think.

The lovely Sasha.   My apologies, no photos of us with Joan and Steve.  Too busy talking and eating.

We also visited the Dali exhibition at the museum in Bormes les Mimosa.  It was a very hot day, which took the edge off the experience a bit. 

But it was very interesting all the same.  That moustache!   Salvador Dali certainly liked to have his photo taken with people who were well known.  A very attention grabbing person, but he certainly made sure that people knew who he was, and that his artwork work was important. 

Often he featured in his own artwork.  A man who liked himself, for sure.

Two of his paintings.  

Salvador Dali, born 11th May, 1904 and died 23rd January, 1989.  A surrealist painter.  And some more of his work.  Fascinating.

Our in the street I was fascinated by the way the jewellery in this shop was displayed.  Each piece of jewllery had wire attached to it, which was then threaded through the board and tied onto a bolt.  A very ingenious way of stopping people pinching the jewellery.

We went to the exhibition with Joan and Steve.   Joan is an artist, which helped considerably when trying to understand the complexities of an artist like Dali.

As it was very hot up in Bormes les Mimosa we were very pleased to go to the cafe with a view, the one that we usually do not patronise ever since the time they would not serve us or the French couple at another table.   But the cafe across the road that we normally use was having their sewerage pipes pumped out, and the smell was a little off putting.

And we were served immediately too.  We enjoyed our icy cold drinks in the welcome shade of the cafe with the view.  Perhaps we will go there again.