We spent ONE and one half days in Bormes less than a week ago.
It is paradise on earth.
(Who wants pie in the sky when you can have paradise on earth) and the best part is that the best is really FREE, with NO forking out filthy lucre.
Bormes is in that oh so elite area where all the FILTHY RICH hang out on the Riviera. 30 kms from Saint Tropez (which I have never been to).
We spent the day with a French expatriate living in Canada who comes "home" to Bormes for a month in the summer. The family have a small boat, so we went out for a little swim (really FAST swim because the Mediterranean hovered at around 18 °, and don't ask me what that is in Fahrenheit as I no longer attempt to keep track of such things, like American holidays in France, by the way...) It was IN, and OUT OUT OUT ASAP. Specially as there was nothing particularly interesting to gape at underneath the water... No fishies or anything, or at least no really PRETTY or EXOTIC ones.
On the way, our friend pointed out Carla Bruni's family's RANCH out there on a Mediterranean promontory. (Ho hum, yes, what's so interesting about THAT ????)
And in the evening we headed up to the old village of Bormes (not the NEW NOUVEAU RICHE port hang out) for dinner.
As I said, Bormes is paradise on earth. Every year there is a mimosa festival, as Bormes les Mimosas is named for the mimosa, a small delicate yellow flower that blooms in bunches around February every year, and was apparently introduced from Australia. There are about 700 different varieties of mimosa, and I bet you never heard of it before, right ? It smells.... DIVINE.
(A little further up the coast is that elite hang out where French perfume makers have their haunts, Grasse, where the tons of roses and other delicate flowers are transformed into that LUXURY OF LUXURIES, perfume.)
The Riviera in the summer is so old world (when it is NOT overrun by hordes of Northerners, like the Dutch, Germans, etc..... who keep to themselves). It is exemplary of a style of life.
And... the Mediterranean is indeed the very BIRTHPLACE of our culture. Its cradle.
I feel this acutely when I am there. I allow myself to be gently taken over by its charm that washes away most of that Puritan austerity that controlled me for so long.
The.... light. The glow. Check out the photos.
And walking in the streets, soaking up the beauty, is free.
Only downside of the Riviera : no really good wine (in my book at least...).
8 comments:
I am rinsing my eyes.
Although... you know what? I think I have been here before. It was right after I graduated from high school in 1984 and took my bike on a summer loop of France. In fact, the story behind that story is rather intersting...
... I think I will do a post on a little family story (plus, SS has me all defensive about being a prude).
18 d C = 64 d F
@ Thai
not to worry if you have 4 kids you must be doing something right.
SS
@ Debra
How do the people look?
SS
Pretty much like your ordinary average Joe blow...
No small dark Andalousian types, if that's what you're thinking... LOL
Was curious if they dressed well being a wealthier area, if they were trimmer and better done out for the same reason, beautiful people, otherwise said?
SS
Lots of foreigners in Bormes. Pretty hard to tell the tourists from the locals.
The people definitely are not dressed like in the cités.
But they are not beautiful people either.
J'assis la beaute sur mes genoux,
Et je l'ai trouvee amere.
Rimbaud
For Thai,
I sat beauty on my lap,
and found her bitter to the taste.
SS
Thanks.
And I wrote about how I came to visit your coastal village in Puritans in Thailand ;-)
Be well
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