Mutterings - Jul 29

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Rude :: Gesture
2. Banana :: Palma (Canaries where we saw lots on trees!) I also wonder at the conjunction of rude and banana..
3. Crunch :: Breakfast
4. Unappealing :: Mixture (of food)
5. Pink :: Hippopotamus (disney I think..)
6. Saliva :: Spit
7. Like :: Simile
8. Lunar :: Module
9. Pine :: Long (as in pine for..)
10. Slippery :: Customer

Mutterings - July 15

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Submit :: Job (ancient terminology for having programs run on mainframes?)
2. Legal :: Verbiage (sorry!)
3. Ball :: Chain
4. Nurse :: Nurse!
5. Flags :: Paving
6. Depart :: Le (last movement of Britten's Les Illuminations - though I see there's no definite article!)
7. Memorized :: Difficult
8. Bullying :: Cyber
9. Empowered :: Affirmed
10. Construct :: Mental

Around the Riviera

On our last day - a day in Menton where we were staying at the Prince de Galles - good, modern but a bit of a long walk to the centre - we took the train to Monaco and spent the morning looking around the old town - see the album for the trip for a few photos. Back to Menton and I had an afternoon around the old town enjoying the architecture and colours before enjoying a lavender and mango ice-cream outside the Jean Cocteau museum - camp? never! - alas I didn't get inside.


I waited for Beth to get from the hotel and we then looked around the Basilique St Michel - it has a long lunchbreak.. not opening until 3:30 - and then made plans for an early evening (well 7pm) meal at Martin et fils restaurant next to the Menton market. This place isn't mentioned in the InnTravel notes but we'd recommend it! Good veggie menus and the main meateater enjoyed a whole Dorade!

Down to Menton

The next day was the final long walk from Sospel to Menton (or at least from where the taxi dropped us at the Col de Castillon -giving us a helping hand).

From there we walked up to the Baisse de Scuvion:



we then had a route finding discussion where - fortunately - I was overruled - there were 5 of us at this point so lots of comparing notes! There was then a gentle descent to the Col St Bernard. Not gentle enough , and the notes said Careful I wasn't and tripped over my walking poles and ended up full length on the ground! - the 'careful' was on route finding rather than any tricky underfoot stages! I was very grateful that I'd been walking along with another party as I would have been otherwise on my own. I was rather bruised but managed to continue on the steeper downward section to the coast. And it was a steep descent and a dodgy walk through an underpass under a motorway. But then the Menton seafront and cafes restored us. That evening we ate at A Braijade Meridiounale flaming skewers in the old town. Definitely worth the experience, we were given too many digestifs and made our way unsteadily back to the hotel.

Here's the street containing the restaurant:

alas my phone focussing...

To Italy

On the day in Sopel I ended up doing a walk I didn't intend - or most of it! There's an easier walk but I ended up on the Piène Haute walk and followed it as far as the Italian border when I returned by the way I came. The day before we'd commented that we hadn't done a walking trip in Italy so this walk nearly changed that!

Border posts are a little less active than they were post Schengen:

1943 was when Italy changed sides and supported the Allies. The walk was pleasant and shady with views over the river canyons. It appears that I made the right decision to turn around at the border as another party found the rest of walk was difficult route finding.

Afternoon was spent at the hotel admiring the views of the mountains and Sospel. We had mixed views about the hotel, beautifully situated, food was good but the management was a little off-hand (at least to us!). There were now 4 Inntravel parties all heading to Menton the next day so the evening was spent finding each other and deciding who was going in what order!