This was the idea: We would try to live three months in each of four Mediterranean-oriented European countries, places where they enjoy at least 300 days of sunshine per year, and when we were done we would choose, presumably from those four stops, a place we would want to live for at least a year. […]

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It dawned on me, finally, that three of the most prestigious/expensive beach communities on the Mediterranean Sea are located within 20 miles of each other, here on the Cote d’Azur. From east to west … Monaco, Nice, Cannes. Beach property. It is where people who can afford the expense want to be, in the summer, […]

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A benefit of staying pretty much in the middle of the Cote d’Azur … is the ability to visit the famous resorts of the area, up and down the coast. Among them? Saint Tropez, last week. This week, Monaco. It is a jewel of a little city-state, all 0.87-square-miles of it, with 38,000 people jammed […]

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After a seven-hour round-trip to the other side of the Rhone, and finding an apartment … we decided a restaurant dinner was a suitable reward, back on the Cote d’Azur. Most restaurants in this summer-oriented strip are closed this month, so we went to one we knew was open — the Cafe de France in […]

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It is not the sort of thing you expect to see while driving along the shoreline of the Cote d’Azur, or French Riviera — a World War II landing craft marked “US 282” parked on a beach near the upscale city of Saint Raphael. The second Allied invasion of France is not particularly well known; […]

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This might have been about a single store of the American fast-food chain, which is quite popular in France, the land of haute cuisine — as well as more than 1,300 McDonald’s stores. But I think it’s more than that. In a more working-class neighborhood of the Cote d’Azur … McDonald’s is not necessarily where […]

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  We drove over to Saint Tropez today because it seemed like the thing to do. Of the towns in this bay, on the Cote d’Azur, Saint Tropez is by far the best-known, internationally. What we found was underwhelming, even considering this is the depth of winter — when celebrities are least likely to be […]

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A key moment during any stay in a French city? The weekly “market” day. This is when temporary stalls are set up in some wide spot in the ville and for four or five hours (presumably) fresh and higher-quality foodstuffs are sold at rates higher than the neighborhood supermarche. What sort of producers show up, […]

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Hommes and femmes, both. Men and women on the high side of retirement age appear to have have clustered along the Cote d’Azur, also known as the French Riviera. It seems a fine place to retire, with mostly nice weather, lots of light and the “300 days of sun” which seems to be the standard […]

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So, yes, it’s true: Telecoms are a pain in the neck no matter where you turn up. After six years of various issues with the Etisalat telecom in Abu Dhabi (and, before that a variety of others, in the states), we spent much of our first day in southern France trying to get wifi in […]

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