It's been an odd few days. We are staying in Le Cannet just above Cannes. The hotel is very basic but is within a couple of hundred yards of Rue Saint Sauveur. An area that for some reason we hadn't found on previous visits. There are lovely little shops, a wonderful view across Cannes and great restaurants serving superb food. I was even tempted by the escargots in persillade, delicious.
Our limited supply of clothes necessitated another trip to the laundrette. According to the internet, the nearest one to the hotel was just across the road, but judging by the breeze blocks that filled the shop front, it had been closed for a while. We found one not too far away and managed to park. It wasn't the cleanest laundrette that I have visited and the two other occupants were settled in for the day, with their drinks and cardboard tray of noodles taking up the surface where I might wanted to fold the washing. Nothing daunted I set the laundry to wash and we went out to look for a coffee (the state of the coffee shop confirmed that we weren't in the best area in town). If I ever create a ranking of laundrettes on the Riviera this one will score the lowest. When I got back to put the washing on to dry, three staff from a local hotel had arrived with two huge trolleys of wet laundry and had commandeered the driers.
To make matters worse, as I pushed the wet clothes into a carrier bag, our estate agent phoned. He started with the good news that the money from the house sale—that had been in the ether for two days— had arrived in the notaire's account, but before I could breathe a sigh of relief, he knocked me sideways by telling me that it couldn’t be used to purchase the apartment, because it was not in our names. There followed a frantic search for documents confirming that the money was ours, at the same time as driving around trying to find another laundrette to dry the clothes. I forwarded what documents that I could find on my phone but sadly it was not enough. A letter from our solicitor was needed. A phone call to the solicitor revealed that she didn't work on Friday, and neither of the other partners were in the office. Messages were left...
On a positive note, I can definitely recommend the laundrette in Cannes on Rue Georges Clemarnceau, conveniently placed near Le Suquet with all its bars and restaurants, it has the cheapest dry ever —1 euro for 10 minutes! A side show was offered by two very cheerful Eastern Europeans who came in while I waited for the drier to finish. They emptied rucksacks into the washing machine, one of them found a some clean clothes to put on and added his shirt and shorts (including belt) to the wash. He forgot to put the detergent in and pushed it to the back of the drawer as the water gushed in and added a squirt of shampoo as fabric conditioner. I didn't wait for the result!
As well as exploring the shops in Cannes, we have been out and about in the hills behind Cannes and Nice. On a trip Valbonne I discovered Niche Books - an English bookshop whose owner has kindly offered me a book signing when Journey's End is published next month.
Today we drove to Colle sur Loup, a pretty village that promised brocante on the second Sunday of every month but didn't mention that this didn't happen if it fell on a saints day. While we sat in the sunshine and drank coffee the saint (didn't get his name) was carried along the street, I followed the procession to a little square where the priest was blessing all the beasts of the earth (represented by five horses) and all the fishes of the sea. It was all very quaint French.
Hopefully my next blog will have good news about the purchase of an apartment in Menton...
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