Beach

The beach. Saint-Aygulf, like most towns on the Mediterranean, is a beach town. There are beach-politics that go along with beach towns. We were talking with one of the summer natives of Saint-Aygulf, who spoke of the Joly dynasty in the town, and she revealed that it was only because we were part of that (in some form) that we were able to lie without nasty snares on the small "Creek" beach, which many of the locals frequent:





The rest of the visitors, (whom she spoke of with a crinkled nose and should have inserted a term like riffraff), go to "la grand plage" - a big sandy strip of shore, full of people who eat their lunch on the beach (!). We went to la grand plage and built sandcastles and watched the sunset, thus effectively avoiding "les beaufs" (those who eat their lunch on the beach). Ah how I love these distinctions.






Xavier and Elsa.




Here, Elsa is working on matching the various products to their correct region in France. I learned all sorts of things, like melons comes from the Cavaillon region, cider from Bretagne and pâté from Le Mans.



And here was a gripping altercation between two crabs and a jellyfish in the middle. I was exploring the tide pools and came across a bloated jellyfish, stranded in the rocks. I had no desire to save this creature, (uncharacteristic of my tendencies), for "les méduses" menace the waters and leave swimmers breast-stroking with the constant threat of being stung. (If you are stung, you merely need to have a close friend pee on the area. This was the technique when I lived in Hawaii and was confirmed by Saint-Aygulf experts). Anyway, back to the fight. So, one crab was on one side of the jellyfish and the other was on the other side and they were having a tug-of-war. Charming. Eventually, they gave it up (where were they going to take the jellything anyway?) and they just started chomping down on their respective sides. Conflict resolution in action.





And, at the end of the day, we chomped down on French pizza. I am always amazed at the things a pizza can become in France. For example, a "tartiflette" is a heavy winter dish with Reblochon cheese, potatoes and bacon. Heavy. Here it becomes a pizza.


And to top it all off, Frenchies singing and dancing in the night.