Summing up

Today I’m the last to leave of the National Rust party. It’s gone well. I prefer the apartment with its stunning views over the Baie des Anges and greater space to last year’s more cramped one. With the help of Alice Mansfield we have made cultivating excursions to the museums of Leger, Chagalll, Picasso, the Maeght Foundation and Bonnard. We enjoyed the Hanbury Gardens and visiting Antibes. On the debit side the high end restaurants at the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat and Tetou were disappointing. One of our favourite meals was a simple grilled sea bass at one of the beach restaurants alongside the Promenade des Anglais or a salad prepared by yours truly from produce bought that morning from the nearby market which I shall miss. I shall miss too our dear friends the doves Perre and Felicity to whom I gave their last pistachios this morning.

It’s difficult to say how France will go with Macron, unless there is yet another surprise with Marine Le Pen winning, but if he is the President of the Republic I really cannot see the EU imploding, the absence of borders and a common currency are too convenient and with security such a big issue information need to be pooled and shared.

Nice with its pleasant climate, lively old quarter, Promenade, sporting and cultural diversions, restaurants and street life had more than enough to offer the second time around and to quote General MacArthur “I shall return” …