Côte d’Azur Culture

The Côte d’Azur is in celebratory mood.  Parades and fireworks abound, but French Lessons discovers a whole lot of confusion.  What, exactly, are we celebrating – the patron saint of fishermen, the protector of sailors, or France’s continuing wins in the World Cup?

Lolo and I embark on a trip into our Côte d’Azur town to find a couple swimsuits.  It will be a carefree – even a joyful – mother-daughter excursion as we shop for my willowy 13-year old.  All goes well, until my easygoing teen shuts herself into the change cabin.

French Lessons is thrilled to embark on its 12^th season digging into real life in the French Riviera.  As we find our feet, it’s Christelle’s heels, the climatisation (as ever!), the parking, the coffee and a couple beachcombing locals that remind us:  We are back.

What do a tornado, double-the-figs, police on horseback, Macron, Trump, the BBC, and Leonardo DiCaprio all have in common? As the summer of 2017 rolls up its beach towels and twists the cap back on the sunscreen, French Lessons considers what made this Côte d’Azur season like no other.

A dinner party at Bellevue ends badly for one guest when she discovers her car had been towed. French Lessons welcomes our friend Rachael as this summer’s guest contributor with her wrenching-but-hilarious tale about retrieving her car from Antibes’ miserable pound.

Rosé wine is as pivotal to a Côte d’Azur summer as its glorious sunshine. French Lessons gladly joins a special tour of Château d’Esclans, one of Provence’s shining stars in rosé production. Walk with us through this celebrated estate, and join us for lunch in its fairytale gardens.

The sudden appearance of Starbucks in Cannes tosses French Lessons back to its earliest days in the Côte d’Azur when, craving caffeine, we searched for a takeaway latte. French culture, however, didn’t embrace the grown-up sippy cup. As a mid-summer celebration, here’s a first glimpse at the big Work-In-Progress.

A trip to the shoe store tells me – to put it the French way – that my daughter soon will eat soup off my head. It’s a startling idea, even without the soup. A velvety potage is one of many ways that French food spices up its mother tongue.

Flourishing figs and the radio’s startling stories. Our pooch’s newly elevated lifestyle, and the famous French bise. They’re all simple, run-of-the-mill pieces of a Côte d’Azur day. . . and yet. We’re summertime regulars, and these ten quirks still catch me out.

Security angst and the burkini make the Côte d’Azur’s Summer of 2016 go down in the record books as being truly bizarre. Of course there were bright spots, too: C’est la France! Enjoy our end-of-season grab bag to close out French Lessons’ tenth season running.

Debilitating shoulder pain has brought us into conversation with the area’s – and the world’s – survivors, experts and sympathizers. From magnets to gels, exercises to injections, and a machine called nothing less than LIFE itself, we catalogue – French Lessons-style – an amusing (if painful) series of summer advice.

What’s the most dazzling thing about the Côte d’Azur? It must be the ultra-swish megayachts anchoring in its sun-drenched, Mediterranean bays. French Lessons invites you onboard one of these floating palaces to holiday with us – or at least to glimpse the bits we can share.