Summer 2017

You’d think that by now, after nearly 12 years owning the same home in the South of France, we’d have our annual summer return down pat. Bellevue’s air-conditioner would blow steadily. The WIFI would stand at the ready, and the rosé would sit on ice. How silly we are.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As World War II parades and wreath-laying ceremonies dot the Côte d’Azur this week, we mark 73 years since the area’s Libération from the occupying forces. Antibes, though, already has celebrated a 75^th wartime anniversary, thanks to a daring, undercover operation that unfurled in its inky bay.

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.