Dinner and Tea in Cannes

Winding roads lead to Cannes whether you travel by the sea or inland. Patience is needed either way. This evening, I chose the sea route, very similar to traveling on Hwy 1 up the coast of California. Lovely beach towns, bicyclists and a few motorcycles keep the speed pretty low. The sea is a lovely turquoise and there is not sign of the volcanic cloud.

Cannes is full of beautiful hotels, people and jewelry. You might remember it in the movie, "French Kiss" with Meg Ryan. It looks just like the movie. I found a wonderful restaurant, very rustic with stone walls and large beams that also billed itself as a salon de The'.

We ordered a duck and lettuce salad and an artichoke ravioli. I was served a pot of Earl Grey. The tea was Dammann Fre'res and was a disappointment. It had hardly a hint of bergamot. The food however was scrumptious. The duck was lightly smoked and served warm over fresh green lettuce and real tomatoes. The ravioli was stuffed wiwth herbs and sauted with baby artichokes. It was just tossed with a light olive oil and quite a lot of garlic. Very inventive.

Sitting next to us was a nice gentleman from Manchester, England. He had eaten here at the Pastis Restaurant previously. Like so many travelers, his flight has been cancelled because of the volcanic cloud. As more diners arrived, we realized that many were also stranded. The trains and ferries are full and if you are lucky enough to have a car you had better keep it because none are available. Many rental cars are being taken one way and dropped where travelers can catch trains or ferries.

For now, we are fortunate that we have accommodations and no immediate plans to fly or take a train anywhere. We do hope that our fellow Americans in the states are being gracious to stranded European travelers. We met some poor American girls stranded in Venice a couple of days ago. They had no way out of Venice and were crying. We offered to give them a ride but they were desperate to go on to Paris via train and try and get a flight. I think that all of us will have to try and help each other as this cloud continues to create problems.