The Wide South
CONSUMING INTEREST
By LESLIE ADRIAN
No one in his right senses goes to the South of France in August. Which only serves to support the view that half the world is mad, for there they are, competing for some of the scarcest leisure resources in Europe. Strangely, by mid-September the coast- ! wide traffic jam will
have gone, and it will be possible to move by motor-car again, an essential ingredient of a sampling trip along the coast. Visitors to this playground have been declining in numbers, but you would not think so to see the suntanned legions, redolent of Ambre Solaire, wearing the way-out clothes that have become de rigueur between Nice and Cannes, the purist's Riviera, but which have spilled over into the less celebrated spots, where prices are just as high, but there is not the satisfaction of being in that magic area centred upon Ville- franche, Eze, Beaulieu and Cap Estel, where the sharp drop of mountains into sea creates the best climate on the coast.
Here is the last 'unspoiled' village on the coast, St Jean Cap Ferrat, off the main road, and with a beach where you can find room to lie down, which is rare along there. A good plage guide to the Cote d'Azur has yet to be written, but it would surely have to mention La Siesta at Antibes, described by no one in particular as the rich man's Club Mediterrande. Eighteen francs buys the use of a mattress under an umbrella, a towel and one drink, with use of trampoline if feeling bouncy. And there's a yacht within easy swim on which a tired tourist can sunbathe all day. Add to this that at night it costs eighteen francs for the drink alone, and you can see why it is to be preferred in daylight.
All the night life along the coast carries this kind of premium, but one good move is to con- fine your spending to one or two drinks at places where there is a special mark-up for the view, the hour of the day or simply the sight of a tourist after what some wags have called the 'dead season'—between June 1 and 15. It is not that the heavy spenders stay away till after that fortnight (they are there all the year round) but there is not the same pressure of numbers, and a hotelier might find that he had a room unhooked.
Provided that you don't begrudge lOs a drink (usually the measure is more generous than in Britain, but you can seldom rely on it with all that ice) it is possible to take in the views from
Vista Aero above Cap Martin, the Château Madrid above Beaulieu, the Chevre d'Or at Eze and eat more cheaply at one of the many places where, if the ambience does not conform to the Riviera fantasy, at least you can have French food and not be obliged to go back home the following morning. For those who never had to spin out the travel allowances that a previous sterling crisis produced (when there were millions fewer taking their holidays abroad) a week on the Monte Carlo-Nice-Cannes beat would be a perfect preparation.
I feel sure that those suicides that have always been denied by the casino must now be the consequences of a successful evening at another kind of table. So, if you are hungry and want to stay another twenty-four hours eat in the old port quarter of Nice, the Roxy or the Restaurant Pallanca in Monte where the proprietor is reputed to charge only 5 per cent service, but 'ne l'applique pas souvent, semble-t-il.' M Pallanca is the only Monegasque to rate a listing in the Meilleures Tables de France a mains de 12F. My edition is 1964, and he's probably gone over the tap now. The same guide gives La Bonne Auberge, Cave Nicoise and Le Petit Brouant, with a shady garden and an honest patron, in Nice; Le Refuge (well named), Romanens and Mere Besson in Cannes; and in Antibes, Auberge Provencale, Restaurant du Bastion ('a l'abri des vieux ramparts') and La Bonne Auberge, which is four kilometres on the road to Nice. St Trop, being one huge clip joint, offers no bargains. In Juan-les-Pins, supposing you can stand the forced gaiety, there are the Ruban Bleu near the beach and Le Pre Catalan.
The guide says, devient rare de pouvoir donner a son estomac une nourriture reposante sur la Cote.' Yes, the whole place is jumping, but it's worth a visit once in a lifetime, if only for the challenge.
Not all conferences confine themselves to platitudes. Now and again someone speaks up. At a recent management conference the follow- ing interesting admission was made : 'There are many claims made for products on the United Kingdom market in television advertising and elsewhere which would simply not be allowed in Germany—not allowed be- cause one's competitor would seek recourse to the law to prevent them and the law would support him.'
Perhaps the Advertising Standards Authority should take a look at German case law.
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