The sun was up against a blue
sky and promised to be a warm soothing day. The first order of business was to find the place that sold an electrical cord
for my Toshiba computer. I had left in Caux. We went downtown and found a large parking lot seemingly built for mini cars.
The spare room on each of side of car was literally six inches and it turned and turned upward to hopefully a parking spot.
We arrived on the second parking floor some six turns later. We stopped and waited for someone to give up their spot. This
is a strategy I have found works. Within 5 minutes someone exited and I backed in and parked the car.
Off we went to the computer store. There I found my connecting wire and a few other items that
I wanted. We decided we would look for a hotel. After seeing some totally below our standard we found one that was to our
standard. Slight problem. It was $800 a night and it was four blocks from the sea. We continued to look and found a delightful
place called the Hotel Cristal 6 blocks from the sea. It was only $250 a night. Sounds expensive but don’t forget this
is Cannes. It was big and spacious and not only could you twirl a cat in the room you could swing a lion and not hit the walls.
I had the hotel get one of the employees to come with me to pick up my car and return and then
unload the bags. That done we just left the bags in the room and headed for the boardwalk that follows the bay. The street
is called the Croisette and it goes on for 3 miles. We saw a little train like you would ride at the CNE and we chanced that
the tour it would take us on would be worth the $10 we were paying for the ride. As it turned out it covered the entire waterfront
the adjacent streets with 1,001 and stores and passed the Festival Hall you see on ET when the festival is on. Then up to
the top of a high hill that gave a panoramic view of Canne's moon shaped bay. To the north were hills where Grasse was located,
to east the sea shore and a couple of islands, to the west the sea shore again continued and to the south of us was the moon
shaped harbour the Cannes seafront with umbrellas and strollers and bathers. At each end of the bay large yacht by the dozen
were anchored and sailboats and parasails filled the open water. The hour-long tour gave a feeling of where everything was.
We returned to the hotel freshened up agreed both of us would go shopping and adventuring on
our own and meet up later. I primarily went to the waterfront hoping to find some nude bathers but alas no luck. Next I tried
to find beautiful women and a found a number. The woman of Cannes dress more sheikly and with greater care then the woman
of Paris. I wandered through a number of stores and found one item I liked. It was a long sleeve casual dress shirt with thin
blue and white strips. It had on its left hand side a yachting crest surrounded by flags of different countries and famous
races. On the shoulder was another stitched crest with more yachting info. I am sure one and all would mistake me for a yachtsman
slumming around Cannes while my $50 million yacht sat at anchor waiting for the next big party or voyage. Cost a mere $250
when discounted at 20%. Think Holt Renfrew and or Stollery at its best and it’s the same price. They had my size I knew
I would be the talk of Cannes. Alas I chickened out and said I wanted my wife to buy it for me and would return with her.
We will see.