Summer’s Twilight

Yesterday I was invited to the Carlton Beach restaurant by a client for lunch. Very nice. Probably the nicest beach restaurant in Cannes. It has been a few years since I last was last there. Lovely place and the kitchen is pretty good.

It is also the best place to watch the summer fireworks. In Cannes and many other towns along the French Riviera, they have a fireworks competition throughout the summer. The Carlton is dead centre of the event in Cannes and going there for dinner and the fireworks is a grand experience.

It does require some planning though, as parking is a nightmare and there is always crowds of people. When my parents lived here, we’d drive the car down early in the day and park it in a nearby garage, then return home by cab. In the evening we’d get a lift with friends or the domaine’s guardian back down. After the event we’d often stay and luxuriate at the restaurant, while the crowds and traffic dissipated.

These days I don’t live far by foot from the Croisette, so it is often a nice walk with Baka to the sea side. Sometimes he and I would go at the end of the Sunday afternoon and walk along for a bit and then stop in a café for a glass of wine and maybe a light snack.

Last night though was the last fireworks in Cannes for the summer and I did not attend. Opted to stay home after the large lunch I had had earlier. Also Baka probably wouldn’t enjoy the boom boom of the huge speakers playing music as the fireworks go boom boom in time. And last night must have been a grand show as the boom boom of the fireworks seemed to be exceptionally loud, even from my apartment and seemed to go on for a whole hour.

Alas with the last of the fireworks come soon the signs of summer’s end; cooler nights and breezes, the departure of the tourists (yeah), the return of kids to school (boo if you’re a kid, yeah if you’re a parent), the return of daily life in the streets. The south of France doesn’t have a distinct change of seasons like Canada and northern climates, with autumn colours and fall of the leaves. Summer here just fades into winter, as the sunset into night.