John Otway to lecture in Valbonne

With the sun shining and the air still surprisingly warm, lunch on the beach beckoned. I had heard the Nounou on the coast at Golfe Juan was highly recommended as a seafood establishment with the speciality of the house being bouillabaisse, basically fish stew. What I did not know until after we were seated and it was too late to escape was that although very good and very comfortable right on the beach it is also very expensive, and I had to talk that nice lady decorator out of ordering the lobster bouillabaisse at a price a little over 90 euros, this is about £79 according to my Currencies Direct currency converter.  I should have known, with no way to see in to the seating area and no menu to peruse outside, the trap was beautifully laid. The meal however was exemplary, John Dory in a wonderful lemon sauce for me whilst that nice lady decorator tucked into Dorade Supreme baked in salt.  The surroundings were also very pleasant although there one or two pieces of furniture and er…”art” which perhaps would struggle to find a place in my house. In fact I have a picture of one such item to feature today.

A cobra made largely from the petals of pine cones. Whatever will the French think of next?

The memory of the bill was sufficiently engraved on my conscious mind to was to ward of sleep at siesta time, which was a pity as sleep was more necessary than normal as we were invited to supper by Master Mariner Mundell and his godlike wife Zillah at their palatial mansion up in the hills behind Plascassier.

Earlier in the day I had taken my morning constitutional walk into Valbonne to collect the Sunday Times. The questions lurking in my mind at the moment concern the speech I must make at the sold out launch of my book  “Summer In the Cote D’Azur” which will be attended by actor and improvisation artist Stephen Frost and the enigmatic John Otway. That I must follow Stephen, a professional and brilliant comic to speak is something that has exercised my mind somewhat recently. I think the idea will be to say something short and sweet and sit down before the heckling gets too intense and allow the self-styled rock and roll failure Mr Otway to say a few words and play a couple of songs and to get the flak.

Speaking of John Otway, it is my great pleasure to announce that he will be the guest speaker of the next Valbonne Literary Lunch at the same venue, The Auberge Provencal on Monday 12th December. Some of you may know of the antics of my oldest friend, a man who despite minimal musical talent, a poor singing voice and an idiosyncratic song writing style coupled with massive self belief and a chaotic and often hilarious live show has built up a fanatical following. If you are unaware, let me give you some examples; in the year 2000 the BBC ran a nationwide competition to find the best pop song lyric of the millennium. The Otway fans organised themselves and it is a fact (recorded at the time on the front page of The Sunday Times) that the 7th best song of all time is his “Beware Of The Flowers ‘Cause I’m Sure They’re Going To  Get You, Yeah!”. He has sold out shows at The London Palladium and The Royal Albert Hall, once told Paula Yates, after she had dumped him after one date, “that’s  your last chance with a rock star”, failed to recognise Paul McCartney despite The Beatle recognising him and asking for his autograph. I could go on for hours, but John has a wonderfully funny Powerpoint lecture which he will be presenting on the 12th covering all his successes but mostly his failures in the music business, and promoting Otway the Movie.

Price 30 Euros including lunch, reservations by email; chrs.france@gmail.com First come first served!

Chris France