Exile On Courbet Street
Villefranche Sur Mer was four stops down the train track from Monaco. My exit door wouldn’t open, despite my having pressed the green button three times, so, I had to run to the other end of the car to get out in time. Walking down the stairs from the station, I saw a row of outdoor cafes along the waterfront. The only sidewalk that I could walk on was in between the road and the dock, where numerous sailboats were docked. There was no guard rail to keep me from falling into the water if I lost my balance. At the bottom of the photo above, you can see a few tourists walking on this sidewalk.
Having not eaten yet on this day, I looked at the menus of each cafe, looking for the local dish boullabaise. One cafe served it for 70 euros a bowl and the other for 46 euros a bowl. These charges were equal to a whole days spending money for me and I had to pass. I ended up eating roast duck at a cafe on a side street.
As some of you may know, a couple of chapters of rock and roll history were made in this fishing village. This is where the Rolling Stones recorded their Exile on Main Street album in the early seventies. They rented out on of the villas on the hillside ( see photo again ) and recorded in the basement. All of the band members acquired villas on the Cote and claimed residency here to avoid the 80% tax bracket that they were in, in England at the time.
A lesser known fact is that this community is where Be Bop Deluxe recorded their final album Drastic Plastic in 1978. They also rented out a villa to record in. One day they took a break from recording to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. They must have had balloons on their mailbox, because Bill Wyman drove by and assumed that someone from England must be living there and dropped by for a surprise visit. Although Be Bop Deluxe was a successful band at that time, having a rolling stone visit them was a big deal.
I’m sure that both bands got their exercise in this community. V.S.M. , like Monaco, has hundreds of stairs to climb to get anywhere. In fact, the stairways have names, such as Rue de ___. Perhaps the stairways were originally steep streets. Walking back to the station, I saw a couple of fishermen, fishing from the rocks along the waterfront. The water there is so clear that I could see the fish swimming up to the bait under the water. The water was as clear as a swimming pool.
When I arrived at the train station, four women immediately asked me if I spoke English. They were as confused about the train as I was. I told them what I knew and we all took the train to Nice.
Dinner, drinks and to bed,
I.C.