Beaulieu sur Mer and beyond

Beaulieu sur Mer is just a little way along the coast from Nice, nestled on some very rugged coastline. It is quite stunning especially on a beautiful day. However I discovered very soon after I arrived that it was closed on Easter Monday. I went down to the beach and realised that it was a topless beach so I felt somewhat overdressed. I still didn't even have a swimsuit, so I was wearing my shorts and a t-shirt. About 6.00pm, one cafe opened, and taking full advantage of this fact, charged an arm and a leg for a very basic meal - nice to see that this doesn't only happen in NZ!
The hotel I was staying in looked fabulous on the website but the price should have alerted me to possible problems. When I got there, I found that the air con didn't work and there was a notice saying 'keep your windows closed at night for security'; the TV with 20 international channels couldn't get any one of them; and the high speed internet couldn't connect. On the plus side, the pool did look as lovely as the picture but, in a cruel twist, the weather conspired to spoil even that when is suddenly clouded over and became very cold. This didn't seem to affect the heat in the rooms though, which seemed to have fairly effective heat retention properties. So after a sleepless night, I got up, packed myself up and headed northwards. I had no idea where I would be by the end of the day but I had thought I might head towards St Malo, where I could sit on a beach or catch a ferry to Jersey. It was a 12 hour drive to St Malo according to Tom so I decided I would need to stop on the way and I thought I would know that place when I reached it.
Lo and behold, I was driving through Lyon when I noticed a road sign pointing towards Villefranche sur Saone so I thought I would return there. You may recall that I went there on my way down to Tuscany and took photos of chocolate for Mandy. I had promised myself that I would take some time to stay there if I got the opportunity, and here was that opportunity. I went back to the hotel I had stayed at last time in the hope that they would have a room. Fortunately they did so I got myself settled and then headed down to Le Promenoir for a G & T in the sun. I really like Villefranche - I went shopping for a few things I needed - swimsuit, shorts and another pair of jeans since the ones I had brought with me were almost past their use by date. I spent a happy afternoon trying to shop in French and met a lovely woman who helped me with my French while I helped her with her English. Great sales technique - I bought quite a few things from her shop after spending about an hour there. I also found a laverie and managed to get my washing done. It felt quite a homely sort of place - not necessarily a hot destination on the tourist trail, but I enjoyed my time there.