Unusually I was up late today around 0900am due my late night. I decided that today was going to be a slow day and have a quiet beach day. I had a long breakfast before gathering my beach gear and walked down to the public beach. Today is a French holiday and the beach had already started to fill early but there was still some places close to the front, seems the young were still sleeping off their wild late night. The weather was still warm although the temperatures were not as high as before but still perfect for sun bathing. As I lay on the sand with my eyes closed listening to the sea rolling on the beach, the sounds of people chatting in numerous foreign languages, I felt this places was special. So many nationalities here, so many wealth classes, so many age ranges, so many different people from so many different places all over the world, I recognised that this place is special for its diversity. I went into the sea after a while, they were setting up the barges in the bay for tonight's fireworks extravaganza and all the wealthy yachts were bobbing up and down in the bay nearby, I saw Simon Cowell’s yacht which I recognised from this morning’s papers. I was in the middle of the centre of the world or at least the centre of the active busy world in August. By 1500pm I had enough of the beach and started to feel it was time to have an espresso in a cafe before starting to get ready for tonight.
I came out around 1800 and headed for the old town to promenade and search for a restaurant for the evening. I sat and had a drink in a bar just opposite the Hotel de ville which brought me to around 1900. I went for dinner in Au Richleu and had the 21.90 euro fixed menu. I started with the fish gratin, which was delicious followed by the mixed fish grill, nicely grilled with a taste of barbecue singed on the edges. I followed this with my favourite mousse au chocolate. It was nearly 2200 so I made my was to the Croisette to wait for the firework festival to start. The whole of the Croisette was heaving with people all waiting, then the street lights went off and the music from the large speakers on the barge in the bay boomed out and the night sky lit up with colours of light and sparkles. The show went on for nearly 30 minutes before it all finished with a whimper, the second after, everybody turned round and headed into the side streets back to hotels or bars like obedient ants. I went straight to bed as tomorrow was my departure day and my slow migration back North to my next destination.