Friday's gluttony

Friday 10th May, continued

Suitably relieved, we headed off towards the old town. This involved walking through the newer town past numerous designer shops. We gawped in the windows a bit, including at one mobile phone with a price tag of €16500 (that is not a typo).

The possibility of Going Up Something High was not over as there was a useful looking tower in the old town. We meandered the streets towards it and found it was part of the Musée Castre. This was a very random ethnographical (whatever that means) museum, apparently one of the oldest in France. We started off with the tower - this was obviously the main touristical attraction for us. It was with the 109 step (22 metre) climb for the fabulous views over the bay and town.

The museum was pretty good too. It was a welcome break from the now hot sun (I wouldn't be needing my anorak again) and there were some interesting exhibits. I particularly enjoyed the paintings if Cannes in the 19th century and the large display of musical instruments.

I enjoyed speaking a bit of French today, although as always I feel that my inability to correctly conjugate verbs let me down. I did manage to successfully negotiate the taking of a photo for a couple whom I put my conversational skills to use on to discover that they were on holiday from Normandy. My conversational skills were insufficient to be able to explain the difference between Portsmouth and Plymouth - a geographical knowledge impediment that I am becoming bored of explaining to people of my native tongue. I also successfully negotiated the purchase of a sarong for Matt - a red one with tortoises and fish bones that matches his yellow one with seaweed and fish bones.

I'd taken a sneaky peak at the evening's menu and wasn't particularly grabbed by anything so I persuaded Matt to give the buffet a go. The theme was Mexican.

This was a bad idea: 

• Not because I missed the waiter service - it was nice to be a bit more relaxed
• Not because the food was bad - it was yummy and there was plenty of choice for veggies
• Not because the company was bad - Matt and I had a window table for 2 and as usual enjoyed each other’s company (obviously I can't speak for him but he didn't complain and I enjoyed it). Our conversation was more normal: 
• talking about some topics that might not be acceptable with strangers including the practicalities of diving into the sea from high decks - would you reach terminal velocity? Would it hurt? How long would it take? - I was even using a bit of my college maths
• not having to take care to avoid insulting anyone - we could freely reflect upon the characteristics of some of our fellow passengers.

No, it was a bad idea because the buffet led to a dangerous relaxation of table manners. While this had some notable benefits (I do enjoy eating with my fingers when possible) it opened the floodgates of gluttony. We piled our plates high with salads for starters - so much that would be enough for a whole meal.

We followed this with a generous helping of hot mains - although I did avoid the ubiquitous roast potatoes which seem to be available with all meals in the buffet (including breakfast and late night snacks, I recommend this holiday as an option if you're a fan of roast potatoes). This might have been just about acceptable but I was then presented with a delicious-looking array of puddings. How could I choose between dulche de leche flan, churros with chocolate sauce and chilli & pecan chocolate brownies? I couldn't and I didn't. Fortunately I don't like bread and butter pudding (even the Mexican sort?) so a total waistline disaster was averted.

The extra brownie is one I selected for Matt