The Chef's Break

Everything is prepared for lunch - time for a break and a chat. This restaurant is at the Place du Cap in Menton.

The Chapel Roof

Here you see the steeples of the Basilica and the church, taken from one of the higher levels in the old cemetery of the Chateau. You see a part of the beautiful Russian chapel on the left. I wish someone would come along and mend the roof. I fear for this beautiful building - my favourite in the cemetery.

The cemetery is above the Old Town - you can see these steeples in the banner photograph of this blog.

Pigeonholed

The end of a tiny alleyway. Nesting boxes for pigeons. You can see in the smaller photograph that someone has hung aluminium foil from the lamp - probably an attempt to deter the pigeons.

It didn't work...

The Blue Bench

A narrow street in the Old Town. A garden on the walls of this old house. A painted bench.

If you don't have a garden, create one.

The Keyhole

An ancient door in the Old Town - long past its best - its keyhole rusted and useless. Yet the effect is beauty - even art.

The Trumpet Player and the Saxaphone Player

Whilst I was up at Trabuquet photographing the war graves, these two ladies were playing at various ceremonies in Menton for Armistice Day.

Meet Mireille on the left. She lives in Nice. Caroline, on the right, is Australian and has lived in the Old Town of Menton, very near to Trabuquet, for 20 years. They play with La Garde de Menton which is the Harmonie Municipale and they practice once a week in the old Fire Station. Their instruments - the trumpet and the saxophone. There is no pay for this - they do it for the pleasure and the honour.

I didn't photograph them in ideal conditions, sun on their faces, deep shade behind but I've fiddled with this photograph in iPhoto - anyway apologies it's not quite up to scratch but I wanted you to meet these two great women.

You'll notice Le Balico in the background - closed for November - many places are closed but happily not Le Lido where Mireille and Caroline drink a well-deserved bière or pression as beer is known, when it's pumped from the barrel.

Mort pour la France

There are two cemeteries above the Old Town in Menton: the cemetery of the Old Chateau, where many of the Russian and British aristocrats, who colonised Menton at the turn of the century, are buried.

From 1861, Menton became famous for its microclimate and many visitors, suffering from tuberculosis, came to Menton in the hope of getting well but sadly many died. And so the Old Cemetery had little space left for the dead.

In 1880 a second cemetery was built above the Boulevard de Garavan. It looks down over the Old Cemetery, terrace after terrace descending the hillside. Here from 1915, the fallen of Menton who died serving their country in the First World War are buried. The graves include many of the Troupes Sénégalaises .

These two photographs show only a small part of the war graves in Trabuquet. In the main photo, you'll see a square archway on the left and through this you'll find the fallen of Verdun. In other areas, tragically, you find more and more.

Many of the graves in both cemeteries are falling into disrepair but it's gratifying to see how beautifully these war graves are kept and to see so many chrysanthemums decorating them at this time of the year.

Lest we forget...