Travel: Revisiting Menton, Nice and Cannes

Revisiting the markets of Menton, Nice and Cannes, which I had last seen in the 1980s enlightened of the extent to which progress has altered and shaped their identities.

EU rules and regulations have driven out a lot of the small suppliers who simply don`t have funds to comply with the myriad of red tape that dictates how food should be transported, delivered and displayed.

My great memory of Cannes in the early 1980s was of a great heap of a market where fresh fruit and vegetables were literally dumped onto tables and where ham right off the bone and cheese dripping off the plate were right there in front of you and not separated by some plexiglass partition.

Fishmongers whose produce used to derive from the catch of local fishing boats nowadays depend upon deliveries from bigger suppliers as the harbours where the fishing boats once moored are now replate with yachts and other cruisers.

As I write, the town of Ventimiglia on the Italian Riviera and adjacent to Menton (on the French Riviera) has consented for a yacht basin in the town; but until that happens one can still experience the unparalleled thrill of shopping at street markets where produce and fish are grown and/or caught by small, local suppliers.

The yacht basins are not the only phantoms which affect food supply and prices. The yacht basins are only symptomatic of the transition from working cities/towns into holiday resorts.

The Riviera has become littered with estate agents and property developers. The building boom has hit an unprecedented high and the coastline (immortalised by Monet in paintings in and around the Riviera) is one long assembly line of apartment blocks.

Many of the owners are non-resident, buy with hopes of a profitable re-sale, and leave the apartments empty until they do sell on. Thus the towns and cities lack resident communities and prices are pegged for holidaymakers and short-stay visitors.

Many locals with whom I spoke believe the markets have become gentrified. They parody themselves in this way. They feel that markets along the French coast are twice as expensive as supermarkets and that French supermarkets are just as good.

Okay, the produce might not be farm fresh. It might be a day or two old, but it is good as all French produce adheres to tough healthy and safety requirements.

The consensus is the markets along the Italian Riviera are half the price of the French markets, but alot depends upon where you live. Hypothetically we might assume living in Villfrance you could journey to Ventimiglia. The reality is you don’t and opt for the local supermarket.

But it isn`t just the markets, but the cafes and restaurants too. A Parisian holidaying in Menton with his aunt recounted memories of the Villefrance port in the Fifties. “Oh, it was wonderful”, he said. “It was my favourite port... and the restaurants which lined the harbour... Oh!”

Sure I too can remember the cafes in and around Old Cannes in the Eighties, family-owned places run by husband and wife where he or she did the cooking... where the meringue was so frothy it oozed off the gelatin... and where the world ‘refrigeration’ was an anathema.

You bought a drink and got enough tapas to feed an army. Dinner? What dinner? You were stuffed. Some of the old places endure but prices have been topped up.

Times change. We all move on. Most places today are run by businessmen with managers and chefs and sous-chefs.

It is very rare to see in Cannes or Menton anything like in Bordighera where the chef following the lunch hour propped her aching feet onto a chair in full view of all passers-by.

Italian markets still cater to the working class. You can knock back a glass of white wine (1 euro) at any French or Italian market bar but at the Italian bar you`ll get a counter of pro bono tapas too.

Civilized, eh? So now let`s look at the food markets of Menton, Nice and Cannes.

Menton, Nice and Cannes markets are all Provencal markets. The food is fresh, local and regional. The two most popular foods: chard tartes and ‘oreillettes’: thin, crisp, rectangular dessert fritters.

Notably Menton became a British winter resort following a four-week visit in 1882 by Queen Victoria whose enthusiasm for the climate and landscape precipitated a building boom of holiday villas.

The physical beauty, scenic landscape and intense colour of the place remain unmitigated. Eucalyptus, palm, mimosa and other exotica enliven a granite landscape framed by sun, sand and sea.

Menton`s market was formalised in 1898 and still operates within the original market building conceived by local architect Adrien Rey, a protege of Gustave Eiffel, who softened the fundamental steel structure by adding awings to the facade.

The appearance is of a Mediterranean colonial hall with hollow tile roof and Belle Epoque decoration. It is colourful. It is vibrant. It is impressive.

The market operates from Monday to Sunday from 8am until 1pm and on Friday there is also an antiquity market.

Along with oreillettes there are Fougasse (pastry made of orange flour, raisins and nuts, onion tartes (very popular), and tomatoe/onion pasties. Fresh French baguettes have all the oddities of shape of freshly-baked bread and can last for days.

French `fast food` is on offer - roast chicken on a spit sold with sausages and potatoes stewing in the pan below.

There is a second market in Menton and it is half the price of the municipal market. This one is located near the bus station and gets some of the local farmers who probably fail to comply with EU regulations and thus no longer can sell elsewhere.

Produce is sold out of backs of trucks and/or off tables underneath railway arches. It is not a salubrious environment and very few Mentonnais shop there, preferring to patronise the local supermarkets or the municipal market.

But the produce is good, fresh and cheap. As a matter of fact these farmers are still doing naturally what some interlopers are mining as a kind of luxury product.

The Menton farmers market sells four and four different varieties of broccoli, tomatoes, artichokes and aubergines. It sells them without fuss and at a good deal less than some of the offcomers who have moved into Menton and cultivate organic and rare varieties.

Immortalised by director Alfred Hitchcock in ‘To Catch a Thief’ the Nice flower market has achieved iconic status. Located in the Cours Saleya it was incorporated in 1895 as an open market but probably has been going since Roman times (or even earlier).

The market which also purveys fruit, vegetables and food runs Monday to Sunday 7am-5pm with Monday earmarked for the sale of antiquities.

Weekends are the most buoyant with sales of local flowers by small farmers competing with larger suppliers. It appears like most things the market is dominated by the bigger suppliers these days but if you search you`ll find the tried and true locals plying their flowers. And then- what joy!

Choice is great, though. There were lavender from Provence but also from England and the Canaries, calla lilies (oh, Katharine Hepburn... `The calla lilies are in bloom again`), arum lilies.There were pumpkins and courgettes with delicate leafy stems, round courgettes, fresh corn, yellow beans, oyster mushrooms, and several varieties of broccoli.