Ile de Re:The jewel in the French crown

Carla Bruni was the reason that we came back home urgently from France and specifically from Ile de Re. Carla Bruni her mother and her husband ‘en famillie’ as they say were visiting Johnny’s homeland. For this obvious reason Johnny had to be in his base and to welcome Carla in flesh and bones who was dressed up as Nanny McPhee in grey, like a good girl!
Anyway this event didn’t mess up with my good memories from Ile de Re where we are regulars the past few years. Ile de Re has a special place in my heart for many reasons but the first and most important is because it is like a Greek village adrift on the Atlantic Ocean, white houses, blue sky, vineyards and pine trees. And secondly it has cycling routes from the top to the bottom of the island. The rest advantages are an extra bonus like affluent markets, cultivations of oysters and generally sea food, harbours with yachts and beautiful restaurants . Of course I like to see all these yachtsmen tanned and full of energy but the only that I can share with them is a glass of Armagnac at the end of their trip, the view only of the rocking boat in the water makes me feel sick. But I quite enjoyed having seafood in the restaurants of St. Martin which is the main harbour of the island. Ile de Re is called “Francehamptons” according to New Yorkers and it is the holidays resort for the well heeled Parisians of the 16th arrondissement. So it it was nice to see all this upper class French who are so different from the English upper class. The French are like leather sofas polished with leather oil, so well groomed, the English cannot rid of their scruffiness, probably because they don’t care so much what the others say.... Sometimes I feel that they are a different human species, the above class in both tribes. What somebody can say for sure about Ile de Re is that there is no speck of vulgarity!