We had lunch in the sun outdoors on the quay at Villefranche. The temperature was about 65 degrees. In New York it was thirty five degrees colder today, the long, often sunless winter appears to have settled in to stay. Here the sky was cloudless, the air very clear. I fancied I could count the leaves on the trees on the Cap Ferrat all the way out--yes there are still leaves on the trees here—as well as every slab of rock on the cliff face that rose behind us. The Mediterranean at our feet was very still, the masts of the anchored pleasure boats scarcely moving. The restaurant is called L’Oursin Bleu. I had risotto ai fruti di mare which came with a cream sauce filled with shrimps, mussels and chunks of fish; and for desert a wonderful soufflé. The others—there were four of us--had similar exotic fare, and the wine I had ordered, a Rosé de Provence, was cold, of a beautiful color, and quite marvelous. We talked sometimes of money—the dollar is in a rather steep slide at the moment, though none of us was hurting—and at other times of the ailments older people are subject to, though none of us was in trouble at the moment. It reminded me of the way the grand prix drivers used to talk about getting killed when I was younger: it was happening all around us but could not happen to me personally. Anyway we had a few laughs, we savored the delicious lunch and the splendid view and each other, and at a certain point I was almost overcome by an emotion that has come to me more and more often lately, and I gazed at my wine with the sun in it and I murmured: What did I ever do to merit being so lucky, to merit a moment like this?
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3/25/2023 08:17:57 am
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