The view of my Artist's Atelier apartment (on the 2nd floor) from Rue de May, the often-photographed pedestrian-only street in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

The harborside view from Le Cosmo Restaurant is gorgeous (as is the profile of my favorite waiter!).

Talk about peaceful -- I'd never get tired of a Mediterranean view like this.

So I had planned to take a 9:36 am train to the gritty, rough-and-tumble Provencal town of Marseille …but being myself, I could hardly drag myself out of the bed this morning. So after rolling back over, finally waking at 11:30 and getting myself dressed, I traipsed down the lovely Rue de May steps (I’m renting an apartment in a pedestrian-only part of Villefranche-sur-Mer) to find a restaurant or brasserie still open before the mid-afternoon closing.

I settled on a place I’d dined before – the almost-waterfront Le Cosmo Restaurant – and decided to nosh outside since the afternoon sun was so warm. (Besides, the waiter was gorgeous in that gaunt Gallic way, tall and slender!) I found a great table with a view of the Mediterranean harbor, and locked eyes with a good-looking, dressed-in-black Frenchman at the next table. After exchanging Bonjours, he commented on my sunglasses and proceeded to start a brief conversation. This curly-haired homme – a cutie-pie for sure – asked if he could join me at my table. Turned out J.L. (leave it to me to meet a gorgeous Frenchman whose ancestors actually came from Italia! ) is also a writer whose pursuits include traveling, swimming in the chilly Mediterranean sea several mornings a week, and writing symbolic novels about an idealistic world where we all get along. Sounded pretty cool to me! 

Anyway… about 90 minutes of pleasant conversation followed, after which he charmingly invited me to his flat in nearby Nice for a meal some time this week. Who knows if I’ll take him up on it, but how lovely to receive such a tempting invitation! This would probably fall into my dad’s category of, “Don’t be over there [in Europe] doing nothin’ stupid,” but what an adventure, eh? I’m headed back to Nice on Sunday for church… so perhaps an afternoon lunch with a gorgeous Frenchman is just the way to kick off 2009!