The best laid plans of mice and women part III plus QUIZ.

The earlier parts can be found here part one

part two

The small aircraft banked hard under a bright blue sky. Far below it was possible to see the runway, a tiny affair with hardly any buildings, having said that I was surprised that such a small sea-side town should have an airfield in the first place. It was the second and last flight of my journey and the first time I’d managed to look out the window since I’d begun my nightmare flight. At least I was beginning to sober up. I’d spent the larger part of my two flights in what the Americans paradoxically call the ‘restroom.’

The pilot executed what in the trade is known as a ‘greaser’ and came to a very quick halt. We then taxied over to what passed as the terminal. Someone was waiting for me, he wasn’t carrying a board with my name. Let’s face it I was the only Yorkshirewoman on the plane and the other seven passengers were all guys. Minutes later my suitcase was with me and we bundled into a white open top Mercedes. Minutes later we reached a tiny harbour and my driver a man of few words pointed to a small speedboat. A ride in a speedboat was all I needed. I wasn’t sure my stomach could take it. He explained in an accent I found hard to understand that as it was market day at our destination the place was full of tourists and the roads were gridlocked. It would take an hour of crawling by road or five minutes by boat.

My meeting took just over an hour and I had three hours to spare before I began the next leg of my journey so as I’d never been here before I set out to explore.

I’d always imagined it to be a much bigger place. It had been propelled from obscurity just after the Second World War when it was adopted by Bohemian artists on one hand and the English jet set on the other, ably assisted by it’s most famous resident, who much to my amazement I was told was still alive.


The harbour was much smaller than I imagined.


And certainly the harbour restaurants were nothing to write home about.


Union Jacks and yachts including some very period ones were still much in evidence…


..and there were still people lounging around drinking champers in the noon day sun….


Chain smoking artists were everywhere……


The shops however came the game away. Big name city shops in a tiny seaside town provided clear evidence the Jet Set were still here.




NOW HERE’S THE QUIZ PART: WHERE WAS I? AND WHO IS THE TOWN’S MOST FAMOUS RESIDENT.