Mimosa

Mimosa is a shrub of the acacia family; it comes from Australia and in particular Tasmania which endears it too me,  and I will forever associate it with the South of France, Menton in particular. When I went to Manchester Poly, the degree I did was  a joint BA, English and History and French subsidiary. It was a wonderful degree because you could mix and match, so I had friends doing Spanish, Politics, and other subjects in a combination. This meant that we met up with a lot of different people in our lectures, seminars and tutorials.

I got in with a group of people, who were doing French as a main subject (with some other subject as subsidiary) and part of the degree was to spend the summer in France. The first year they went to La Rochelle, so the whole gang of us went too, and we camped and had a wonderful summer. The second year they went to Menton,s o we all went down there to have a fabulous holiday on the Med. We fell in love with Menton, so for several summers after that we went down there each year and stayed on a camp-site in Gorbio, just outside the town.

I have so many wonderful memories… I will never forget it… citron pressé, pistachio ice-cream, bière á la pression, actually seeing Grace Kelly in real life and her handsome husband Prince Rainier .. she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen…

And the streets were lined with mimosa trees….