Supper Club on the French Riviera near Cannes

Red Radish -The very best Underground Supper Club on the Cote d'Azur (06). Great food, great people and in a lovely relaxed home in France. Covering the French coast from Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Cannes, St tropez and out into the hills behind Mougins and Valbonne you will find the most intimate of places where you can enjoy some wonderful food created by Louise (Lucy) Bird of Radish Events. There will be limited numbers and places so book early. Check them out on Facebook for menus and dates of the next event. Similar in style to London's Green Onion, The Secret Inredient, Savoy Truffle Supper Club, Ms Marmitelover’s Underground Restaurant and the Saltoun Supper Club this one is sure to be a fantastic hit and fast

TWIT ter...

I have been Twittering since Sunday and already am addicted. This is quite something from a Luddite whose idea of keeping in touch is to pick up the phone or write a letter (ok I do email, but Facebook MSN messenger and Myspace, sorry you still leave me cold.)

Jonathan Ross is a Twitter, it has taken over from insulting grandads on air as his favourite new pastime (how he manages to find a minute for his day job is anyone’s guess.) Luckily, my partner Wayne (yes Karen and Wayne, we have just ordered the furry dice and the windscreen sticker) is to technology what I am to the written word - a gift from God - and we reckon this could be a valuable promotional tool when RIVIERA2DAY is up and running.

I’ve noticed that a high flying BBC contact of mine uses Twitter to talk about dramas and series that are coming up on Auntie (complete with transmission times and days, shameless huh? That one is on C4 though) so if it’s good enough for Pablo Almondo, it’s good enough for me. A joyful bonus is when an email pops up telling you that someone from your dark and distant past is following you (so far, my best schoolfriend from age 11, two very cool ITV prs who made my job a pleasure in London and inexplicably, a bus driver called Dan who seems quite amusing but doesn’t know me from Adam). Mind you, navigating my way around is a nightmare, so I might be doing the same as the chick above very soon.

look out Trip advisor....

On Friday we cracked open the champagne at Lucy and Wayne's to celebrate the launch of our new online lifestyle magazine RIVIERA2DAY.com. It’s grown from a dinner party conversation fuelled by copious amounts of wine to several meetings a week fuelled by cappuchino and enthusiasm, no mean feat when you’re knocking on the door of jaded post -40^th birthday cynicism. We are going to cover all the hottest news, events, comings and goings, festivals, fashion, shopping, restaurants, bars, beaches and anything else you can think of on the Cote d'Azur. It’s not just about providing a public service to under serviced ex pats here (although that is our top priority dear reader) it’s also about the VIP backstage passes for Madge, Lenny K and Oasis…joking) Lots of work to do and the site should be up in March, so all very exciting. I went to the loo and found myself in a pitch dark hallway, three glasses of Champagne down, tripped over the giant dog basket and found myself splayed across it complete with bruised shins (will that be enough to get me out of running the London Marathon in April?) Cue three worried partners racing out to said hallway to check I was okay. ‘Thank God you’re all right’ said Lucy, ‘Wayne’s sister in law tripped over that last Christmas and broke two ribs!’ Rumours of my growing up, slowing down and maturing are vastly exaggerated.

Dealing with elephants

WikiPedia says.....The elephant in the room is an English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. It is based on the idea that an elephant in a room would be impossible to overlook; thus, people in the room who pretend the elephant is not there might be concerning themselves with relatively small and even irrelevant matters, compared to the looming big one of trying to get some money out of Iain.

Deal done.....

After weeks of protracted negotiations I finally agreed a deal with Tim @ LA2DAY last night. It is a great compromise with him remaining involved for the foreseeable future. It will obviously be a great help having someone with so much web experience involved in the project. We just need to finalise the contracts over the next week, pay the money, get the site and voila we will be web-entrepreneurs on a mission, albeit with an ENORMOUS amount of work to get done before our aimed 'live' date sometime in early April and the inevitable party/launch during the Film festival.

Larry carrying out his day job....

You 'Cannes' not be serious

Went to a fashion party in Cannes last night, purely in the interests of making new contacts for our fantastically exciting new business venture. It sounds glamorous doesn't it, fashion party, Cannes, I mean, how could that not be fun? I hate networking with a vengeance after 20 years working the London showbiz party and launch circuit (lots of bad canapes, cheap wine and even cheaper celebs) but had my best schmoozing hat on. The reality was arriving 15 fashionable minutes late to find two screens showing archive footage of the catwalk collections to an empty hotel bar, being charged 10 euros for a miniscule flute of Champagne which I drank a bit too quickly by myself as there was no-one to mingle with, all the while trying to look like I was a busy career woman in demand by emailing Iain, various pals and my friend's 13-year-old daughter so that I didn't look like Billy No Mates. I came home, took off my not-trying-too-hard-but-bloody-expensive Isabel Marant dress and ate a reheated chicken curry with my girls and watching Celebrity Big Brother....(highlight - Ulrika & Verne's tune-free duet of Endless Love.)

Letting sleeping BLOGS lie....

The offices of RIVIERA2DAY will be closed from December 24th through to January 3rd. We have gone to the UK to feed the homeless and to get an idea where our future might lie in the inlikely event that this new venture turns out to be a bad investment!

PS: I am the one on the left reading the paper.

I am officially a Genius

I just paid $9.00 for the domain www.tammycanette.com. Talk about brilliant, her blog and website could be as big as the new lifestyle site on it's own. Move over Harry Enfield, I am in 'imagination overdrive'

I just invented Tammy Canette

You will be able to check out the latest gossip and shop openings with our roving reporter, Tammy Canette and her doggies, Crois and Sette as they totter proudly, from shop to shop along one of the most glamourous high streets in the world, the Rue d'Antibes. Tammy and her dogs will also be covering (not literally we hope) every inch of Cannes, the most ritzy city in Europe, including the world famous Palais d'Festival, home to renowned Palm D'Or film festival. It should make for addicitive reading.

Disclaimer

I thought I had better say that this blog is written with passion and from the heart BUT without any knowledge of the laws of France, Journalism or in fact anything legal. I just want to say I love the French (-food, ski resorts, beaches, wine etc) , I love my girlfriend Lucy who is a woman, I love my cousin Tracey who lives in China, my best friend is a black Nigerian (not sure that they even make white ones) My best friend before that was gay and is now sadly no longer around and my new best friend, karen Hockney, is a journalist which proves I have absolutely no discriminations whatsoever against anyone.
I guess we will be publishing this blog somewhere on our fantastic site one day, so please, if I have offended you or taken one of your images from Google then I am sorry, truly sorry and just in case you are thinking of suing me, then at least wait till the site has made us a few million because before that I am pretty skint and you will just be wasting your time and money.

Please...There must be somewhere round here for me?

Another great three hour meeting of two magnificent minds, with probably our most golden nugget being the decision to not only help the hip becoming hipper and the busy become busier but now we are going to make sure all our GAY friends (Mark, Dave, Chris) have somewhere to go OUT too, after all, what is the point of 'coming out' if your stuck at home bored. Great for them and great for the new site because it gives us a bigger target market and them something to look forward to. We tried googling (that's a search term and not an obscene act btw) French Riviera and the word gay and all we found was Pierre the carefree and lively lavender farmer up the backend of Provence. We are so fired up about this project, now and every day things just seem to be evolving into what can only be a surefire success.

PS: This guy is not meant to be representative of the gay community and is just a possible example of someone who could possible be gay.

Our ideas - Karen's Commas,,,,,,,,,

To create a punchy, sassy, in your face social networking/dating/magazine website appealing across the board to ex-pats and French alike but with one fundamental difference...it will be the antithesis of everything that has gone before on the Cote d’Azur.
Forget Middle England, genteel Brits of a certain age, comfortable, respectable, safe Riviera Radio and Anglo Info, the defining quality of our site will be the cool factor. We don’t want to be a part of the establishment, we don’t want to be in that time warp gang, we want you to come and join our gang. It promises to be everything the Cote d’Azur hasn’t currently got:
Independent
Quirky
Off the beaten track
Humorous
Selective
Irreverent
Fun
and boasting seriously cool credentials when it comes to knowing everything that is worth knowing about in our beautiful corner of France.
If you want comparisons, think the Hip Hotel Guide, Mr and Mrs Smith, LA2day, Wallpaper.....in other words, a sophisticated, user friendly site with the feel of a private members club, exploiting the area covering Monaco to St Tropez and all it has to offer in a unique fashion. Funded by subscriptions and advertising, our target market is the young and young thinking brigade, singletons new to the area looking for a social network, commuters from the UK who spend their working week here displaced from their own social circle, parents of teens who aren’t ready for the pinnie, pipe and slippers just yet.
The lowdown:
• What’s On. A definitive guide to upcoming concerts, events, club nights, the hottest parties, festivals, premieres, creating tie-ins with the Cannes Film Festival, the World DJ Festival, the World Music Awards amongst others. Also covering new bar and restaurant openings.
• Restaurants. Food is a major factor in France and the Med has so much to offer. We will feature honest reviews of restaurants on and off the beaten track, as well as readers/bloggers constructive views on their not so great experiences as well as their memorable ones.
• Feedback forum. Focusing on subscribers and bloggers views, their grass roots knowledge and tips for hidden jewels like a great walk, beach, or gastronomic eaterie. We want to create a Riviera-wide network of discerning people who can keep us up to date with great tips, reviews and recommendations. After all, word of mouth is the best form of advertising.
• Showbiz, showbiz,showbiz. It’s a proven fact that showbiz and glamour sells and the Cote D’Azur has it in spades. Coverage of A list events, who’s in town, a spotted column of who’s been seen where, celebs favourite haunts, the possibilities are endless with the constant stream of household names in the area.
• Dating. Another huge growth area on the internet, this page will aim to match up singletons between 25-45 who are living, working or playing in the area.
• Health. Sorry to repeat ourselves but another major growth area, and cannot be ignored in an area as rich as this in terms of temperate climate and unsurpassed sporting facilities. A well informed guide to the latest trends in health, diet and fitness, with an emphasis on well being rather than faddish and negative body image stuff.
• Travel. Exploring great boltholes for romantic getaways, family friendly hotels, adventure weekends, city breaks and cool camp sites. Aiming at boutique-style, personal, individual places to stay that aren’t break the bank expensive but offer something beyond the usual hotel experience.

Green and eco friendly are also very much the way forward for this exciting project.

Me and Citydating - Poles Apart

3rd November-Wayne wrote to Olga at Cityline Dating:
I live here on The French Riviera, am bored and need to do something for work. We have an events management company but it is seasonal and we get a lot of spare time. I miss the buzz of London and sales but DEFINITELY do not want to come back. I have been exploring a couple of Internet ideas, one of them being dating. Love your site and wonder if you would be interested in chatting?

After a long phone call the next day and a bit of batting e-mails back and forth, there was a firm promise of a price and a seemingly strong interest. I implored her to disassociate me from all things 'Monaco', when she finally gets down to working out the Zloty.

11th November - Olga phoned Wayne:
"Hi Wayne, sorry been really busy but will get back to you tomorrow, I have an important question for you though"...... "OK go for it I said with baited breath" ....... "What star sign are you!!!!!.....Oh dear I thought.

12th November - Olga wrote:
Was stucked in a meat till nearly soon, so hoop you forgived it. I was thought that considering all the high standards but also as you are first client and we really do not know you- maybe we should ask more or even much very more - but GBP 15.000 should be a decent request. Not bad too yes??

12th November - Wayne wrote:
Any chance you could write back in Polish next time please as it might be easier to understand! I have however grasped the part of your letter that says GBP 15,000 and unless this is yet another mistake in translation the the costs are way to expensive and thanks for your time.

13th November - Olga wrote:
Jak są wy? JA było bardzo zajęte wczoraj ale tutaj JA jestem. myślący o interes (handlowy) znowu i był nie co (żeby; który) pewnien. My także licytował (sprzedawał na akcji) cały praca (roboczy) wewnętrznie czwartki nie coak jest zrobiony do takiego wysokiego standardu co (żeby; który) obmyślamy £15.000 jest zbyt niski – my wciąż badają ale być może bliższy (bliżej) £20.000 miał pracować. Także odbijał na czas w tutaj już i jak (ponieważ) jestem w Polsce, płacę za wędrowanie. To byłoby jest już bardziej (więcej) potem £19 nie nawet włączający (włączenie; przyłączający; przyłączenie; włączając) mój

Now she has either a GSOH or is taking the p**s but this is the translation of this according to Babel Fish:
How are you? I was very busy yesterday but here I am. I was thinking of the cost again and am not that sure. The website is however done to such a high standard that we think £15.000 is far too low – we are still researching but maybe closer to £20.000 should work. Also I am investing my time here and as I am in Poland, I'm paying for roaming. It would be already more then £19 not including my time!

So all in all a five grand increase over night and her complaining about a £19 phone bill!

As they say in Poland Do widzenia Olga...

Bingo- They love it!

Had a couple of new friends round last night, Iain and Karen, just thought it would be nice to have a bit of a relax (see picture) and maybe throw a few ideas around. Iain is far left and closest to the camera, the one with the deaf aid and the silvery grey hair. Lucy and Karen were making the tea when I took this photo, while Iain was working out which one he fancied. After the golden girls decided to go for an early game of bingo with the chap on Iain's left (blown out again mate) I run my idea about dating and lifestyle by them and they loved it. Karen Hockney is a successful Fleet Street journalist and Iain already runs a couple of Internet businesses and I loved their London style of thinking and was buoyed up with their enthusiasm. The idea is really raw at the money but hopefully it can evolve and sort itself out into a workable business, where we can all make some money. If not, then I might go to the bingo next week with Cyril and his mates, at least there are five possible revenue streams to follow, none of them look that healthy after all and I guess someone has got to win that full house. Clickety Click!

Behind the not so ironed curtain

Up at 4.15 this morning looking at dating sites, got up early in case Lucy looks over my shoulder and catches me studying one of the profiles too intently. Almost worse than porn from a 'getting caught' point of view and she would never have believed that old chestnut about research. I mean,look what happened to Pete Townsend for heavens sake!

It seems most of the sites are variants of a form and just work on the numbers game, but I have found a few more exclusive sites which seem a bit more classy than the 'friendfinder' variety which all seem to be owned by one or two huge companies. I found the site above; citydating,(as opposed to the rest which should all be called shittydating) in Central London and I like the vibrant look and feel. The owner seems to be of East European origin, judging by the name and I have sent her an e-mail to see if she is interested in chatting about some kind of franchise. We will now just have to wait and see what Mrs Dateski has got to say.

A dating site - LOL, WINK, WINK,

Found this in the Guardian:

"Guardian News & Media is planning to build on its online dating
and travel strands and develop its ecommerce offering as part of a
strategy to increase digital revenue.The strategy forms part of Guardian.co.uk’s plan to create revenue streams beyond display advertising, as the market continues to be hit by the economic downturn.

Guardian News & Media commercial director Adam Freeman says that while the downturn is affecting a lot of client sectors, online dating continues to do well. “We’re working on putting further investment around [our online dating business] Soulmates, increasing its scale and awareness,” he says. “Right now we’ve got over 95,000 members but we think it could be even bigger.”

Cataracts

I have chatted through the site with plenty of people and they all love it! The singles are bored and need people and places, and the couples want more to do and would love to meet other couples (DO NOT EVEN GO THERE!) and there were even a few 'halves' of couples that got just a little too excited about the dating site. I am now thinking social networking and dating coupled with an informative site about things to do, where to eat, restaurant reviews, a'la Micheal Winner, AA Gill and car reviews of the Jeremy kind. This place has so much to offer but you try finding it, tune your radio to 106.5fm or check out their website if you really want a laugh, Riviera Radio .Duffy, Coldplay and a group of the most fantastic artists played at the Q awards ceremony in Monaco a couple of weeks ago and no one even knew about it until the week after. The organisers would have loved to have had a gaggle of star spotters hanging around outside with the paps' and who knows some of the well connected could have even tried to get tickets, had of course they known it had been happening.

Then of course there is the printed media; A few glossy seasonal mags (yes four times per year is hardly up to the minute) full of houses plus the real perennial (their word not mine!) favourite Riviera Reporter. Make sure you pick a copy up next time your in the Dr's waiting room getting your cataracts checked out, it is great for insomniacs.

Lifestyle and dating

I am starting to think that maybe we need more people to make a dating site really work, the stigma of Internet dating is certainly diminishing fast but we need to get more people through the doors. My initial idea was that we set up a dating site aimed at the English speaking market between St Tropez and Monaco, a great big sexy market with lots of financially OK ex-pats but now my thoughts are on trying to open that market out with some kind of lifestyle/dating site which should give us a much bigger market and even make sure the 'daters' hang around once they have met the love of their life. An up to date AngloInfo with plenty of whats-on (ideal for dating) and perhaps some lifestyle stuff thrown in as well. I am going to chat this through with some people and see what they think

Do you serve Croissants?

Met up with a lady friend in Carrefour for an expresso and a croissant (Petit dejeuner 'en France) this morning, I was going to opt for a healthy 'very berry' smoothie, a tall skinny double shot latte and a bowl of granola with Greek yogurt but she was too busy to come to my favourite Pret in Piccadilly because she had a date that evening and in any event I had to pick the kids up from school anyway!

Dating: Now this was my real reason for the meeting, this woman had experience by the lorry load and I had heard through the Grapevine that in her latest pursuit of the perfect Pierre she had resorted to dating Internet stylie. She loved it, she loved the chatrooms, the instant messaging, the ability to chat up eight men at once and all whilst sitting at home in her dressing gown and rollers gulping down her favourite Chardonnay, she just wished that there were more English speakers and locals on the site, they are there of course but there is a whole lot of country to trawl through before you can find them. All in all though, she could not enthuse enough and in fact could not hang around because she needed to get her roots done for her next rendevous. I liked the sound of this, playing Eros to all the ex-pats and collecting a tenner a month of each of them. Maybe I am on to something at last

Watch out Wilma

Been going back and forth with the lovely people at AI and it seems they have no interest in any ideas or suggestions, be they from Mark Zuckerberg, the irrepressible Candy boys or more importantly (and astonishigly) even me. These guys are in the Dark Age and have no desire to turn the lights on. Their idea of clubbing is what Freddie boy Flintstone did to his old lady when his teradactyle burger hit the stone dining table five minutes late. AngloInfo are nice people, really really really nice people in fact, who have created a great little service site, where you can find out where the nearest local Monday market is, just in case you need to replace your yellow and blue provencal plastic tablecloth, but if your looking for anything outside their miniscule box then forget it. In the words of the great Duncan Bannatyne: I MOST DEFINITELY AM OUT.

PS: Check em out if you don't believe me AngloInfo

More OZ, less Dross

Looking at a product called AngloInfo which is the main forum/site here on the French Riviera to gather information, swap ideas and chat. It is great and everyone here uses it, partly because of its great functionality and partly because there is just no where else to go. There is a huge population of English speaking folk between Monaco and St Tropez and they are a great target market. I have called up AI and they work on a franchise basis with head office running about 1/3 of around 30 sites. Most of their sites are in France but they also have franchises as far afield as Singapore and San Paulo. I am toying with the idea of looking at their franchise for The French Alps, they seem keen but to be honest it al just seems a bit to much of a tired and sleepy product for me.

New media and the web is such an exciting and vibrant place to be and this is very much anything but that.It is difficult to believe that one of the most exciting and glamorous places in the world has nothing with a bit of life in it. The same can be said of our radio station (Riviera radio) and the bi-monthly magazine (Riviera Reporter) , they are great and they serve a function but why carry about a ten year old Motorola transportable phone weighing three kilos when you can slip a sexy 3G I-Phone in the silk lined pocket of your Ozwald Boateng suit.

Just found this on Wikipedia:

'There has been speculation of a second dot-com bubble to succeed the first that occurred roughly between 1995 and 2001. Some refer to it as Bubble 2.0, as many companies involved are in the Web 2.0 sphere, like Skype, Facebook, and Google. Various suggestions have been proposed as to why there may or may not be a second dot-com bubble'

Well, I love the Internet anyway and will take my chances, just as soon as I think of the way forward, buying and selling is a major problem for ex-pats living here, e-bay France is just too complicated with the culture and language problems and shipping from the UK means credit cards and currency cause more hurdles, not to mention getting across that 14 mile dirty stretch of ocean they call the English Channel. Maybe an auction site could be good here, was thinking about a site called www.e-bayofbiscayne.com but am not sure if that is France or Spain so had better check first, also might be worth trying to sell the domain name to E-Bay for a couple of million!

So what if I am not Chinese...

I searched the Internet for a photo of a bored person and this is the best I can find; I know I am not Chinese and what hair I have left, is certainly not black but there is no denying that this fella looks bored and I for sure am bored too. I want to work and I NEED to earn some money, I miss lots about London people but I certainly do not want go back, so I need something to do desperately. Business has been kind to me and divorce not so kind but hey, I am happy at least and now just figure I need to work out something to do. I keep getting bollocked for being on Facebook and the net so maybe if I can think of a decent Internet business idea then at least I will be able to keep in touch with all my 789 great 'friends' without to much trouble. I need these people in my life, I have no idea how I lost touch with them all in the first place but boy, am I glad they are back. So Internet it is, could start a search engine but that seems maybe a tad ambitious even for me. Porn site? No not well hung enough. A something to sell, kind of site maybe? Something for the Brits here that can't speak French (which is most of them btw). Chinese restaurant perhaps? I like the food and Lucy is a great cook but restaurants are just too much like hard work plus all the customers will be asking for instructions on how to use Chop-Sticks and the business will have gone down the Yangtze River before you can say egg fried rice. Stupid idea, and I don't know what made me think of that to be honest!

It is inside my head for sure and I know it will pop out soon, I just have to keep thinking but at least I know this time next year I will have the boys from Google offering me zillions of dollars which is some kind of small step in the right direction.