The crudité of Saint-Tropez

Anyone who has been to the south of France knows the phenomenon of crudité. That was the moment when you suddenly understood why all those women were so intensely thin. Their arms trained by that heavy Birkin on their arm and their body fat percentage so low because the phenomenon of lunch consisted of three carrots, four leaves of endive, and seven cauliflower florets. That last one on a crazy day, you understand.

On Monday, we had lunch at the invitation of the divine drink AIX at Le Club 55, a beach club where you could just as easily Brigitte Bardot or until a year ago Karl Lagerfeld or run into Niki Lauda. Now you might think it would be quiet there on a Monday, but haha, then you don't know the agendas of the 55 visitors yet. They only know empty pages. Full as it was. Our host Jaap had to reserve two months in advance to get a table.

Here too, an olé olé for the crudités and as a welcome snack, there was a complete vegetable stall on a tray. A cauliflower, two tomatoes, some carrots, and a handful of radishes. Delicious, I admit. It was the tastiest tomato I ever had and the accompanying vinaigrette was one you keep talking about. We nibbled and gnawed a bit and finished each bite with such a lovely sip of the soft pink liquid.

When the bill came, I couldn't help but take a peek. Those crudités must have been a gift from 55. Or maybe not. In the seconds that followed, I wondered if I should go for the ventilator or the defibrillator or both. For the cauliflower and the tomatoes, we were asked to pay a messy 140 euros. 140 euros. I'm not a big user of the exclamation mark, but the previous sentence actually screamed for it.

A lot, a whole lot of AIX was needed to recover from this.