At Eden Roc on the blue Mediterranean

Esquire, August 1936: “One of the world’s most fashionable swimming holes, Eden Roc at Cap d’Antibes, has no beach at all, just steps and all sorts of intricate plateaus that have been cut out of the rocks.

Against this background you see, reading from left to right, an Englishman and a Frenchman, modelling two types of Riviera beach outfits. The Englishman wears, over a polo shirt and knitted swimming trunks, a single-breasted notch lapel blazer of terrycloth with a muffler to match, light blue mohair crash beach slacks and a pair of Basque canvas espadrilles with rope soles.

The French man wears as Frenchmen do, a beret (an item that has lost most of its followers in this country), ribbed swimming trunks and the new fish net beach shirt with a crew neck which was first introduced at St Tropez. This shirt should be a natural where shirtless bathing is still prohibited, because it lets you tan and keep your shirt on.”

Yikes. A blazer made of terrycloth and a fishnet shirt. I’ll turn my eyes away from all of that and concentrate on the espadrilles. Because this past week I’ve been on holiday in Cadiz, on the beach, wearing my own, locally made blue espadrilles. Which is why your comments aren’t getting approved quite as quickly as usual. At least I scheduled some posts in advance eh?