Dining with Elizabeth Taylor

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted but time flies particularly when the Film Festival's on.

This is Cannes on Thursday. H. and I went and had breakfast in one of those beach restaurants with all these cool, sophisticated media types wearing shades and talking rapidly into their mobile phones. I tried not to be too wide eyed about it all but there was a definite buzz, a sense of excitement in the air heightened by the motorcades of black limos speeding up and down the Croisette with the police sirens blaring..but, sadly, every one's got tinted windows. And this is all happening at 9 am.

Obviously the stars were also having their breakfasts because we didn't see anyone famous or at least we haven't yet so, failing that, let me boast about the time I dined with Elizabeth Taylor and Roger Moore...yes, really..

It was nearly 20 years ago and H. and I were out for dinner in Valbonne. My Parents in Law should have joined us but they'd exhausted themselves in Cannes alternately sun bathing and hoping to catch sight of someone famous which, of course they didn't.

Just as we were about to order the door of the restaurant opened and in walked Elizabeth Taylor.

Now, there are many, many lovely women on the Cote d'Azur: there are beautiful buildings, sights and views but I have never seen anything before or since, natural or man made that was as beautiful as she was. Her radiance filled the room. Truly. And there was no entourage, no hairdresser, no stylist, no flashing of cameras. Just her posed for a few seconds in the doorway followed by Roger Moore. She would have been in her 50s then, I guess, and if I had had that beauty I would have minded terribly when I lost it.

So better to be ordinary, average, wouldn't you say?