An hour before I returned to the vet for the last time on Thursday, Nice was hit with a hail and rain storm; our first rainfall since the end of May. It lasted up until a few minutes after Grey’s passing, and hasn’t rained since. Kanoko was puzzled when I came home without Grey, pawing at the empty cat carrier and looking at it from every angle, then meowing at me. The next day, Kanoko was much worse; when I got home from work, he had strewn placemats and napkins around the apartment, and had rubbed his face raw on one side during the day. He’d never done any of that before. While I was home, he obsessively searched the apartment for hours, especially re-checking Grey’s favorite spots on the cat tree and kitchen bar. When he’d exhausted himself from all the walking, Kanoko sat and licked his fur for another hour, occasionally stopping to meow-wail — it was not a meow I’d ever heard before.

Saturday (yesterday) went better, although Kanoko still

By fraise

My last few weekends have been spent taking off wheels, pulling off old tires,scrubbing rubber and rust off rims, gettingnew rim tape put on, cleaning and oiling the derailleur and chain, then figuring out the old Simplex derailleur and adjusting it so it now shifts properly (the cable was a tad slack and one limit stop was too tight, which prevented shifting into the lowest gear). As always, the bike shop I’ve gone to for nearly five years now,Vélo Concepton boulevard Raimbaldi in Nice (if the Flash entrance doesn’t work,try this link instead), has been great. They gave my bike a quick look-over three weeks ago, pointing out a few things I hadn’t noticed, and yesterday they kindly put on new rim tape for me, for the same price as buying rim tape would have cost (plus, I wouldn’t have been able to put it on as well as they did).

Although my bike still needs a few more repairs — new brake and derailleur cables, as well as new brake pads

By fraise

L’Occitane Provence garden at Chelsea Flower Show

Topless in Provence face fines

Keira Knightly buys Provence property

Modern, safe and fully fit for summer
During summertime, the La Mole airport is an important traffic junction for holidaymakers in Saint-Tropez. Most of the 4000 flights each year are in July and August. At the moment, construction work is underway to modernise the airport. We spoke with the director, François André.
Med almost claims third victim in a week
To the unwary visitor the Mediterranean Sea may appear like a benign blue haven in the current heat wave, but this almost land-locked body of water needs to be treated with the same respect as its more powerful ocean cousins. In less than a week two people have drowned and yesterday a tourist nearly lost her life in La Croix-Valmer in the Var.
Six injured as police and firemen clash
A violent confrontation between riot police and firemen in uniform protesting against pension reform suddenly erupted in the centre of Nice on Friday around midday resulting in six people being injured.

Modern, safe and fully fit for summer
During summertime, the La Mole airport is an important traffic junction for holidaymakers in Saint-Tropez. Most of the 4000 flights each year are in July and August. At the moment, construction work is underway to modernise the airport. We spoke with the director, François André.
Topless in Provence face fines

Med almost claims third victim in a week
To the unwary visitor the Mediterranean Sea may appear like a benign blue haven in the current heat wave, but this almost land-locked body of water needs to be treated with the same respect as its more powerful ocean cousins. In less than a week two people have drowned and yesterday a tourist nearly lost her life in La Croix-Valmer in the Var.
Keira Knightly buys Provence property

Six injured as police and firemen clash
A violent confrontation between riot police and firemen in uniform protesting against pension reform suddenly erupted in the centre of Nice on Friday around midday resulting in six people being injured.

Modern, safe and fully fit for summer
During summertime, the La Mole airport is an important traffic junction for holidaymakers in Saint-Tropez. Most of the 4000 flights each year are in July and August. At the moment, construction work is underway to modernise the airport. We spoke with the director, François André.
Med almost claims third victim in a week
To the unwary visitor the Mediterranean Sea may appear like a benign blue haven in the current heat wave, but this almost land-locked body of water needs to be treated with the same respect as its more powerful ocean cousins. In less than a week two people have drowned and yesterday a tourist nearly lost her life in La Croix-Valmer in the Var.
Six injured as police and firemen clash
A violent confrontation between riot police and firemen in uniform protesting against pension reform suddenly erupted in the centre of Nice on Friday around midday resulting in six people being injured.

Modern, safe and fully fit for summer
During summertime, the La Mole airport is an important traffic junction for holidaymakers in Saint-Tropez. Most of the 4000 flights each year are in July and August. At the moment, construction work is underway to modernise the airport. We spoke with the director, François André.
Med almost claims third victim in a week
To the unwary visitor the Mediterranean Sea may appear like a benign blue haven in the current heat wave, but this almost land-locked body of water needs to be treated with the same respect as its more powerful ocean cousins. In less than a week two people have drowned and yesterday a tourist nearly lost her life in La Croix-Valmer in the Var.
Six injured as police and firemen clash
A violent confrontation between riot police and firemen in uniform protesting against pension reform suddenly erupted in the centre of Nice on Friday around midday resulting in six people being injured.

A sunny Sunday drive in the back-country of Grasse today, and we ran across once-nearly-extinct Przewalski’s horses and a Short-Toed Eagle. The Przewalski’s horses were at the Reserve Biologique des Monts d’Azur, a Buffalo Park we’ve described on our Thorenc…
By Russ

Following a recent multi-day visit to the Cévennes, we’ve added a page for the little town of Saint Jean-du-Gard. Famed as the destination point of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes, the little town of Saint…
By Russ

Beyond just strayed a bit to the Southwest of France to visit the Cévennes and the Gorges du Tarn. Here are a couple of photos of floating down the Tarn Gorges in kayaks. Slower and deeper parts of the river…
By Russ