Appeal by Earl of Shaftesbury’s wife rejected
rivieratimes.com says: The estranged wife of Lord Shaftesbury who was convicted of plotting his murder in November 2004 has had her appeal rejected by the courts, and will serve out a 20 year sentence.

We've updated the Beyond Calendars for 2010. Starting with the2010 Pottery-Markets Calendar, which has just been added with this-year's dates for the pottery markets in Provence.

We found a lot of events to add to Beyond'sCurrent-Events Calendar, listing the events in Provence for the next few weeks.

With a massive amount of research we've found many dates for the Monthly Calendars, concentrating onFebruary-2010andMarch-2010. The following months have been updated with new informat

By Russ Collins

Escota toll hike for south of France from Feb 1st
rivieratimes.com says: Anyone using the motorway on a regular basis will feel the pinch of a twenty cents increase on tolls from next month. The stretch of autoroute along the Riviera is already the most expensive in France for drivers.

Russian victory over Nice cathedral
rivieratimes.com says: After a three-year legal battle over who owns the beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral in Nice, the courts have come down on the side of the Russian state.

The Var village ofRocbaronhas been added to Beyond. Located in the green hills south ofBrignolesand north ofToulon, this little village is watched over by the ruins of a Medieval castle, and has some good hiking in the area.
By Russ Collins

Russian victory over Nice cathedral
rivieratimes.com says: After a three-year legal battle over who owns the beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral in Nice, the courts have come down on the side of the Russian state.

Once upon a not-so-long-ago time, I had a post on the finer points of the French second person pronouns “vous” and “tu”, which can be second person formal (for a single person) or second person plural, and second person familiar/informal (only for a single person), respectively. I get quite a few visitors to my site from searches and old links to that “vous versus tu” article, so thought I’d write a newer version.

When you learn French, you’re usually taught that “vous” is used to address groups, or, when applied to just one person, someone who’s older, an authority figure (for instance your manager, senator, president, etc.), or someone you don’t know well. And “tu” is used with a person you do know well: relative, friend, colleague, child, and so forth. When it comes to children under the age of 17, I’ve never heard anyone call them “vous”; it’s always “tu”.

Then ther

By fraise

Police shoot-out in Antibes
rivieratimes.com says: It was more like a scene from an American crime movie than a peaceful evening on the Côte d’Azur, as a residential area of Antibes suddenly found itself the centre of a gun drama.

A few days after the New Year, we were hit with a freezing cold front on the French Riviera. It having been twelve years since I lived in Finland and last had to deal with ice on a day-to-day basis, I had essentially forgotten about the slippery phenomenon.

That is, until my foot slid on the sidewalk and I thought to myself, “these soles are really wearing out,” put down my second boot, thinking it would stabilize me, then, as both slipped out from under me, I promptly found myself seated on my now-freezing rear end. “What??” I put my hand on the sidewalk. What should have been gummy, rough asphalt was instead icy smooth. I ran my hand over it inquisitively, and finally the memory returned: “oh,ice!What?!Here?!”

I picked myself up and paid more attention while I finished walking from the bus station to our offices. Fifteen minutes after settling in at my desk, my lower back began to ache. I soon realized I wouldn’t make it through the day without

By fraise

We had a stroll throughCannestoday, celebrating one of the first dry and sunny days in the past few weeks. From the port, up the hill to visit the chateau, then a leisurely stroll through the ancient fortified site of Le Suquet, now a quiet neighborhood of Cannes a bit off the beaten track.

Here we discovered a large, full wall trompe l'oeil mural ofmon oncle, standing with a young friend, both in two-dimension, studying posters for the different Jacques Tati films.

A bit further up into Le Su

By Russ Collins