I spent a nice but chilly three and a half days in Paris, and had the chance to take some photos while exploring the city in the evenings. I didn’t have any room to pack my tripod, so some of the night shots don’t have stunning clarity, but they did turn out surprisingly well. Along with this archetypal photo of the Seine taken from a bridge that connects the 4th quarter to the Île de la Cité, my other favorites areNotre Dame against a twilight sky, theterrifically Gothic St. Jacques towercomplete with spooky branches in the foreground, andPont Alexandre III with Eiffeldressed in Christmas lights and her rotating beacon. They and other photos can be found inmy photoset for the Paris trip.

The TGV rides to and from Paris were neat, as always. Timewise, it’s rather comparable to taking a plane: flight time is about an hour and a half, then you need to add an hour for check-in, plus another two or so hours for travel to and from the departure and arrival airp

By fraise

La Flambee

Place du 4 Septembre, 84400 Bonnieux

0490 75 82 20

A simple restaurant in the centre of Bonnieux which has a terrace with a great view (which hasn’t been open when we’ve been there, having been out of season). However it has some tables outside at the front and quite a cosy interior dining room if the weather isn’t too good.

As well as very good pizzas, there is a fairly straightforward bistro menu. Fish soup was pretty good and duck breast with ceps was good. Other standards on the menu include Daube Provencal, Salmon fillet in a cream sauce. A good spot for lunch but nothing special food wise.

La Bartavelle

Rue du Cheval-Blanc, 84220 Goult

0490 72 33 72

La Bartavelle is an exceptional restaurant which requires booking well in advance. But it’s not cheap. Set in a cave with some tables outside in the summer, it is in a quiet alleyway just near the main square in Goult.

The cooking is outstanding and uses seasonal ingredients. My terrine of rabbit and fois gras first course w

By cliffordrosen

La Flambee

Place du 4 Septembre, 84400 Bonnieux

0490 75 82 20

A simple restaurant in the centre of Bonnieux which has a terrace with a great view (which hasn’t been open when we’ve been there, having been out of season). However it has some tables outside at the front and quite a cosy interior dining room if the weather isn’t too good.

As well as very good pizzas, there is a fairly straightforward bistro menu. Fish soup was pretty good and duck breast with ceps was good. Other standards on the menu include Daube Provencal, Salmon fillet in a cream sauce. A good spot for lunch but nothing special food wise.

La Bartavelle

Rue du Cheval-Blanc, 84220 Goult

0490 72 33 72

La Bartavelle is an exceptional restaurant which requires booking well in advance. But it’s not cheap. Set in a cave with some tables outside in the summer, it is in a quiet alleyway just near the main square in Goult.

The cooking is outstanding and uses seasonal ingredients. My terrine of rabbit and fois gras first course w

By cliffordrosen

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

A few weeks ago I took my camera to Boulevard Garnier, an east-west street north of Nice’s city center. I walk it occasionally to go to the Libération open-air market, and had noticed some beautiful mosaics on apartment entries. The one shown above is a closeup ofthis mosaic, leading tobeautiful wooden doors. It was done by themosaic cutter and setter Zanussi, as well asthis scrolling vine mosaicjust down the street.

There’s a more modestart deco mosaicin my building’s entrance, and back on Boulevard Garnier, this “Provence” mosaic, done in a very different style:

By fraise

The last few weeks, I’ve been busy scraping offthe textured paintin my living room to make way for a new color (of regular, non-textured paint). Luckily the textured paint had been put overwhite paint, which I then had to wash. That last photo may look relatively white, but in reality, it’s quite yellowish — the cleaned walls look much better. This means I won’t have to use primer, which is nice.

About a year ago, Nice started a “city bike” program calledVélo Bleu. I took a 15-euro yearly subscription, which lets you borrow bikes as you want, with the first 30 minutes free on each bike. While it is very cheap, it’s not so practical when, in reality, I’ve only been able to find a bike to use about 10% of the time, plus they’re very heavy and only have 3 speeds. I enjoyed riding them anyway, which helped me realize that I’d be happy with a cheap bike of my own for riding around town. I wouldn’t have to lose any time

By fraise

On this day in 1860, the French flag replaced the duchy of Savoy flag for the first time in Nice. Today that event was celebrated with parachutists and a performance by thePatrouille de France, one of the world’s oldest aerobatic demonstration teams, formed in 1931. I grew up watching air shows at our local airport, and once saw theBlue Angelsperform, so I was very much looking forward to today’s festivities. My expectations were far exceeded — the Patrouille de France, led byVirginie Guyot, the first woman ever (in the world) to lead an aerobatic demonstration team, was breathtaking, especially over the background of a particularly beautiful Mediterranean.

Despite there beingquite the crowd, I was able to find aspot near the beachand Place Albert 1er, which was where the performances were set to take place. First, agroup of 35 parachutistsdropped into a formation supposed to be “150″, though we spectators had a hard time making it out in the blazing sun. T

By fraise

On this day in 1860, the French flag replaced the duchy of Savoy flag for the first time in Nice. Today that event was celebrated with parachutists and a performance by thePatrouille de France, one of the world’s oldest aerobatic demonstration teams, formed in 1931. I grew up watching air shows at our local airport, and once saw theBlue Angelsperform, so I was very much looking forward to today’s festivities. My expectations were far exceeded — the Patrouille de France, led byVirginie Guyot, the first woman ever (in the world) to lead an aerobatic demonstration team, was breathtaking, especially over the background of a particularly beautiful Mediterranean.

Despite there beingquite the crowd, I was able to find aspot near the beachand Place Albert 1er, which was where the performances were set to take place. First, agroup of 35 parachutistsdropped into a formation supposed to be “150″, though we spectators had a hard time making it out in the blazing sun. T

By fraise

Today’s festivities began with the removal of the bell cast yesterday night. While we waited for Estrosi, mayor of Nice (and also minister of industry), theclamps were removed from the mold, and we watched flags being thrown over a background of drum and fife music. OnceEstrosi arrived, themold removal could begin. The manager of Paccard explained that to help the bell dislodge from its mold, the casing needed to be hammered. He presented the hammer to Estrosi for “a first few strikes,” butonce Estrosi had started, hekept going, despite polite requests from Paccard workers to let them take over. After a few minutes of hammering, thebell was finially dislodgedandit came out of its mold. It was covered in residue, which Paccard workersbegan to remove.Estrosi posed for another photo, then workerssandblastedandpolishedthe bell.The finished bell will resemble itstwosisters, also cast for the 150th anniversary of Nice joining France.

While the bell was being sandblasted and

By fraise