Yesterday I took the train to Monaco and went to one of my old haunts: the offices I used to work in. They’re on Boulevard Princesse Charlotte, which is where the Tour de France passed yesterday for the Prologue. I sat on a curb bump at the Livestrong ads, since they made a nice solid background, as opposed to smaller and more colorful ads.This was my general view. All of my photos from thePrologue are in this set.

My vantage point did indeed make for some great photos. The one posted here is my favorite — the rider isArnaud Coyot. I did, of course, also getLance Armstrong, but helowered his head. Hisfiche coureur (rider stats)put him in tenth place currently. Another favorite isthis shot ofriderBernhard Eisel, who rounded the corner near the railway station while I was walking there to take a train back to Nice. Japan has two riders in this year’s Tour, andthis photoofFumiyuki Beppuis one I’m really happy with — you can tell how the solid yellow advertisem

By fraise

Ahhh, life on the French Riviera. I never imagined I’d live here one day. That I’d live in France, yes, but I thought perhaps Paris or somewhere in the countryside — the Riviera seemed to gaudy, pretentious, and superficial to me. To be perfectly honest, much of it still does, though there are a lot of down-to-earth people here too.

Today I came home to my mentally ill neighbor, “Gertrude” (not her real name), screaming her head off at her two sons, who are trying to get her put into an asylum. (I learned about her sons’ attempts this weekend from my kind neighbor, who lives above Gertrude.) Since Gertrude’s shutters were closed, I quickly went onto my terrace to see if it was safe for kitties, since they love their fresh air — I stay outside with them when Gertrude has vocal outbursts. But what did I find? Vomit. On my patio.

Just the sort of thing to come home to after a long day at work. Since it’s raining, and the, um, “muck

By fraise

Juhannuspäivääis the name Finland gives to midsummer. On midsummer day, Finland and the Scandinavian countries have huge communal parties that are immense fun, and so on 21 June I always have warm thoughts ofHelsinginkeskus(Helsinki city center) overtaken by youths in graduation sailor caps, dressed in overalls and, well, drinking. Lots of drinking. For at least 24 hours straight.

This is my patio as it looked a few moments ago. In a month or two I’ll finally get my tax refund and have paid off the majority of the non-mortgage loans I had to take out in order to furnish my apartment last year. (My previous apartment was a furnished rental, so I had practically no furniture of my own and, especially, no appliances.) To pre-celebrate, yesterday I got myself something I’ve wanted for the longest time:a deck chair! It’s a solid oak frame, sold byHabitatand on sale once a year — which happens to be now. Once the tax refund has well and truly arrived, my

By fraise

I also went to the port yesterday, going on foot along the Promenade. Unbeknownst to me, there was a show ofcars for the Jean Behra rally, so I was glad I had walked rather than taking the bus.

Nice’s port islined by colorful buildingsand all types of boats can be found there, from cruise ships toNGV(high-speed boats to Corsica) toostentatious yachtslicensed to ports such as Nassau, Cayman Islands and London, to alineup of school sailboatsto smallwooden boats painted every color of the rainbow. The two in the closeup here are shown from further awayin this picture. I also likedthis lavender and bright turquoise boat, as well as the funnily-namedM’en bati. In Nice there’s a saying, “m’en bati, sieu Nissart” — “I don’t give a flip, I’m Niçois”, joking with Nice’s strong sense of individuality. Nice wasnot part of Franceuntil 1860, and even that cession was — and still is — strongly debated. Although i

By fraise

As I mentioned yesterday, I walked to the Russian Orthodox church not far from my place this morning to take some photographs. It was a beautiful day; the church was lovely. You can seeall the photos I took of it here. I arrived just before 10am and had a wonderful surprise: the bells started ringing. But they didn’t just ring the time — they played an incredible piece of music that lasted for several minutes! I highly recommend visiting on a Sunday at 10am if you enjoy music, because it was among the most amazing experiences I’ve had. I took amobile phone videoof part of it, but it’s much less impressive than in reality. Do note, however, that you won’t be able to go inside the church on a Sunday morning since they have their services then.

On my way from the church to Nice’s port, I passed our famous hotel, the Negresco, and snapped this picture of it against one of our gorgeous deep blue skies:

By fraise

A quick catch-up post: a month ago I had the chance to take a helicopter ride over the Bay of Cannes. We had fifteen minutes in a Robinson R44 (four-seater helicopter) and flew to the nearbyÎles de Lérins. Six years ago I did something similar ina small plane, where we flew over theEstérelfrom Cannes airport. That timeI got to fly, but not this time, though I did getsome gorgeous photos.

One of the photoswas of trains along the coastthat looked like miniatures from above. Not long afterwards, I found the funtiltshiftmaker.comand tweaked that phototo truly look like a miniature train scene! I did the same to atrain over a stone bridgeI shot in Tende two years ago, and toa photo of Nice’s portthat I took last autumn. That last photo is the same one I use for the title header here — I love how it turned out.

Tomorrow I’ll be going to the Russian Orthodox cathedral, which isn’t far from my place, and then to Nice’s port to better shoot somesm

By fraise

Of course spring in the Vaucluse can be a varied affair. Arriving late last week it promptly started to rain and was pretty cool. Perfect timing for the opening of the pool. We visited (in the rain) the chateau in Ansouis and while the house itself was interesting, the inside was not what we were expecting.

The chateau HAD been in the family Sabran since the late 12th Century but sadly they sold it 2 years ago. It all looked a little sorry for itself given the walls had marks where pictures had hung and the furniture a mish-mash of antiques. However we were told that the new owner was going to restore it to its former glory, let's hope so.

Ansouis does have a great restaurant though, La Closerie, with an extremely good value set lunch. Superior cooking at a good price.

 Talking of food, we finally visited Le Mas Touteron just outside Gordes. Lovely courtyard setting with some of the best cooking I have had in a very long time. Iwoulddescribe what we had but I know that once I st

By cliffordrosen

I’ve continued restoring the originaltomettes, traditional southern Frenchterracotta tiles I discovered(and uncovered) in December. As a reminder,this is what the living room looked like before, whilethis photo shows the tile adhesiveI had to remove.

The photo above,tomettesnow clean, shows how the sofa nook looks now, andhere’s the other half of the living room. Last Sunday I decided to test my theory about a heavy-duty cleaner (décapantin French) that I had used before and that didn’t work so well. Instead of diluting it as recommended, I added only half the amount of water prescribed, making it more concentrated. This worked nicely, and I was able to scrape off tile adhesive residue very quickly. About two-thirds of the living room still needed adhesive scoured off — I finished it all that same day!

What most surprises me is that the floor is in such good shape. The apartment building dates from 1953, so the tomettes are 56 years old, and yet only one of t

By fraise