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Second half of December

For the holidays John and I had Christmas treats including Buche Noel (Yule Log).  Those things are EVERYWHERE here in varied sizes and compositions.  Sooooooo tempting.   There's also a flaky pastry cake here that is sold with a cardboard crown covered in gold colored foil.  It's called a King cake. (Galette des Rois).    A figurine is baked into the cake or inserted after baking.  The server slices the cake to accommodate the number of guests and whoever gets the figure then wears the crown.  It's supposed to be about the Day of Epiphany, January 6th.

We visited Nice's Place Garibaldi, Old Town and Place Masséna to check out the Christmas lights and displays. A lot of the decorations were the same as last year except this year there were igloos, penguins and polar bears with color-shifting lights in place of the ice castle and the snow-globed Apollo statue wore a Santa costume. He's too tall and skinny to be Santa but he'd make a great Jack Skellington. The guys sitting on poles in Place Massena were lit by colored lights, which adds a festive touch. We toured the Christmas market near there and I got a giant cotton candy.

Something else new at Place Massena this year was a very large "I love Nice" sign which is similar to I Amsterdam sign. Both signs are in English. Tourist towns.  Because of the vehicle attacks in Berlin earlier this month and in Nice last July, local police installed dozens of very large barriers to protect the crowds at the Christmas market this year.  The barriers resembled landscaping pots and they were decorated with shaped Christmas trees.

We passed the Santa Claus Statue which is in Old Town, not far from the mayor's office. As he did last year, John took a pic of me and that Santa statue. At the Mayor's office we stopped to admire the Christmas tree and decorations and the horses. Many years ago I saw New Orleans Police on horses when Mardi Gras ended. So far I've only seen mounted police in Nice and New Orleans but I know they are used in Portland, Los Angeles, Houston and other major cities. It beats patrols with machine guns (here and U.S.) and tanks (large U.S. cities).

Speaking of Houston -- another of my former home towns, Houston Texas, is one of the many sister cities to Nice. This year, near the Ferris wheel, one of the goofy children's Christmas light sculptures featured that sister city relationship. The light sculpture is based on a drawing by a child (Mohammed) who is a patient at the Houston Children's hospital. If you have Facebook you can see some articles about Mohammed's art and the sister relationship between Houston and Nice.

We took some photos of the Ferris Wheel and the many Christmas booths near there. There's a carousel ride that has been part of the festivities for a few years which is a giant cartoonish Christmas tree and the huge ornaments on its lower limbs are seats for the ride.

We walked to Place Rossetti, where the live nativity scene was to take place (Dec 22-26, 10am-6pm). We visited the day before the live animals were to be there. All the animals we saw were animated. I thought that was much cooler than seeing the live animals because I've seen live camels and ox many times but I don't often see animatronics. Then we walked down very skinny streets in Old Town. It is the same street width as medieval times so there is no room for modern cars.

Lights were strung across the streets where we walked from Old Town past the Opera House down the Promenade du Pavilion. Link We also walked by the department stores on Jean Medecin to marvel at the decorations overhead and we watched the animated polar bears display in the windows of Galleries Lafayette.

John took some photos of people playing in the high water jets at Place Massena near the Ferris Wheel. The reflection of the Ferris wheel in the water looked lovely.

At the market there were a lot of attractions from last year - bungee jumpers, children's rides, a Pinocchio wooden toy shop, stuffed animals, food, hot wine, ornaments ... all the typical Christmas market fare. The Nice Christmas Market takes place 3 December 2016 until 1 January 2017 Monday to Thursday 11am-8pm Fridays and Saturdays 11am-9pm Jardin Albert Ier, La Coulée Verte. It has sixty wooden chalets with craft gifts and regional produce make up the Nice Christmas Village. There are concerts and performances (we missed out on those) and a large skating rink. The ice skaters made a nice image having fun with the Apollo Santa bubble in the background.

On the Sunday before Christmas Day we went to a concert by the Symphony and Opera (Orchestra of Harmony). It was lovely and a lot of fun to hear several pieces from the Nutcracker Suite and a medley of Jingle Bells with religious classics (O Holy Night, What Child Is This? and others). There are free concerts every Sunday at Church Notre Dame near the Port during winter months (sometimes at the Eglise Notre Dame); during springtime they’re open-air across from the seaside, at the musical kiosk in the Jardin Albert I, at the end of the Promenade du Paillon. Orchestre d'Harmonie (In Google, right-click to translate).

The Orchestra of Harmony is one of the oldest formations of this type in France. It was created December 3, 1866. Since then, the Orchestra of Harmony never ceased its activity except during WWII. It held professional status from 1866 to 1940, and has had a semi-professional status since its reconstitution. It has about fifty musicians and one of the richest musical libraries in France with almost 3000 works dating from the 19th century, which are still played. Its main mission is to offer the public of Nice free concerts every Sunday afternoon, offering about 45 concerts a year. The concerts cover varied genres of music (classical music, film music, musicals, jazz ...) and every week there is a different program.

The Nice Philharmonic gives a free New Year’s Day concert at the Acropolis, 11 AM New Year’s morning. You'll need to get your free ticket early (first days of December) from the Nice Opera. We missed out on getting tickets to the New Year's Day concert because we applied too late but next year we will apply as soon as we can. This year the tickets were distributed on Dec 13. Tickets are distributed until they run out. This year that took less than a day. You have to go to the opera to get the tickets from 9:30 am - 2 tickets per family - no telephone booking, no ticket shipping. Places guaranteed until 10:40 on the day of the show, so I suppose there will be some unused tickets available at the time of the concert. The show is at the Acropolis New Year's day at 11 AM but you need to show up by 10:40 (or you will lose your seat). The address of the Opera is Opera Nice Côte d'Azur, 4-6 rue Saint François de Paule, 06364 Nice Cedex 4.

One night John and I walked along the Promenade des Anglais when the palm trees wrapped in lights were illuminated. We spent part of our December days on the beach. It was a little cool but the warm sun made the Nice beach very nice.

We also spent part of our holiday watching movies. Speaking of Jack Skellington (in the first paragraph above), we saw "The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD. I hadn't realized before that Danny Elfman sang all of Jack's songs. Oingo Boingo Jack! Go Jack! Last year we went to Disneyland Paris in early January and I got to meet Jack Skellington. I love Jack Skellington and I told him so.

This month John and I went to a few English language movies in town. Pathe Massena, Pathe Paris, Cinema Varitas and Cinema Rialto are all close to our home and regularly show English language films for at least the first week after they are released. We saw Fantastic Beasts, Arrival and the new Star Wars movie, Rouge One (wasn't that Obama's secret service code name? Oh - wait - no, that was Renegade. Close enough).

John and I plan to go to the Alps ski resort at Auron on Monday. We're gonna make a snowman who will wear my beret and scarf. He'll have Oreos for his eyes, smile and buttons, and a carrot shaped, rainbow colored, catnip kitty toy for the nose. We'll take pics. That will be in the January blog. It's been snowing a lot recently so we should have a lot of white stuff to work with.

Happy Holidays everyone and a very Happy New Year!

Buche de Noel (Yule log pastry) Santa Donald in Place Masséna Security barriers with Christmas trees
The #ILoveNice sign The Apollo statue in the fountain
dressed as Santa in a snowglobe. 		Ferris wheel in Place Masséna
Christmas ski display at Place Masséna Water jets with Christmas display in background Interior of Église Notre Dame du Port
before the concert.
An intimate Christmas Concert
with the Orchestra of Harmony		 Christmas day at the Mediterranean Sea Police, horses and Christmas decorations
in front of the Mayor's office.
Second annual Ruth and Santa pic Nativity scene at Place Rossetti The bell tower of Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate
Christmas lights in Vieille Ville (Old City) Light sculpture from
Houston Children's Hospital 		Ruth and penguin at Christmas Village
More Christmas Village Ferris wheel and reflective pool Place Masséna Christmas Eve
Ice skaters at Christmas Village. Ornament Christmas tree ride I always surprises me how popular cowboy culture is with the French.
Santa Snowglobe / Apollo Fountain at night Ruth with cotton candy that's half her size. Wood carver's shop at Christmas market
Swedish stuffed animal shop
at Christmas market		 Santa and Ferris wheel Walking along shops on the way back home.
Tommy and Danny under
our little Christmas tree.		 Jack and Sally





10.12.2016

Two of our Nice friends, Salim and Ken, came over today for hot chocolate and cookies and ping-pong. John and I play from time to time but we're not good players. Salim is a good player. He hits the ball on the edge of the table most of the time. He mixed it up a bit including taking it easy on me and Ken and we all had fun.

I picked up some store bought cookies and a fruit cake. The store bought fruit cake here is amazing. I'm going to try some from the corner bakery if they have it. Salim brought some store bought "biscuits" with chocolate filling which were delicious. John said they can't make a bad cookie in France. Ken brought some home-made nut bread which is his tasty specialty. It was a very nice little gathering. I played Christmas music including several versions of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and two fun favorites of mine: "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and "Walkin' 'Round in Women's Underwear". If you want to listen, this is my YouTube Christmas playlist.

An aside
I want to re-emphasize something I explained back in September's blog about getting and renewing a residency permit in France. When you first arrive in France you should apply for your residency right away because you can't open a bank account without residency and you need a local bank account to get an apartment or to buy a house or get any kind of credit. You'll also need an address to get your residency and bank account so you will need to use the contract for the holiday rental or a friend's address as your mailing address. You can't get a P.O. Box through the La Poste in France unless you are a registered business in France. I don't know about private P.O. Boxes yet. Also, you do not need to renew your visa as long as you are a resident of France even if travel out of France. However, you will need to renew your residency every year or you'll have to go back to the states to get a new travel Visa and start the whole process all over again.

So, my advice about getting a French residency permit is:
1) get your residency permit as soon as you get to France (using your vacation rental contract or a friend's address with a letter from them stating that you are staying with them indefinitely)
2) as long as you have a residency permit you don't need to renew your visa -- ever -- so don't worry about that and
3) always apply to renew your residency 6 weeks before your renewal date. You'll need that amount of time for your permit to be processed.

Salim in action Ken ready to serve





08.12.2016 - 09.12.2016
Trip to Lyon

We left Nice on the TGV train at 7:20 this morning and arrived in Lyon at noon. Just before we reached Antibes we saw the snow covered Alps mountain tops to the east. The last time we went to Antibes it was hot and humid and John had heat exhaustion. Now it's cold (well, cold for the Mediterranean).

Since we traveled first class this time, our seats were bigger and more comfortable with plenty of leg room and a large drop down table. The trip was pleasant. John saw a swan when we crossed a river just west of Cannes. He got excited about that. He gets excited about wild flamingos too, but there aren't any east of Marseilles. Somewhere west of Cannes the landscape changed to looking a bit like northern Arizona with red gorges and low mountains. John said that is why he wanted to take a train trip - so he could see what France looks like from the ground. We turned north for a short while and traveled to Les Arcs. The landscape there looked like Oregon. Just before we reached Toulon John pointed out a fortress/castle/tower to the north. He did that a couple of other times. He's enjoying this trip. We had alot of quality time together on the train for conversation. We played "Animal, Vegetable, Cosmologist" and wondered why there wasn't a bacon flavored yogurt.

Except for one brief turn north and back, we hugged the coast for most of the trip. Two and 1/2 hours after our start we arrived in Marseilles and turned Northward for the duration of the trip. We stopped fairly often along the first part of our route but after we headed north the towns became very small and we didn't stop as often. The distance from Nice to Marseilles is a little more than half the distance from Marseilles to Lyon but the time is less for the Marseille to Lyon leg of the trip due to few stops. As we neared Aix-en-Provence we saw a lot of vineyards.

When we entered Lyon we saw a lot of haze in the distance and we saw it again both days we were there. I am sensitive to air pollutants but I didn't feel any effects of the haze in Lyon, even when we walked a lot, so we were unsure if the haze was pollution but we looked up the pollution index of Lyon and discovered that Lyon has high pollution levels fairly often. Air Quality in Lyon. This map is of real-time air quality throughout Europe. Every coastal town except Marseille has the best air quality, of course. Lyon's is not good. The places where we had identified reasonably priced housing near the rivers in Lyon were the areas of the highest pollution levels.

Right after we arrived in Lyon we checked into our hotel and headed to the boat tour of the Saône river. The river tour guide introduced us to the history of the region and the history of the Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights) we planned to see that evening. Like many public displays and holidays in "secular" France, the Catholic origins of these festivities is strong. However, none of the light sculptures or shows had any religious content. The houses along the river resembled the houses along the canals in Amsterdam except there aren't gables at the top of the buildings in Lyon. The Saône is a tributary of the Rhône and the two rivers re-merge in Lyon near where we started the boat tour. At this time of year they are slow moving but, during spring snow melts, they pick up speed as do the Willamette and McKenzie rivers in Eugene Oregon.

After the boat cruise we went to the outdoor Christmas Village at Place Carnot. I had some vin chaud (hot wine) which we sometimes refer to as mulled wine. It is most often Cabernet Sauvignon with citrus and spices like cinamon, cardamon, black pepper and honey. It's a nice wintry experience.

Lyon is home to two Christmas markets: the traditional village at Place Carnot, with 140+ wooden chalets selling artisanal candles and Christmas decorations and a variety of other wares, and the covered Croix-Rousse market, complete with a Christmas farm with animals and food stands. We went to the Place Carnot outdoor Christmas village which is at least as expansive as the Christmas market in Old Nice (in terms of number of shops and stalls). The variety of the offerings in Lyon seemed to be quite a bit more than in Nice. There were stalls with crafts, foods, wines, candy (amazing candy and a ton of chocolate as usual), toys, carvings, perfumes, clothing, books, candles, lights, garland, wreaths, trees and many other things. There are more than 600,000 visitors to the market each year. I bought some very cute small ornaments for our diminutive white Christmas tree. Two of the ornaments were angels that looked like something from a Chagall painting. The others were gingerbread style and a chunky angel and snoman made of carved and painted wood.

John took pics of a train that had cars resembling carousel animals (but with a Christmas theme). Watch some of these videos of past Christmas revelers to get a feel for our evening there: 2016 and 2014. Here are several other links.

After the Christmas Village we went to the El Sombrero Mexican restaurant for dinner. It is near Hotel de Ville which is where some of the light shows were being readied for the crowds. We almost couldn't get into the restaurant because security had shut down the small streets in an effort at crowd control. We told the guards that we wanted to go to the El Sombrero restaurant and they didn't understand us, but a woman from the restaurant had come to the barricade to draw in customers and when she heard us say we were trying to get to El Sombrero she took charge and ushered us in. The place was warm and colorful. Our server gave us sombreros to wear. At first John was reluctant to wear one, but I insisted after our server offered to take a picture of us. We look cute together with our Mexican hats. The food was very good -- sort of a cross between mostly Mexican and Cuban. When we first arrived the server enthusiastically suggested we try the insects. We declined. We saw on the menu that there were crickets and other bugs. Our meals were huge and appetizers would have been too much, even if they were just tiny insects.

After dinner we went to see several of the light diplays and one of the major shows of the Fête des Lumières (this link has several videos of light shows). The show was impressive but very weird - typically French, I believe. The story was something about an inventor and an owl who was very affectionate to the inventor at the end of the show. Other displays included something that looked like giant cattails with long bulbs similar to florescent light bulbs on the end, a hanging lights display that resembled a giant tubular wind chime in appearance and a kinetic display that looked something like solar panels. Near our hotel in the Part Dieu (Share God?) district was a light sculpture of a giant red elephant.

This video gives you a taste of the lights available during the Fête des lumières. We wandered near Hotel de Ville on the night we were in Lyon (Dec 8) which was the first day of the shows. That video shows some of xhat we saw including some static displays and the following shows:
#28 (very weird) at about 12 minutes
#29 at about 12 minutes

We encountered the light displays at night and equipment during the day at most of the places we visited in Lyon including the large boat of lights over a bridge on the river tour.

This year and last year the Lyon Festival of Lights display was smaller in scope and scale and took place for 3 days instead of the usual 4 days due to the recent public attacks which killed many French people.

Here are some light show links from past years
2014 2013

Here’s some edifying commentary about the 2016 Fête des lumières that tells about the heightened security and guarded entry points. There were 750 police with machine guns and 4 million visitors over the 3 day festival. NOTE: one of the cattail displays shows up briefly at 51 seconds.

Since Lyon was the capital of Roman Gaul, there are many Roman ruins up on the hill overlooking the older part of the city. Since the hill is quite steep the best way to get there is the funicular. We took a funicular up the hillside to get to the Roman ruins. John keeps chanting "funicular, funicular, funicular". He's goofy.

In 1880 the Funicular song, “Funiculì Funiculà”, was written to commemorate the inauguration of the first funicular up the side of Mt. Vesuvius. The Three Tenors was a popular operatic singing group during the 1990s and early 2000s, consisting of Spaniards Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and the Italian Luciano Pavarotti. Here is the version by the three tenors. This version translates the Italian into English, but the lyrics are quite different from the one the three tenors sang. And different still is Mario Lanza's English version which was popular in America in the 1950's. All are very lively and happy musical compositions. I started singing the Mario Lanza English version after we got home from Lyon ("A song can make most anybody happy, so let us sing. My song is full of life and good and snappy, it’s got the swing"). [BIG SMILE]

We were at the Roman amphitheater during the day so we saw the wiring and light receptacles and lights laid out on the grounds and amphitheater steps. Because the light show electronics were positioned on the steps (which are also the seats of the amphitheater) they were blocked off, which limited our exploration and views. John really loves Roman ruins. He imagines the lives of the people at the time of the construction and early years of the ruins. He always comments excitedly about the sophistication of their infrastructure and architecture hundreds and thousands of years ago. This is a video of the light show at the amphitheater. The video is dark and a little hard to see for the most part.

Later on Friday we went to a square next to Cathédrale St-Jean-Bapiste and saw the mechanisms for the light show there. The Cathedral was started in the 12th Century and has a working astronomical clock from the 14th Century. Here's a link to the light show at St-Jean-Bapiste's Cathedral. Very cool!  In the square near the cathedral were several tourist shops which were very reasonably priced. I bought a beret and sunglasses in one of those shops. When we were in Amsterdam I bought a scarf, so I was already starting to look Frenchie. They wear scarves here from September through May. It doesn't get that cold here but the French people, even along the Mediterranean, are accustomed to wearing scarves to keep the neck warm. It's a stylish look.

John purchased tickets for transportation and museums for 2 days in Lyon. On our way to the Puppets of the World Museum we encountered the Museum of Miniatures and Cinema. I was expecting the miniatures to be doll houses or hobby trains but there was an amazing display that went on and on and on. The eight sections, about half cinema and half miniatures, were filled with well designed and information-packed scenes. It was a highlight of our visit to Lyon. This video shows the movie part of the musuem. Starting with 4:45 you can see the animated queen from the Alien movies.  There were three small areas prohibited to children because they were too scary. The musuem has been there since 1979. The museum building itself was built in 1471. It was originally called the house of the advocates and was used for training barristers. Many old and ornate buildings in Lyon resemble those in Nice.

While we were in Vieux-Lyon John picked up a paperback book (Lyon and the Rhône, Comco Edition) that divides the city into regions with descriptions of suggested walking tours. It also provides a detailed history of Lyon. He said he wished he'd had the book before we went. We ran out of time for any more activities anyway. We'll be back.

Places that we missed on this trip were the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, the Musée Lumière, and statue of The Little Prince and the author / pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Place Bellecour. We've learned to pace ourselves and to only enjoy three or so sites a day. It's never a good idea to drag ourselves to see something and be too exhausted to enjoy it.

We didn't evaluate housing while in Lyon, but at least we got a feel for the city. We were pleased that there was not much doggy-poop where we went, but we saw a huge amount of cigarette butts everywhere - much more than in Nice or any other city we've visited. The weather is about 10°F cooler than Nice year round. While we visited the high temp was 50°F so it was cold most of the time.

A little dog went on the Saône River cruise with us. Many colorful houseboats lined the Saône. The 17th Century buildings reminded us of Amsterdam, although not as narrow.
The Palais of Justice Saint-Georges church first constructed in 802. The former city wall of medieval Lyon.
Arched medieval switchback leading up a steep hill. EuroNews eco-friendly office building. Le Cube Orange is also energy efficient.
Woodcarvings at the Christmas Village Each woodcarving was unique and intriguing. Ruth finally said no to the tempting candy.
Miniatures for Christmas scenes. Santa's train Christmas Carousel
Giant Christmas cookies! Yummm...... Fruit shaped candy Ruth and John at El Sombrero
An elephant light sculpture at the train station. Part of the light show on the Hôtel de Ville More from the Hôtel de Ville.
A funicular took us up the
steep hill to the Roman ruins.		 Light sculptures set up for the evening light show. Roman street and ruins. The white design is for the evening light show.
Ruth taking a break on a Roman block in the early morning light. This is how to lay brick that will last 2,000 years. Amphitheater seats 10,000. Ruth is in the red circle.
John's in the red circle exploring the ruins. Everywhere we go, there are French children on class trips. The schools take advantage of the culture and history. The Roman houses were small by our standards.
12th Century Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon Ruth with her new beret. Toy store in Vieux Lyon.
The Musée Miniature et Cinéma had an exhibit on the early perfume industry of Lyon The museum is in several adjacent buildings. These 14th Century buildings are connected by bridges that also add support to the tall walls. The museum had thousands of production models.
Hundreds of production masks. Dozens of costumes. The mask Robin Williams wore for Mrs. Doubtfire.
The flying rig that Christopher Reeve wore for Superman. Orc mask from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Harry Potter's Wand
Workshop where exhibits are prepared. The triceratops is from Jurassic Park. Ewok animatronics. The miniatures section was a joy. These were individual works of art. This is a 1880's natural history museum.
To give you some idea of scale, here is the artist's hand through the door. Old garage. 1950's restaurant with a tiny James Dean picture on the wall.
Miniature grocery store. Tiny subway car. Italian restaurant where we had lunch.
Front window of the Puppet Museum and store. Tin Tin character puppets There were marionnettes and hand puppets.
There were puppets from all over the world. This Guignol puppet was over 200 years old. There were many scenes.
Many puppets were of French historical figures. The old town (Vieux Ville) of Lyon is a United Nations World Heritage site. Ruth and I were taking bets on whether this pigeon in the train station would spatter the clock again.