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The most recent entries are at the top of this page. Earlier entries follow in reverse chronological order.

15.05.2016

The sun was bright and warm today so John and I took our beach chairs to the Mediterranean and sat looking at the water and people for 45 minutes. We left then so we wouldn't get sunburned. We're working our way up to a tan. For our next trip I want to find a couple of beach appropriate umbrellas that are not cumbersome to carry for 6 blocks.

While we were water and people watching there were 2 services in operation for parasailing. One was a giant smiley face and the other was black and farther away from us - on the beach to the east of us that curves around so that it is nearly perpendicular to ours. We watched the smiley face service as people took off, sailed high above the ocean and low, nearly touching the water on the turns and then back high again before they landed. It was cool. I want to do that. What I'd really love to do is flyboarding but I doubt my legs are strong enough. Here are some videos: skilled flyboarders (might want to mute the music) and newbie flyboarder (no doubt I'd be worse than this if I tried it anytime soon).

At the beach today there were a lot of little kids splashing in the water and a few brave souls swimming. I walked out into the water to see how cold it is. It was cold. Average water temp in May is 64 F. In July it gets up to 74 F.

We hear a lot about how hot it gets but from the best I can determine it never gets above 81 F. Also, weirdly in light of the heat intolerance, people are still wearing jackets and sweaters even though the daytime temps are 67 F almost all day long with mostly day-long sunshine and no clouds.

This is our first beach outing this summer. We intend to do this at least once a week from now on.

I was surprised to see alot of cactus here in Nice. This one is in our front courtyard.	Our pebbled beach looking to the west.	And to the east.
Parasailing takeoff.	Ruth seeing how cold the Mediterranean Sea is.	Thousands of shades of blue all year long.
French kids playing in the waves.

13.05.2016

John and I went to the Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie (CPAM) today to turn in our completed paperwork to enroll in the French health care system. There was another bus strike today in solidarity with the airports strike but, fortunately, it did not effect the buses we used today. In a few weeks we will be enrolled in the French healthcare system.

11.05.2016

John and I were going to return to CPAM today to file our forms signed by our doctor, but there was a bus strike. As we were waiting for the bus 2 different women came by to tell us there was a strike. The first one wandered off with the French woman who was standing next to us after we said we didn't understand (spoken) French. The second one kept talking with us and said grève (strike) loudly (with a smile on her face). We understood that. The vast majority of the French people are very nice and helpful.

Unions

There are a lot of strikes here in France and they usually plan them well in advance. We found a website that lists the strikes so, hopefully, in the future we will be more aware. Here is a list of the strikes planned for 2016. Strikes in PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), strikes nationally in May, future planned strikes. 

Although the transit systems in Europe are excellent, the strikes cause them to be unreliable occasionally. If we had to get to work or to some important meeting we'd call a taxi (unless, of course, the strike is for the airline we have booked). I'd think taxis would be much more in demand on strike days so I'm not sure how reliable they would be.

Although the strikes are disruptive, the power of unions here is admirable. Workers have a decent life. They retire from manual labor jobs before their bodies are damaged beyond repair. Mothers and fathers have leave for pregnancy and newborns, employment education and re-training is guaranteed. Of course unemployment benefits are higher than in the States and health coverage in France is universal. Work weeks are shorter than in the US, time off is longer and vacation days are a few more. Some of these benefits are provided by employers and some by the state. I was very surprised to learn that unions in France are comprised of only 8% of the workers, lower than the U.S. at 11%. All other EU countries have higher union membership rates than the US. Many over 60% and a few as high as 90%

From a 2014 article in the Economist the real source of French union strength today is the statutory powers they enjoy as joint managers, along with business representatives, of the country’s health and social-security system, and as employee representatives in the workplace. Under French law, elected union delegates represent all employees, union members or not, in firms with over 50 staff on both works councils and separate health-and-safety councils. These must be consulted regularly by bosses on a vast range of detailed managerial decisions. This gives trade unions a daily say in the running of companies across the private sector, which accounts for the real strength of their voice.

The links that follow have more information on French unions including how they get money and their requirement to represent all workers whether members or not.
The minimum wage in France increases automatically on January 1st every year depending on inflation + half of the average salary of workers for the past year. An autonomatic increase occurs if inflation gets above 2% in the middle of the year. France Wage Indicator

Low union density in France is due to a number of factors: (i) the unions' weight in collective bargaining does not depend on how many members they have, but on their workplace election results; (ii) union membership does not give workers many rights and benefits compared with a good number of our European neighbours; and (iii) the unions are not funded mainly by member dues, but by government, employers and labour-management organisations.

A recent bill to increase the hours (now 35) in a work week and allow employers to fire workers when companies lose money is being fiercely protested by workers, unemployed and students.

This paint store was closed in the morning due to a strike.

10.05.2016

John and I went to the Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie (CPAM) office today to apply for social security (medical coverage). John had put together the paperwork we needed and he had every single item they asked for. I was all impressed again that he is so well organized. Now all we need is to take a form to our doctor and have her stamp and sign it. Then we return to the CPAM office with the forms and we're on our way. The guy we talked with said it will take 2 weeks to enroll us. I made an appointment for us to see the doctor in the morning.

Here are some links to info and forms required for getting state insurance in France. Basically you have to be a resident and prove that you've lived here independently for 3 months (show a lease). You can right-click to translate French to English.
L'Assurance Maladie en ligne
Introduction to the French social security system
Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU)
Your social security rights in France

Background info on our enrolling in state health care in France:

John and I had to get health insurance that would cover us for 1 year here in France. It is emergency only and has a low max coverage so we had intended to apply for the state insurance as soon as we could. That would have been after we received our residence permits. We wanted to wait until we were at our permanent address before doing so to prevent losing important notices in the mail. That would have been 5 February. We read that we needed to have our VISA sticker updated with our new address or there may be difficulties in receiving our paperwork. We tried for many weeks to get that done with long delays and no success. Eventually (recently) we went to the health agency and applied to be enrolled in the system without the VISA new address stickers. From the agents there we learned that there would not be a problem with our VISAs missing the new address sticker.

The Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie(CPAM) in Nice where Ruth and I applied for French medical coverage.

04.05.2016

I was at the hardware store today and the cashier said "one Euro" to me. It sounded like "numero" and I was unclear about what he said. I looked at the guy next to me and he gave me the thumbs up. I was even more puzzled. John came to the counter and the guy said "numero" again and John said to me "He's saying one Euro". I felt silly. And the thumbs up? That's how they indicate the number one. We hold up our index finger. They display their thumb. I knew that, but I forgot. And sometimes I forget and give someone here a thumbs up, and then they are puzzled about "one what?" A thumbs up doesn't exist in France. If someone gives you the thumbs up they are showing you the number 1.

03.05.2016

Tommy got his French passport today. Our vet had sent in forms about both our cats since we gave him medical files for both of them. Because we had not taken Tommy to the vet his chip hadn't been scanned locally and a form attesting to the chip's existence and relevant information needed to be sent to the French government. When we got a notice about that we were unclear about what, exactly, was needed. The vet filled us in, scanned Tommy's chip and completed the form for the French animal control agency and sent it in.

Miscellaneous stuff

Architecture
When John and I walk around town or take care of errands we still marvel at the gorgeous architecture. I started snapping photos of some of the buildings. See images below. The weather is beautiful these days so we get out a fair amount and there is still so much new to see.

Weather
We hear a lot about how hot it gets but from the best I can determine it almost never gets above 81 F, but it does get humid. These websites show Nice's 25 day forecast and monthly averages for temp, sunshine, rain, wind and sea temp.

Thrift Stores
We're starting to learn where things are and we are now able to find more of the things we need near our home. I found a couple of the 2 Euros stores (similar to dollar stores in the states). They don't have much in the way of American style thrift stores here in France. One Brit said she thought it was a cultural thing as the French tend to look to the government to take care of the poor and donated items are given directly to the poor rather than sold to raise cash for services as in the U.S.

There are Emmaüs stores which operate similar to US thrift stores. They sell items and use the proceeds to help the poor, but none are in the major cities, so for us it would be a lot of effort to use them.

Also, according to one Parisian blogger, "Just be aware that, for many French people, Emmaüs etc. are places for poor people to shop i.e. they provide a place where the homeless, the working poor etc. can buy stuff like clothes and furniture that is affordable. Shopping there if you don't have to is not seen as funky or cool, but as robbing needy people of an opportunity. The staff might even refuse to sell you anything if they think you're just there bargain hunting."

NOTE: Decades ago, in the US, there was a stigma about buying anything at thrift stores. It meant you were financially poor and people behaved as though that was a personality deficit. Many, if not most, people still do but the general public in the U.S. is encouraged these days to buy from charity thrift stores because the profits are used for services for the poor. There is no longer a stigma about shopping at Goodwill, Salvation Army, SVDP or the like.

For those of you who are not familiar with the US thrift store experience read this.

If you're just looking for vintage items instead of desperately trying to save money, you might want to check out the markets (called flea markets in the U.S.) The biggest one is the marche aux puces de Clingancourt in Paris. You can google info on markets in other cities.

There are many second-hand/consignment stores, which are called "depot-ventes" in large French cities. They aren't necessarily low priced, which is true in the U.S. too.

Kitchen
Our kitchen coming along very nicely -- it's nearly finished. The counters are painted, tempered glass work surfaces/cutting boards with poppies are laid out on the counter. We also got our bread knives and a bread board, some trivets and giant poppy decals for the walls. The place is starting to feel very much like home.

John has been cooking these last few weeks.  He never did that before (well, only very simple dishes).  He's become brave after moving to France,  He bought a crockpot and is trying out recipes for all kinds of foodie treasures.  He's also cooking with magnets (induction) because he doesn't trust gas. We recently made chicken and dumplings.  I hadn't had any for a long time and I was missing it.  We did a good job!  We're a good team for cooking and many other things.

Birds
Another way it is feeling more home-like is that I found a way to feed the doves and not pigeons. I just pull the shutters closer together and wedge them in place one fist wide. The doves can get through, but not the pigeons. Dovey and Lovey were a little skittish at first but they are OK now unless a pigeon shows up and gooses them. The doves learned to eat facing out so the pigeons can't do that.

I love the sound of the birds singing in the mornings and late afternoons. It's soothing to me. I still feel like I ive in an aviary and I love it.

Nearby Adventures
Recently one of the very helpful people (also named Ruth) from Democrats Abroad told me that, as residents of Nice, we can apply for and will receive an invitation for general admission to the ( pronounced "can") Cannes Film Festival (at no cost). That will be cool. She briefly went over the process with me. Without pre-planning locals have access to the Cannes Cinephiles screenings. These are free and held just outside of the festival, and they include all of the films. Contact Cannes visitor office for more info. The Festival has already started so it's too late for that this year, but next year -- Woo Hoo!

We'll also be visiting Monte Carlo very soon. John's all jazzed that it is only 12 km from our home. He's looking forward to visiting the Oceanographic Museum where Jacques Cousteau was the director for many years.

Games for our Home
We have some games now (we love games -- I used to host game nights in San Diego and Eugene).  Two of our new games will help us learn French: Race to Paris (a cute kids game) and French Scrabble.  We also ordered a ping pong table which will be here soon.

French Scrabble is just like English Scrabble except that the letters have different values and quantities. The boards are identical (except the text is in French, of course). We installed this free app Française de Scrabble Expert on our android phones (also available for iTunes), which finds French words to match your letters.

Orit, our French teacher in Eugene, loves the French crosswords (Mots fléchés) and there are free Motts Fleches available online . As you can see, they have a different format than American crosswords. John bought a level 1 puzzle book and each of us have managed to get two or three words completed in a 15 minutes session. I only work on it a few times a week but it is helping me learn new words. Just as in Scrabble the accent marks are not considered.

Dovey on one of our balconies.	Some of the buildings in Nice have painted decorations.	The Palais Ophelia is on Avenue Shakespeare.
Most of the buildings in Nice have beautiful moldings and scrollwork.	Waiting for the tram at Place Massena	A Western wear shop in Nice opened since 1967.
Hallway with mirrors and Chagall prints.	Redoing our kitchen in reds, grays and whites.	Another view of the kitchen.
Little Frida Kahlo doll came with us from the States.	Poppy stickers add color to the kitchen walls.	Old world windows with shutters. We haven't seen any window screens since we moved to France.
Onions and peppers sprouting in our balcony garden.	Waiting room for Ruth's doctor.