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The most recent entries are at the top of this page. Earlier entries follow in reverse chronological order.
Second half of January
In our last entry I talked about the lack of snow in the French Alps. At that time snow had been falling in Oregon for a couple of weeks. Recently I saw pics of Florence Oregon with piles of snow on the beach.
What freaky weather!
I made a friend on Facebook. Her name is Anna and she lives in Paris. She saw one of my posts about the November 2015 elections where the socialists potentially sacrificed some seats to stop the National Front from gaining seats (but I noted that the Republicans were not so cooperative). I learned that Anna is very liberal, used to live in Nice and in Springfied Oregon and has many of the same likes that John and I have. Last week Anna came to Nice and we met her for dinner at a Frenchy restaurant near our place (L'Ecole de Nice). The restaurant has a lot of unusual art from the well known city gallery L'Ecole de Nice. We met Anna for dinner on 21 January, the day of the Women's March.
John and I intended to go to the Women's March in Nice at 15:00 on 21 January. We were both excited about the marches in general, and about going to our first political march in France. Unfortunately we learned that the Women's March in Nice was cancelled because the required permit had not been filed 15 days ahead of the event. The organizer said we could have no more than 40 people without violating the law and I was geared up for that but then, because many people from other nearby communities had not heard of the cancellation and were coming, we were requested to stay home. There were about 100 people who showed (see images below).
I looked up the law on the Internet and found it translated into English by a British attorney specializing in French law. The law said the permit must be acquired no sooner than 15 days before the event and no later than 3 days before the event. So there was likely a misunderstanding at some point because 15 days notice is not required. That translation was in 2014, so I thought the law may have changed for security reasons. The day of the march the organizer posted the law in French, and it said exactly the same thing as the 2014 translation of the law. The law hasn't been changed since October 1935. I suspect someone in the Mayor's office misinterpreted the part of the law which reads, "the permit must be acquired no sooner than 15 day before the event and no later than 3 days before the event". Sigh. We really wanted to go to that march. Our U.S. friends marched in Washington DC, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego and 3 other California cities, 4 cities in Oregon, Cortez, Colorado (in the snow), Houston, Austin, and other places! Pics of a few of those marches and some friends are below.
John and I are still making short trips around Europe We're going to Venice for Carnivale in mid February and we are seriously considering going to Oslo this summer. Details will follow in later posts. John also wants to go to Grindelwald, a village in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps. He went there some decades ago and fell in love with the place.
Recently a friend sent us some very positive information about Toulouse, so soon we will check out the town as a possible place to live. Currently Nice has a lot of favorables for us but we may need to move some distance from the city to afford a house.
John and I love strolling on or near the beach. We went Monday at dusk and saw birds that looked a lot like seagulls, but the wingspans were much less and the bodies were smaller. They were all white (maybe with a little gray) just like the very large seagulls here. The big ones are just called Gulls. We think the smaller birds are named "little gulls". The weather has been rainy and windy so the water was churned a bit, although the waves were not very tall. Maybe we had these different birds because of the increased winds?
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| Women's March in Nice | Woman's March on Promenade des Anglais | Lots of signs at the Women's March in Nice. |
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| The march started at the Place Masséna | Women's March in Paris | Women's March in Washington, D.C. |
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| Women's March in Washington, D.C. | Women's March in Washington, D.C. | Women's March in Washington, D.C. |
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| Women's March in Barcelona | Women's March in Nairobi | Women's March in Oregon |
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| Little Gull | Range of the little gull | Sunset on the Mediterranean with rain clouds rolling in. |
03.01.2016
All residents of Nice are entitled to the "Pass Musées de Nice” that gives you free access to 14 of the city’s municipal museums and galleries. We finally got our passes shortly after the new year.
When we attended Democrats Abroad we took some last pics of the Christmas decorations including snowflake projections on the Hôtel Negresco, palm trees wrapped in gold and silver lights and colorful light displays against building façades. I love the way the Promenade is decorated for the winter holidays.
John and I go to a Democrats Abroad meeting at least once a month. The meetings are almost always on the Prom, so we have a lovely view to go along with interesting conversations and very pleasant people. Lately, when I mention Democrats Abroad in this blog, I am reminded of the tsunami of Trump "news" that has occurred since our last DA meeting and I can't help but imagine that the others in the group also feel as though they are struggling to climb out of the rabbit hole.
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| Because we are official residents of France we were able to get a 3 year museum pass for Nice's museums. |
Snowflake projections on the Hôtel Negresco for the holidays. |
Mosaic sculpture of Miles Davis front of Hôtel Negresco by Niki de Saint Phalle |
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| Ruth on the Promenade des Anglais | More light projections on the Hôtel West End | Another view of the Hôtel Negresco |
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| Aeiral view of Christmas time Nice, Vieille Ville, Promenade du Paillon, and the Mediterranean Sea. (from Nice Expression magazine) |
02.01.2016
For our 14th wedding anniversary John and I decided to play in the snow and build a snowman at Auron, a ski resort in the French Alps. The place looked a lot like every other tiny mountain town I've seen. As far as ski resorts go it was on the small side. Here is a one-stop shop website (in English) covering all aspects of the 15 mountain villages accessible from Nice. You can buy up to a 3 day transportation and ski lift pass for 45 € or you can take the bus as we did for 1 € each way. Link The first and last bus of the day are the snow buses and are 4€ each way.
To reach Auron we took a bus on a long and windy road which gave us both motion sickness (we didn't take pics). The ski runs were in operation even though there wasn't a lot of snow at the base of the lifts. It wasn't a dream wedding anniversary, but after some hot tea to settle our nausea, it was nice for us to walk around holding hands for a few hours in Alpine snow.
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| French Alps viewed from Auron | Southern view of the Alps from Auron | Snow on the ski runs but not much in Auron. |
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| Ruth wants to know where all the snow is. |
We did find some snow near the Chapelle Saint-Érige d'Auron, a 12th Century church. |
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Another view of the Chapelle Saint-Érige d'Auron |
Ruth couldn't find enough snow to make a snowman... | But she did find enough for a snowball. |
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| Panorama of the French Alps from Auron | Woodcarvings in front of shops. |
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John in front of the Chapelle Saint-Érige d'Auron |