A Rainy Train Ride & New Friends

Alex and I have been utilizing the vast public transportation system of France to visit some great places around Nice.  We frequently use the buses to get to places across town and Alex to school, but we also use the train to get from Nice to places like Cannes, Antibes, and now Menton.  

One rainy Sunday, Alex had an itch to get on a train and ride to the Italian border to a place called Menton.  We didn't know much about it other than it was known for its citrus fruit.  We ran, or rather Alex ran and pulled me through the rain all the way to the train station and we rode to Menton.  As soon as we were off the train, we saw some orange trees and beautiful architecture.  

Everything was closed in town, so we just took some time to breathe and walk alongside the sea.  We saw an amazing rainbow and of course, spotted a cat.  

We ended up eating at the only restaurant open in the town near the sea, but it had great food an even better dessert!  

After a rainy weekend, the sun peeked out and it was brag weather again in Nice.  After meeting more of Alex's classmates and their wives, one of the wives joine me for lunch and some sun on the beach.  Gabriela and Henrique are from Brazil and they are both very nice people.  I am so happy to meet another girl who is as short as I am! We are not short, just vertically challenged.  We went to my favorite place, Emma's Cupcakes, for lunch and well...you know, cupcakes.  I had to share the love of this amazing place!  Then we went to the beach and what was there to greet us?  Our flags! It was so amazing that the Brazilian flag was right next to an American flag, but even more amazing that the American flag had a California flag attached! It was meant to be.

I have enjoyed getting to know Gabby as the weeks go on and it is fun to have a partner in crime! 

 

Another great pleasure we had recently was to meet up with our friend (Bailey) from Hickory's sister and her family.  Anna, Nico, their two boys (Liam and Lucas), Nico's mother, and some of Nico's old classmates joined us on the beach one evening to talk about how things had been going in Nice.  The family lives near Nice in Aix en Provence. It was great to see some familiar faces!  

Places of Great Heights

Alex went on an overnight trip to the Alps with all of his classmates as part of the required curriculum at EDHEC.  This was meant to be a team building exercise, but Alex came home with so much more.  He started his day at 5am where he caught a bus to school with a backpack full of snacks and overnight clothes.  From EDHEC, the students boarded a bus that drove them to Mercantour Park in the Alps.  They stopped to have breakfast at a village before hiking up to their base camp.  

Alex said that they scaled a Summit that day (8,400ft) and he and the other students were very tired that night.  They stayed in a refuge where they ate dinner and students entertained eachother with songs on their guitars and dancing.  Alex went to bed early because he was so exhausted, but quickly realized that he would not be getting any sleep due to the large amount of snoring that was already taking place around his room!

After a long night of never sleeping, Alex went downstairs to play a horse racing game at 5am.  They ate breakfast together, then quickly began to hike again.  On this morning, the students saw a cattle farmer hearding his cows along a stream and also stumbled upon a cheese maker high in the Alps.  Alex thought that because they hiked so far the previous day they would not be hiking too far the second day, but he was wrong.  Again, they Summited a very tall mountain (9,000ft)!  He said that the paths were so tiny that you had to cling to the mountain to keep from falling.  Only 12 people made it to the top that day.

As a side note: One thing that has astonished both Alex and myself is how much the French will allow people to do.  I guess this comes from a society where it is pretty difficult for someone else to be held liable for your own stupidity.  We witnessed this when we visited Point du Hoc 2 years ago, where the French would allow anyone to walk into the large craters left by bombs and also inside the bunkers that had also been bombed.  And on this trip to the Alps the French figure if you are going to be a show off or do something stupid that you know you are not capable of doing, its your fault if you get hurt.  I like this philosophy!

When Alex finally came home, dirty and tired, he said that he had learned many things from the trip.  He now understands why his father has enjoyed hunting and being in the wilderness for days on end.  He also sees the value of getting to know each individual in your team and the importance that has on beling able to work together and accomplish something big.

The weekend after Alex came back from the Alps, we decided to visit another scenic place situated high upon a cliff on the sea, called Eze.  Eze is probably the most beautiful village I have seen so far.  It looks like it is sitting on a cloud, hovering over the sea.  There are all types of little shops with art, jewelery, and other nic nacs, a hidden garden overlooking the sea, and a very old church.  Our favorite spot was on the path of Nietzsche.  The view was ovewhelmingly beautiful and a great place to just sit and think.  I reccommend going to Eze to anyone who comes to the South of France.

September of New Beginnings

September has been a very busy month for us, here in Nice.  We moved into our apartment (where we will remain until the end of June), settled into our place by gathering neccessities and comforts, explored our new neighborhood to figure out where to get groceries/etc, and Alex started school on the 10th!

We call our apartment, "the box".  It is 28 meters squared (about 280 square ft) but is very comfortable and cozy.  It is very easy to clean "the box" which makes it seem like I have accomplished so much at the end of the day when the groceries are in, dinner is made, and I have even snuck in some beach time.  Yes, it is true, I am not a very domesticated female by any means but this isn't half bad.  Most of the time I will use my longboard skateboard to pick up things we need around town, which makes it seem more like an adventure rather than an errand.  

We are doing a good job of connecting with the local shop owners/workers around our neighborhood and they are beginning to recognize us, which is pretty exciting because it makes us feel like we are a part of the neighborhod community.  The one shop that has come to know me best is Emma's Cupcakes, which is a Salon de The (Tea shop) two streets down from us that also serves soups, sandwiches, salads, coffee, tea, and as the name suggests...cupcakes!  Alex has a hard time staying away from the Lebanese restaurant a street over and I don't blame him, the food is delicious.

Our pharmacist, one building down in the Meyerbeer pharmacie, is amazing.  He speaks English and his understnding of disorders/conditions is wonderful.  Recently, I posted a blurb about our experience on FB.  To make a long story short, both Alex and myself came out from the pharmacy with medicines to treat our ailments without insurance companies needing to approve of anything and we will be reimbursed for our costs at a later date for our out of pocket expense (mine was 8 euros and Alex's was 27 euros). And did I mention that the medicines actually worked well?

On Alex's first day of his MBA program, I got up early and made him a big "American" breakfast with some pancake mix and syrup we had purchased from a specialty store.  He said the eggs were very good, but apparently the pancakes were not that great at all.  What's the saying?  "It's the thought that counts?"  : )  He really is enjoying the program and says that he did not expect to enjoy it this much, but he does.  The program is very practical and teaches a global, forward thinking type of philosophy which is refreshing. (Below is a picture of the view from the MBA floor at EDHEC)

On our first weekend since Alex has been in school, we joined a group of fellow students on a trip to Antibes (15 mins by train from Nice).  The beach was beautiful.  White sand, crystal blue water, and you could touch going out to sea about 200 yards.  It was great getting to know people from such different parts of the world.  On this trip the nationalities that were represented were: Japanese, Indian, Lebanese, German, Columbian, French, Russian, and Brittish.  It is very interesting to converse with so many different nationalities about what is happening in the world and what they want out of the program at EDHEC.

An Evening in Monaco

With Fitz and Kayla still in town and our curiosity peaked about the infamous Monte Carlo casino, we decided to head to Monaco for the evening.  Kayla had chatted up a local shop owner who had suggested some amazing restaurants, one of which was in Monaco.  Alex and I took the coastal highway all the way to Monaco whereas Fitz and Kayla decided to leave earlier to tour the area on Fitz's BMW motorcycle he had rented.  There were some gorgeous views of the ocean and surreal tunnels cut out of the coastal cliffs.

We rendezvoused with the motorcycle duo at 8:30pm at a wonderful restaurant called Avenue 31.  We had appetizers of non and ordered enough sushi to feed a small army, but it was very delicious!  It made us miss our favorite sushi restaurant in Hickory, called Umi, and the Miyazaki family who has always been so very good to us (we miss you, Satoko!).  We were also delighted with the amazing desserts, I mean, who says 5 types of chocolate is too much in one dessert?!  We were all loving the music at dinner that the restaurant dj had created special just to set a certain mood in the place, but Kayla was having an out of body experience.  So, just before we left, she managed to purchase 2 CD's from him so that she could have the music to play when she is jamming out in her new Prius back in the states.  We also toured the bathrooms because Alex came back from them, telling us that they had golden "thrones" and golden walls...wow.

We were stuffed and ready for a nap but our curiosity had not been satisfied just yet.  We walked from the restaurant, down through the immaculately clean streets and alleys, past the yellow, red, and white Lamborghinis, past the black Aston Martin and Bentleys, and arrived at the Monte Carlo where a variety of all of the above plus some Ferrarris mixed in sat, daring us to enter.  And after doing the typical tourist thing of grabbing some other tourist to take our picture in front of the monstrosity, we entered the Monte Carlo. 

It was beautiful and very ornate, but we were very surprised over the lack of gambling tables.  It seemed like they had set out a few tables just for the tourists to get their experiences and leave whereas the real gambling was happening behind closed doors in the bountiful private rooms.  So Fitz came out on top in Black Jack and Alex and Kayla tag teamed the Roulette table for twice the profit.  It was a good night! We decided to call it a night at that before we took Lady Luck for granted.

Sun, Sand, Birds, Tattoos and Most Importantly...Family

I realize it has been awhile since my last blog entry but I assure you it is not because there was too little going on over here in Nice!  On August 21st, Alex's parents came to stay with us for a week and have some family fun.  Alex and Wink got down to business early on and found places to hike and bike, whereas Dennis and I did all the hard work holding the beach down ; ) .  

Of course, when Dennis and I were handed a flyer to get temporary tattoos (that really look quite real) a plan to trick Alex's brother, Fitz, came into play.  Since Fitz and his girlfriend, Kayla, were coming to visit that Saturday, Dennis and I made a plan to get our tattoos that morning.  Of course, since I had only been in Nice for less than 2 weeks, I got us a little turned around on the morning of their arrival but we did end up making it to the tattoo shop (Jagwa).  Dennis looked like he had been on the Bataan death march, but he did survive! 

As soon as Fitz and Kayla came to dinner that night, we showed them our awesome "tats" and described how we got them (minus the details about having to dry them with hair dryers and peel off the gel).  They bought our stories and Fitz believed that Dennis had become a "new person."  A little later in the week, I let Kayla in on the plot and we had thought about getting her one that read something to the effect of "Fitz and Kayla Forever," which would have inevitably send Fitz into a panic.  But, as luck would have it, we had run out of time by the end of their stay.

The day before Wink and Dennis left to return to NC, we all woke up early and rented a car to drive to the Camargue, which was 3 hours west of Nice (towards Spain).  Here, Wink would be able to meet up with a local photographer so that she could get the inside scoop on the best conditions to take pictures of the beautiful white wild horses of the region.  She also spent hours in the ornithological park in the area, taking pictures of all the different birds (her efforts were most successful and will be showcased in her booth at the furniture market in High Point, NC this Fall).  

While Wink was shooting, the rest of us managed to sneak in some fun in the local town that reminded us of Mexico (or at least the SW United States).  We visited a local chateau that housed some modern art (fairly creepy, as most art pieces alluded to ghosts).  Then we went to a walled city called Aigues- Mortes which had a wonderful gelato shop, imagine that. It's small streets were filled with handmade creations and all types of foods.  The guys ended up trying (and buying) bull sausage that Kayla and I immediately suspected was bull testicles.  After the walled city, we came up with the idea to get some swimsuits, go swimming at the beach, and try to look as touristy as possible while taking pictures all the while.  What really ended up happening was Alex got a pair of European swim trunks and paraded around with his white legs!  

By the time we got back to the bird park to pick up Wink, we were all exhausted.  We had a wonderful time and it was time well spent with the family.