Nice is nice!

After the flower market, we walked back to our hotel. It wasn't too close by, but any walk through old Nice is lovely. Here are some shots along the way:


Lots and lots of mopeds in the south of France!


Click on this to check out the sign in the back window! That made me chuckle.


I could have grabbed a book and sat in front of one of Nice's fountains all day!






There are several (seven, I think) of these statues on poles around the square. They light up at night (but I don't have a shot of that--sorry!).




These guys were kind of part Native American, part Yanni on the pan flute. Whatever they were going for, they made a pleasant sound that carried a long way in the stone-covered squares.






Those tracks (you can see them in one of the above shots, too) are for a light rail system that runs through the area. Like much of Europe, the transport options are far better than ours!


I think you could walk along these streets, eat at a different place every day and never run out!


Check out the coloring on that building on the left!

Next up: Lyon!

We interrupt our France trip (yes, again)...

We'll get back to France. But first, a few local photos. Why local photos? Because we just got a new camera. No, not a new SLR. Instead, it's time for a new "point & shoot" camera. I did a lot of research, shared what I learned with Marc, and we chose the Canon PowerShot S95...



We got the camera yesterday, and then we went to Huntington to get haircuts, followed by lunch. We grabbed lunch at a Greek restaurant, and it was great. More importantly, the light in the restaurant was pretty crappy for photos, so it gave us a good chance to see how the new camera really performs.


The restaurant


My date


He got the camera away from me


I got a hummus appetizer--forgot to take a shot before most was gone!




Silly Marc got a salad! :-)

Marc got chicken souvlaki for his entree, and I got a beef gyro. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures before it was too late...



For dessert, health food! (Well, chocolate's good for you!)





Check out the color in that last shot (click on it for a better view; and even that is a reduced size, as full-size is quite large, the camera being 10 megapixel). If you're into photography, you know how difficult lighting is in a setting like this. Harsh overhead fluorescents, the lights in the case... nothing here says "good photo," but it looks great! So far, I'm very pleased with this camera. No camera like this can be like an SLR, but it really does a great job and will be great for those times when we want to be able to take some photos but don't want to lug a big, heavy SLR.

Back to France

I'm such a bad blogger these days. But I love my blog. So let's get back to the flower market in Nice!


I look at this and imagine living there and doing my food shopping in this market.


Yummy tomatoes!


Check out these beautiful avocados!





Just looking at these makes my mouth water!


The famous Socca stand

Famous? Well, so it seems. Every travel show we watched while preparing for the trip showed this stand.



So how was it? Dunno. We didn't have any. Maybe another time. :)

Okay, one more non-France post

I'm watching SyFy (although I still don't know what was wrong with calling the channel Sci-Fi). There's a Star Trek movie on; granted, the crappy first one, but it's nice background while I do other things around the house. By the way, did you know that the woman who played Lt. Ilia (the bald hottie--for you pervy boys who like girls--in the movie) died in the late 1990s at the ripe old age of 47? Sad. Way too young to die!

But this isn't supposed to be a sad post. This post is about a commercial that has been running during breaks in the movie. It's for a show on SyFy called Merlin. More specifically, the post is about the guy who plays Arthur, because he is what got my attention. He's a British actor named Bradley James, and any time you want to get a present for Marc and me, feel free to tie a bow around this young man (or some part of him) and leave him here at the house, preferably in the bedroom, although "in front of the fireplace" wouldn't be a bad location either...






With his boyfriend? Okay, maybe not.

Some snowstorm photos

I'm taking a break from the France photos to share a few shots I took after one of our recent snowstorms. For this late January storm, I got up early and was out with the snowblower a little after 6am. I cleared our walks and the walks of our neighbors on either side. I also started our cars, so they'd warm up and the windows would be easier to clear. Then I went back in and got the camera as Marc came out to clear the piles of snow off of the cars. Here are a few of the photos I shot:


You can see how deep the snow had gotten


Here, you can see my path continued out to the corner--and I also went up to the steps of the neighbor's house


And off towards the neighbor on the other side





And my favorite photo is the last one. Not because it's Marc cleaning off the cars, but because of the mood and lighting...


I really think this one's worth clicking on!

Okay, back to the nice, warm south of France for the next post! :)

A good book

Okay, I'll admit that I was leaning more towards 4 stars instead of 5, but it is a very good book. I went with 5 after thinking about this book as compared to others of this genre. (Okay, plus I know Alex and helped edit the final version of the book. There, I admitted it!) :-)

The Secret Soldier by Alex Berenson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Alex Berenson keeps getting better as an author (and I already liked his work)! In a genre not known for its subtlety, Alex Berenson brings us an introspective but still very tough leading man, a tough-as-nails hero who can see his own flaws. There's nuance and subtlety in his story, and that's what makes this book special. It's not the simplistic good guy-bad guy story that usually dominates this genre; instead, we feel the complexity of the real world and the difficulty of truly deadly situations. The good guys don't always come out on top, and the heroes aren't perfect, but there's plenty to cheer for in this terrific book!



View all my reviews

The Sunday Flower Market in Nice

One of the delights of our stay in Nice was the Sunday Flower Market. It was half a mile or so from our hotel to the flower market, so we set out by foot, determined to visit the market before leaving for our next stop (Lyon) which was scheduled for that day. Had I planned around the flower market, I might have made the Nice-Lyon trip a day later.

Anyhow, in a trip that I've already milked for months of blog posts, I'll be splitting up the photos from this one market into at least two, so this post isn't too long.

I could add comments to these photos, but I think most of them speak for themselves. The one thing you may not get is how big this market is. It's huge, running for blocks, and it's wonderful. Anyhow, let's take a look at some photos.





















Before we went to the flower market, we'd already decided that we loved Nice. This market just cemented that feeling. We've since discussed the idea of someday renting an apartment in town for a month (this would be well in the future when we can take such amounts of time), and it really is such a nice thought. Sometimes I imagine how great it would be, taking day trips from Nice and making meals from items we bought at the Sunday market. One day!

Nice, France

I was going to title this "Nice is nice" which it is, but I typed it and even I found that to be a groaner. :) Still, Nice was a lovely town, and I know we'll go back there. In fact, we've talked about renting an apartment for a month at some point in the future. That may be a pipe dream--certainly it won't happen while we're in the middle of our careers, since no one's going to give us a month off--but it's a nice thought.

In an upcoming post, I'll share photos of some of the older parts of town and the flower market, which really is terrific. For now, I want to show you our hotel and a stop we made during our side trip to Monaco. From our little bed & breakfast in Aix (where we met the lovely Espelette, introduced to you a few posts back), we changed gears and checked into a very fancy hotel in Nice.

The main drag in Nice is the Promenade des Anglais, and our hotel was right on the Promenade, facing the beach. It was quite a sight, particularly once the sun went down. Hotels are usually just a place to rest, but this one needs a place in the trip photos:



The hotel building is in the shape of a horseshoe going back from that columned facade. The space between the columns is open, so we had a view from our room right out onto the promenade and the beach...



I understand that there are large shutters that can be lowered between the columns, in case a storm comes up. While we were there, they stayed up, but each room had a powered shutter that dropped down to lock out any noise, so the room became dark and quiet when we wanted to sleep. The rest of the time, we could open the glass doors and go out onto the balcony.

That area down there (in the above photo) contained a pool, as well as an outdoor dining area. It was very nice.

At night, the sidewalks were alive, thanks partly to the casino downstairs...



From Nice, we drove east for a trip to Monaco, driving through the famous city of Monte Carlo. Along the way, we drove along the legendary Grand Corniche. During our drive, we stopped for lunch at a little local restaurant and ate at an outdoor table with a lovely view...



Here's the appetizer...



And the entrée (which isn't the right word in France, as the entrée isn't the main dish there)...



And finally dessert...



Everything was as tasty as it looks! Truly, a wonderful meal in a stunning setting!

I know it's winter, but this is ridiculous

The weather forecast says tonight's low temperature will be 2 degrees Fahrenheit. That's horrible. And dangerous for anyone caught out in it.

Last night, when I put the dogs out, it was 11 degrees, and even that was too cold for them. We went out when I got home from dinner with friends, and one of Bernice's back legs cramped up so severely that she did a 3-legged hop back in. I massaged it for her as soon as we got inside, and she was okay.

Later, when we did our last outing of the night, Dodger went to the back of the yard to do his business, but when he was done, he stopped partway back and was panicked. He was holding up one front paw, trying to put it down repeatedly and looking at me to clearly convey that touching the ground was painful (and he was scared and confused, which is something no doggy ever should have to endure!). I felt so horrible and was somewhat panicked for him. So I ran across the yard, scooped him up in my arms and carried him back in. Then when we got inside, I told him it was okay (and it was--he seems none the worse for wear). I felt so bad for him! He really didn't expect what was out there or know what to do.

Anyhow, I'm being extra careful with them tonight, and I shared what happened with Marc (he was out of town for a few days and is back now), so he'll watch them, too.

The first day of the rest of my career

Today was a big day for me. My job had lost some of its luster in the past couple of years. I won't air dirty laundry, but I wasn't happy with how my skills were being utilized (or, in some cases, weren't being utilized). There's far more I can say, but there's no point in that. The bottom line is that I really wasn't happy. The important part is that this story has a happy ending!

A job came open in one of the other hospitals in our network. Their recruitment process took a few months, but it's a high-level position, so that's to be expected (not that it reduced the stress I was feeling). In the end, I got the position and today was my first day. (Well, I had a couple of split weeks between the old and new during a transition period, but this was the first regular, full-time day there.)

The new place is a good hospital with very friendly people who are happy to have me there. Plus, the new job is a promotion. So it's all good. Can't wait to really make a positive difference there!