Villeneuve-Loubet: lure of la fête de la truffe

What better way to get to know the region than follow its food festivals, I thought. So here we are on our first relatively calm weekend, the snowy Sunday morning turned into a crystal clear January day, and we have Nice Matin weekend excursion suggestions to guide us.

So here I'm thinking - the birthplace of Escoffier hosting a truffle festival. What could be more enticing? How wrong we were. The festival was a little gathering of few stands, one surrounded by way too many people trying to view the truffles. No tasty morsels being passed around, no Escoffier inspired restaurants celebrating the truffle season. Just few stands - a man not even trying to pawn his baskets, the socca lady (who proved very popular with Rio), and few others selling the usual selection of cheese, honey and olive oils.

So we decided to hike through the old town and see the 19th century chateau with its grand gardens. The gates were padlocked. I guess this is not the visiting season.

Rio and Ila kept busy playing a pebble game close to the local cemetary, where the Escoffier family rests in peace. And Kai and I got to enjoy a nice view of snowy Alps.


Rio in front of Escoffier's family home, now a culinary museum.

Nice Port for the little boats

Even though some of these yachts are half the size of 5 story buildings, the Nice Port is considered too small and shallow for the big yachts, which end up in either Antibes or Monte Carlo. But lately there's been rumblings at the Nice Marie's office to deepen the harbor and therefore attract more "boats of value"...Personally I'd rather stick with the smaller ones- let the Georgetown CI monsters sit in overdeveloped Monaco.

And what's the deal with one of the mega yachts being from Praha. Had no idea one could sail all the way from Praha to Nice. Huh?

It's also almost hard to believe that one of the boats that we can see from our window, QM OF LONDON, charters for 165,000 a week (that's Euros, not US$).

Another overcast day here, yet all of us managed to get a sunburn from sitting outside for an hour. Time to buy more sunscreen (as the 10 bottles of sunscreen that we do own are sitting somewhere in storage).

What will it take to find a place to live in Nice?

So far we've called agencies...and got told it's easier to buy then to rent here (oh, unless you're French, I guess), hired a certified translator to prepare a full French dossier, engaged a relocation expert, verified with our French bank that they will guarantee the lease, got rejected from one place because Kai doesn't have a French employment contract (so called CDI - contrat à durée indéterminée, which somehow guarantees that the CDI holder will not EVER be unemployed), seen a bunch of questionable apartments, got stood up twice in Cimiez by two different agents, get to practice our French with lots and lots of agencies every day.

Going to see the place above tomorrow. Wish us luck!

First Skiing Weekend

And this is how we feel...more coming later.

How to get to the Alps for 1Euro per head

I think this is the first time in my life where public transportation is of good quality and has been going down in price over the years. How does one explain that about two years ago the local government decided to lower public transportation cost to 1 Euro from 1.30 Euro. And I'm not even talking about taking the local tram. One can hop on a 2 hour bus ride - with reservations- to the local ski resorts for just 1 Euro. Hmmm, kind of makes sense to leave the car at home.

Anyway, we're off to the mountains this weekend!

Here's how to reserve a ski bus to Auron, Isola or Valberg, if you're in the area:

NICE, Auron, Isola 2000, Valberg en bus, réservation obligatoire

L’accès au haut pays de Nice et aux stations du Mercantour, Auron, Isola 2000 et Valberg en bus, se fera obligatoirement sur réservation téléphonique au numéro vert 0 800 06 01 06 à partir du lundi 21 décembre 2009 (*), afin de faciliter les déplacements et d’assurer une meilleure qualité de transport. Trois lignes du réseau départemental sont concernées par ce dispositif : Ligne 740 Nice – Auron Ligne 750 Nice – Isola 2000 Ligne 770 Nice – Valberg Aucune prise en charge ne sera acceptée sans réservation. L’achat du ticket ne remplace pas la réservation et ne garantit pas une place dans le car. Pour une meilleure gestion, les voyageurs doivent arriver 20 minutes avant le départ. Attention : ne pas oublier de réserver son retour et d’annuler en cas d’impossibilité (la veille avant 12 heures). Réseau départemental : Accès aux stations de ski d’Auron, Isola 2000 et Valberg en bus, Réservation obligatoire au 0 800 06 01 06 du lundi au samedi de 8 heures à 20 heures, au plus tard la veille du départ avant 12 heures (**).

Strike Watch: Strike #1 (Schools are Closed)

Social : enseignants en grève et manifestation ce matin à Nice

Les Alpes-Maritimes, à l'instar de la Lozère ou des Pyrénées-Atlantique, devraient être l'un des départements où la mobilisation des enseignants est la plus forte aujourd'hui jeudi, dans le mouvement de grève national qui touche les écoles primaires. Le syndicat SNUipp-FSU a estimé à plus de 60% le nombre d'enseignants grévistes dans le département. Des pourcentages que le gouvernement situent très en retrait de son côté (entre 25 et 30%). Dans le cadre de ce mouvement national d'autre part, une manifestation a lieu ce matin suite à l'appel lancé par la CGT et de la FSU avec rassemblement place Garibaldi à Nice à 10 heures. Les syndicats de la Fonction publique, les enseignants, la Poste et les hospitaliers devraient ainsi se retrouver ce matin côte à côte dans la rue. Dans un communiqué la CGT et la FSU des Alpes-Maritimes explique ainsi les raisons de cette mobilisation : "Le Gouvernement, par la voie du Président de la République, revendique clairement la suppression de 100 000 emplois dans la Fonction publique d‘Etat depuis 2007. Cette politique est aggravée par les attaques contre leur statut, l’individualisation des rémunérations et la mise en concurrence des agents, avec des conséquences néfastes pour les usagers. L’Education nationale, déjà mise à mal par une saignée sans précédent de ses effectifs, l’Enseignement Supérieur et la Recherche, sont frappés de plein fouet par des réformes plus régressives les unes que les autres. L’hôpital public, asphyxié par une pénurie gravissime d’emplois et une recherche de rentabilité à tous crins, est en danger. Le Gouvernement fait pression sur les collectivités territoriales pour qu’elles appliquent scrupuleusement le même dynamitage de la fonction publique. De plus, le projet de loi sur les collectivités territoriales constitue un recul démocratique important" estiment les deux syndicats. Unfortunately didn't have my camera today with me to record our first strike demonstration at our local Place Garibaldi. But I thought it would be funny to start keeping track of local strikes anyway. I will never forget how we came across a fierce demonstration over something in Paris and Rio learned the word "strike". Today she remembered it as that thing that people do in France. Anyway, today all public schools were closed. And the parents took a day off to watch their kids. Felt like a Saturday in the city with all families sitting out in cafes supporting the demonstrators. Addendum. Apparently this is Strike #2 since we've moved here two weeks ago. Kai's flight to NYC was delayed at the Nice Airport due to a strike. We still have public transportation, garbage removals, post office, gas, electricity, more schools, police, hospital strikes left to look forward to. Yet things still function pretty well around here. Odd. Or maybe not so odd.

Sunshine is back!

So we celebrated with a noisette at La Lido Plage cafe.

A spray of sunshine: Nice Mimosa

The mimosa flowering season is almost upon us and the markets are flooded with huge mimosa bouquets. Nice also has quite a few mimosa trees, so soon enough the city will be covered in yellow flowers. On another gloomy day here, it's nice to have a splash of color.

The Other Market: through Rio's lens

The true Nicoise reserve their market shopping to the dirt cheap & well spread-out Marché de la Libération, which is now conveniently located at the Liberation tram stop. Unlike Cours de Selaya there's no tourist in sight. And one can find a more authentic spread of vegetables, fruit, fish and boucheries. Prices are also really reasonable - so much that it doesn't make much sense to shop anywhere else. Dorade at 7E per kilo, 2 romanesco heads from the organic stand for 3E, freshly picked Menton lemons - 3E per kilo.

There's also a lot of nice looking little restaurants. Who knows, maybe the food is reasonable - which hasn't been the case in Nice so far.

And to top it all of there is a really nice playground with a paddling fountain right across from Chemins de Fer de la Provence train station, which was a winner in Rio's book.

What's for dinner...

What on earth do you do with the head? Feel bad to decapitate the chicken.

Purchased at the most popular Nice boucherie in the old town (I think mainly because it's high volume, cheap prices), Boucherie Saint-François

Brocante déballage Place GARIBALDI

With Kai gone to New York we've kept busy with visiting the monthly Place Garibaldi brocante. It was "pas mal", although I already found an amazing caverne of antiques for half the price, if not better. And with a much more interesting selection.

We check our flea market schedules for this region here:

http://vide-greniers.org/agendaDepartement.php?departement=06



Another gloomy day spent on the beach playing with pebbles. Not that either Rio or Ila mind the cold tempratures. This is their favorite playground.

Sunday Walk

Amidst stormy clouds and chilly wind we took a walk to the playground at the Chateau ruins.


Nice from above, overlooking old town.

Cannes Plage du Midi

While some villages in Provence are buried in snow and without electricity for three days, people in Cannes are busy surfing. We are apparently in the tiny little pocket of borderline warmth in Europe.

Bonjour Nice - view from our window

We've left London just as all the outgoing flights started to get cancelled due to approaching snow. Nice welcomed us with bright blue skies, azure Mediterranean and people lounging outside in cafes. That didn't last long. Before we knew it dark clouds descended upon us and it's been pouring since last night. But it was still nice to wake up, run downstairs to our little bakery and buy amazing baguettes ancienne and croissants.

For the past two days we've been exploring Nice and its neighbors (Villefranche sur Mer and Cannes). It's quite a project deciding where to live, but there are few promising neighborhoods. We will see.