Better Late Than Never! Sorry!

Hello! So sorry not to have posted anything sooner! My excuse? Hmmm....well I don't really have one, but beautiful weather and laziness account for most of my non-blogging. Anyway, I'm back, and will hopefully blog a few more times before I am once again on a non-intentional blogging hiatus. I often think of what I will write in my blogs, however, getting to my computer and actually typing seems to happen much less often.

So, what's been happening on this side of the ocean? Well, the French are, of course, obsessed with this Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair, aka l'affaire DSK. It's all over the news, but I try not to get too into it. Being in France, it is, however, good to at least stay moderately informed so as to not look like a total knowledge-lacking individual. Other than that, I have been taking advantage of many gorgeous days. Even on days like today that start off rainy seem to end in sun. It was raining when I left at lunch. Before I got home, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. I put off blogging for about two more hours to sunbathe on my little terrace. It's not much, but it gets the job done, especially since I have recently purchased a new beach chair. I read for hours in that thing. I believe that the front and back of me are two different shades. As I am only here for a month and a half this time, finding a job is very unlikely. I keep searching here and there for a little something, but in all reality, I am not likely to find much. Therefore, I have taken to just enjoying my free time. I am enjoying cooking in the evenings, walking around, reading, spending my weekends on mini-adventures with Olivier, and meeting a few new faces.

A few weeks ago I met a girl who went to high school in Cadillac named Sierra. She is a few years younger than me, but is very nice, smart, and also living in Nice (unfortunately only until the end of June). We were introduced by another Cadillacian (not a word, I know). Here we are getting a few drinks and getting to know each other. In fact, the band playing that night happened to be called Cadillac! So random!

Last week I ventured into Monaco to go see sweet baby Charlotte. She was the baby I watched for several weeks in February and March. She is getting so big! I was worried that she had forgotten me and would cry when I saw her. Nope :) She just smiled and wanted to be held by me. I just love her!

Last weekend Olivier and I drove to another town on the coast called Menton. It comes right before Italy. It was charming. On the way there we drove up in the twisty hills along the coast and decided to stop for a photo-op.

I am really looking forward to this weekend. We are going to London! I'll definitely have some photos to share from this upcoming excursion.

Recap of the last month from an airport in London

This blog is just a quick recap of what I've been doing since I last blogged. Sorry it's been so long! Olivier and I did get PACSed. We had our appointment on March 17 at 8:30 am, arrived at 8:20, and left by 8:35. Then we walked to the train station and headed into Monaco to go to work...very romantic. LOL. Here we are outside the public building right after our PACS.

I finished my babysitting job and spent a week and a half just hanging out while Olivier was at work. Then he went to Avignon for a week for work, so I decided to join him on a Wednesday night and spend the days exploring by myself. Avignon is a medieval walled city with its wall still intact. Here is Palais des Papes in Avignon. The papal seat was moved to Avignon, France for about 100 years in the 1300s, and this is the palace.

In France, Avignon is also known for it's bridge, which was long-ago destroyed and finally left as a ruin. However, tourists can still venture upon it. There is a children's song called "Sur le Pont d'Avignon," which means "On the Avignon Bridge." It actually called the Saint Benezet Bridge. The song is about people dancing on the bridge. However, it was originally called "Sous le Pont d'Avignon," meaning "Under the Avignon Bridge," as it was more likely that people actually danced under or beside the bridge.

One day in Avignon was plenty, so I decided to take the train to Arles the next day. Arles was a Roman town and has many ruins still maintained in the city center, surrounded by walls. Here is the Roman Arena. It is under construction, as they are trying to preserve it. It was actually a bit eery as I walked the shadowy halls, imagining what took place hundreds of years ago.

I really enjoyed Arles. Along the Rhone River, Van Gogh painted his famous "Starry Night Over the Rhone."

We drove home to Nice on Friday night, and headed to Paris on Saturday morning for the week. Olivier had to work there, so I decided to come along and enjoy the city. It was very nice to see friends and visit our favorite areas again. I had a pizza dinner with the family I lived with as an au pair last year.

I also did a few cultural things that I had been meaning to do for years, including visiting the Musee de l'Orangerie, which contains Monet's enormous and breathtaking water lily paintings.

I also went to the Catacombs. I dragged Olivier along because I was scared to go alone. The Catacombs is an underground cemetery created in the late 18th century to house the remains of about 6 million people. Paris had to find somewhere to put the remains from several cemeteries because of sanitary conditions and other reasons (I don't know the whole history), and decided to form this mass grave. It is really cool how they have arranged the bones. Most of what I saw were skulls and femurs, as the other smaller bones were piled behind. I'm glad I dragged Olivier along because I get freaked out in these kind of things when I'm by myself.

"Stop! Here is the Empire of Death" is written above the door that leads to the area where the bones start. Yikes!

We flew back to Nice on Saturday evening and spent a relaxing Sunday in Antibes with Olivier's family. Now I'm sitting in the airport in London waiting for my flight back to the states. See you soon!

Carnaval, Florence, and PACS, Oh my!

Things have been going well. Carnaval in Nice ended with some fantastic fireworks, I met a new friend, we spent last weekend in Florence, Italy, and we will be pacsed this Thursday.

As I've mentioned before, Carnaval is like Mardi Gras, but more family oriented. Nice has parades, activities, etc. for several weeks and then it ends with the burning of the king (not a real person, but a big man-made float thing) and fireworks over the water. Here are a few floats during a Carnaval parade.

Here are the king and queen at the end of Carnaval.

These fireworks were hands-down, the BEST fireworks I have ever seen. They must have cost Nice taxpayers a fortune! I watched the fireworks with my new friend, Asha. She is from Poland and has lived here for the last five years. She is the girlfriend of one of Olivier's close friends, and we met a few weekends ago. We are the same age and get along well. We can relate to each other, as we are both expats and share many similar experiences. I'm guessing we'll be spending quite a bit of time hanging out together. I have to give Olivier a Betsy-break every once in a while, after all. ;)

We will be pacsing this Thursday. Pacs is the French civil union. We decided to go away together for a weekend to celebrate our pacs. I called it a pacs-moon. I was thinking just a weekend in a small provincial French town. However, I randomly suggested Florence as it is only about a 4.5 hour drive from Nice. The next thing I knew, Olivier was checking out Florence hotels. That was Wednesday night. We left Friday night for Florence. It was a perfect weekend.

When we went to our hotel room, we were surprised to see that it had not been cleaned. We told the concierge, assuring him that it was no big deal...mistakes happen. He was very embarrassed and assured us that this does not happen in his hotel, and then upgraded us to a very nice, big room...with a jacuzzi tub! Not so bad. Here's Florence...

We spent all day Saturday being tourists. Luckily the weather cooperated, because it definitely did not on Sunday. We didn't have time for the museums, so we decided to save those for our next trip. Here is Olivier acting the part of a tourist.

If you ever go to Italy, you must eat gelato. It is delicious! It is basically delicious ice cream. I don't know the technical differences or anything like that.

It's Friday :)

I am so glad it's Friday! I did not have a stressful week or anything...I just really love these weekends where we hang out with no real plans. Last weekend led to a beautiful walk on Nice's promenade and a climb resulting in a gorgeous view of Nice. The weather was perfect...warm (60's) and sunny, and everyone was enjoying the day, especially since Carnaval is currently going on in Nice. Carnaval is basically Nice's version of Mardi Gras. It lasts for a few weeks with lots of events, parades, and fun. Kids are continuously walking by with painted faces. Anyway, I do not have a lot of news, but I did want to share my pictures from last Saturday.

Here we have the king and queen of festivities (I don't know this for sure...we just assumed).

And these are the view from above (plus a few of us).

Skiing in the Alps

A few weekends ago we went skiing in Auron, a small ski resort town in the lower Alps, just 1.5 hours from Nice by car. I was very excited to be doing some real mountain skiing, especially Alps skiing. Here we are, ready to go.

The mountains were gorgeous, of course. Unfortunately the snow was not so great. I actually could have used some powdery Michigan snow. It had not snowed in a long time, so the snow was very hard and pretty icy in many spots. I was enjoying it anyway.

The slopes were so long compared to what I am used to, which made it pretty fun. However, I had a slight problem. I love skiing and have been skiing a few times a year on average since 5th grade. I'm not great, but I enjoy it and am not afraid of the more challenging runs. I should have rented skis, but used those of a friend instead. They were way too long for me (the same length of Olivier's), they were the old style, and I just could not cut the snow well with them. Anyway, this inability to use my edges well was not helpful on a rather steep and icy slope. Unable to slow down and slipping every time I tried resulted in the biggest fall I've ever taken in my life while skiing. Somehow I ended up sliding face first on my stomach, skis above my head (no they didn't even fall off!) for a very long time. I could not stop because it was too icy. Finally it flattened out enough for me to slow myself down and finally stop. Luckily Olivier stopped when he heard me yelling as I slid down the hill and was able to help me. It took a few minutes to get back on my feet, but finally, I was up. Other skiiers stopped and found my hat for me, which I lost a few yards back. Needless to say, I was all of a sudden quite afraid to continue. Beind halfway through the run, however, I had to finish it off. I skied back and forth, falling often from trying to slow myself down. I was so angry with myself for all of a sudden being so afraid and I couldn't understand why I seemed to have no control over myself. After my fall I was slipping all over the place. After another run or two I suggested we stop for lunch. I really just wanted to get the heck off of my skis for a while. We stopped and ate as I clumsily cut my pizza (it was not the kind that was easily eaten with hands) because of an injured thumb. As we were gearing up to get back to the slopes I thought I should tighten my boots because they felt pretty loose. Somehow (during the fall I'm guessing), they had both come undone. No wonder I had no control! They were the kind that close from the back with one clicky thing. I have no idea how it happened, but they somehow detached. The difference after that was remarkable. Duh! Finally I could control myself. I was still a little shaky from my fall and very sore, but I tried to enjoy the rest of the day, while avoiding the steepest slopes, of course.

I was glad to leave by the end of the day, but I am anxious to get back out there (with rented skis) and actually enjoy skiing a little more. I was just so sore and anxious after my fall that I wasn't really having fun. If the weather cooperates, we'll be going again this weekend. I'm hoping for better luck! I guess I can be glad that I was not badly injured, just lots of bruises and a sprained thumb.

Walks in Beausoleil

I just thought I would post a few pictures that I have taken during my many walks with Baby Charlotte. Walks keep her happy, which means that we take a lot of them! We tend to stay in Beausoleil, France, but sometimes when we are feeling adventurous, we take LOTS of steps down to Monaco.

The first is picture taken from the balcony of the family's home in Beausoleil. In the background, you can see part of Italy sticking out into the Mediterranean.

We see lots of olive trees...

These reminded me of little trumpets emerging from the stone wall.

Unfortunately we've been stuck inside most of this week because of the rain. I guess it had to happen sometime. Before this week, it only rained once since I arrived.