After experience over the years I’ve finally come to the following conclusion and now rule which is gong to save me and my immediate surroundings some saliva: do not have a conversation involving decision making or schedule planning or anything serious if Stephanie is trying to go to sleep or is not fed. Especially when not fed…. you may encounter the grumpy version of her. But she gets over it pretty easily with lots of hugs and food.  Pheeww! Glad I figured that one out at almost 30! 

Hi Internets, I’ve missed you in the past uh… long time, but blogging has not been my priority lately. However, chillin’ has been!! Tonight, I’ve done enough chillin’ so I decided to post the first of a series of photo slide shows from our trip to France this past month.

This one is mostly focused on Nice (pronounced “Nis” or something like that), its beach, its tiny streets in the old part of town, some fried and non-fried zucchini flower, Socca and more.

Makes me feel like I’m still there!

Eze is a little village between Monaco and Nice, resting high up on a cliff and referred to as the eagle’s nest of the Cote d’Azur. This village has been one of my favorites of the area and I’m always happy to go back. Characteristics I like most are the steep and tiny (emphasis on *tiny*) little car-less streets, the old stones (10-17th century) and the breath-taking birds eye view of the sea coast it offers.

A typical “ruelle” d’Eze.

This time we hiked the Nietzsche trail from Eze Bord de Mer to Eze-village which is a very steep ascension to the village on very old, and therefore very slippery-when-wet, stones and stairs. It was raining most of our way, so we had to be extra careful not to misplace a step.

Justin enjoying the exploration.

Once we reached Eze-village, we were starving and sat on one of the old steps, sheltered from the rain and ate our picnic lunch, watching tourists enter and exit the pedestrian part of the old town.

Once our bellies were full of fresh quiche and pistachios, we started wandering about the inclined and interweaving “ruelles” of Eze. Lots of little shops and art galleries punctuate the walk. We even paid the too-expensive-in-my-opinion 5 Euros to visit the exotic garden and have access to the very top of the village where lies the last bits of the Castle’s ruins (destroyed on Louis XIV’s demand during the war of the Spanish Succession).

A rather green ruelle with doors to people’s homes.

On our way out of the village, I pointed out a little olive wood carver shop I wanted to check out because it’s so typical of this region’s artisan products. There were mostly sculptures and kitchen related artifacts. I spotted cornichon tongs just like we had when I was a kid. The owner then started having fun pointing at things in his shop asking (mainly) Justin what these things were for. Justin got them all right and in French! Go Justin!

There began an unexpectedly long but fascinating conversation with the owner of the shop. He was so eager to talk to us and share his knowledge about the village and the culture. He explained to us that he was one of the last 18 residents of Eze. 5 of which have lived there for generations and the rest are foreigners who bought the little village houses as the elders were disappearing. Most of the village is completely dead during the winter time and wakes up during the summer months for the tourists.

Me, LOVING the old stones.

He also told us about h is childhood. At home he used to speak the “Nicois” language, but it was forbidden at school. Nowadays, the Nicois is being re-introduced in the schools as a second language to keep it from dying in the next few years. He misses talking with the old folks in that language and listen to their stories and wisdom. He said that back in the day, on warm evenings, all the old men were just sitting on their door steps and talked for hours. As soon as television came in the picture, the casual evening conversations thinned away.

The lovely entrance of a house.

He also talked about the weather. In early June, it’s not supposed to rain. It never used to rain. Now, the real summer is only 2 months, instead of 3 or 4. He is witnessing the climate change. In the old days, the peasants were able to predict 4 or 5 days worth of weather forecast just by smelling the air, looking at the clouds’ shape and color at dusk or by what happened the last few days. Now, it’s impossible to predict anything.

We then started to talk about pollution, gas prices, new found energy, internet, politics (both American and French), recycling techniques … All very interesting, but we realized that it was getting somewhat late and we had to hike back down to our car, which would take us close to an hour. After saying goodbye multiple times, we descended the very steep, wet and slippery path back to our car.

The view from the very top looking towards Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

I felt completely enriched by that conversation. Oh and of course, I got that cornichon tong as a wonderful souvenir!

First, prep the hoop.

Second, prep the beer.

Third, keep the hoop goin’ while drinkin’ the beer.

Now that’s skill!

(photos from Mickie Tagle)

The Selk’bag is like a bodysuit sleeping bag that keeps you warm and mobile! How cool is that?!

According to summithut.com, the warmest version goes for $199, which I thought was pretty reasonable if it performs the way they say it does.

Things I’m wondering about tho:

– If it’s like toe socks, it won’t actually keep you any warmer because parts of your body generate heat when in contact with other parts of your body. Here, it wouldn’t be the case, so would you actually be warm?

– Can a girl pee behind a bush while wearing the suit?

Last night we went to see the French rising pop star YELLE in concert at the Independant in San Francisco.

It was so much fun! It was actually a pretty big deal because her fame ranking in France is reaching pretty impressive heights and she’s broadcast on my favorite French radio, Fun Radio, that I listen to all day.

YELLE was fun, she was cute, she was full of energy! I didn’t like all of her songs but just watching her throw her head around and make cute faces was highly entertaining. And of course I’m a big fan of her song “Je veux te voir” which seemed to be a huge hit in the audience as well, although I’m not sure more than a tenth of the bouncy people understood the very crude and quite controversial lyrics of this song. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. It was cool to see a French artist be so welcome in a foreign audience.

Yey French Pop!