Living in Nice Included a Visit to a Courtroom!

Well, remember that I had said when I was here, I wanted to live here. After Joan left, I did the usual-wash, grocery store! Walking has become my exercise of choice to date. Unfortunately I just learned that the pool (just around the corner in the Old Town) I had planned to use is unheated, so I need to see if there is a heated one anywhere! That is too bad, as it is !
Earlier I had mentioned Caroline, whom I met through Regine. She lives just across the park, so we are "neighbors"! On Wednesday nights she takes an English class, and she asked me to meet her and some of her classmates in Place Garibaldi, where they were meeting for a glass of wine. So at 7:30 I met for a glass wine at Pepino's. There were only seven of us to include Richard, the teacher who is from the UK. Most are French, except Renarde, a woman from Austria and a young man from Iran.
Previously I had shared how I had wrecked my Capri pants...so I have been on a search for dye "tincture" to see if I could make them look any better. Highly unlikely I figured! I finally found a big huge Carrefour about 15 minutes away which did have dye! I also wanted to dye white v-neck sweater. (Limited as my wardrobe is, it was not going to have to endure a white (!) sweater through the winter!) Mission accomplished! I have gotten many compliments on my "new" sweater!

Thursday night Meetups had a Halloween party in the Old Town. Caroline came for healthy dinner of veggie soup and salad! The party was fun, but, the music was deafening! There was a couple (Nonie and Ed) who had retired to Scottsdale 15 years ago, who had lived in Lexington for 30 years before that! She had fallen on the plane when they came to France 4 months ago, and her foot was still bad, so she just sat and we chatted. (She did say several times she needed to lose 100 pounds.) She said, "Would it be rude if I asked them to turn the music down?" It was FINE with me! She did ask, but it never seemed any softer!
Last Saturday a hike in Puget-Theniers, a very scenic, 1.5 hour bus ride north of Nice was scheduled. I met the other four hikers (two Brits and three Americans) at the bus at 9:30.   http://www.frenchriviera-mountain.com/VALLEYS-VILLAGES-RESORTS/puget-theniers-puget-theniers-N4fiche_VEVPAC0060000118-rub_81.html

When we got off-and had coffee-we tried to figure out the directions. Well, really, they tried...I would just go along. How many cooks did we need? The directions-NOT too clear-sent us up behind the church and the cemetery. Well, that was perfect timing, as it was the day after All Saints' Day,

when everything was closed, and most people would have visited graves of family members and left pots and pots and pots of chrysanthemums. Eventually three of us were on a trail; Mary and Whit were still wandering about the cemetery. We later learned that Mary is very knowledgeable about plants, so they spent time looking at the plants which were NOT mums! Linda, Andy, and I got to a point and turned around. The path that we were on was narrow and looked to be heading up a pretty steep incline. PLUS we didn't want to miss the bus and spend the night in Puget-Theniers! It was fun and a lovely day with definite signs of fall coming to France! On the bus ride up I had noticed some very interesting rock formations,

and I wanted to try to get some pictures on the way home. They looked striated; apparently I learned later that there is alot of limestone. Pictures aren't too good from a moving bus....
Thanks to Facebook, I met a friend of Joan McKniff's (Snagglepuss' next of kin!). Michael Honneger had posted some pictures on Facebook of the newly completed Promenade, so I learned that he and his partner had just moved to Nice after eight years in Paris. http://www.michaelhoneggerphotos.com/  Saturday night we were to meet for a drink at Place Garibaldi at 7:30 and then go someplace for dinner. Unfortunately Tim was sick, but Mike came; we had a glass of wine, then decided on Le Local, great Italian food!

There are so many restaurant choices here! We exchanged notes, as they arrived the day after me. They are renovating a flat with a placard saying Nietzche had lived there from He had learned some about Meetups, but I did tell him about the Sunday morning coffee meetups. It was a very delightful evening!
Sunday was VERY busy. It started with the Meetup coffee. Michael was there, and Ian was there from South Africa/UK. Then Caroline came along; they were all there for the first time. Afterwards Michael had agreed to show me his new flat; Ian and Caroline came along too. This will be wonderful when it is completed; some of the rooms overlook the port. It has painted fresco ceilings on two of the three sections in the large room which we entered. Ultimately this will be open floor plan with kitchen/living room/dining room. There is a plaque on the outside that Nietzche had lived there; I will need to go back to get the EXACT dates (late 1800's)!! Now it was time for lunch; Michael knew a restaurant around the corner which had good "moules and frites"/ mussels and fries, so we had a very nice lunch before we went off in our separate directions. I listened to part of the concert in the bandstand with same band which played last week in the park. I was, however, sad to see that the huge wooden whale in the park was closed, and learned that there had been an accident. Hopefully it will be re-opened; it had been mobbed with kids and parents....
Monday I was supposed to go for another hike up to Ezes with Andy, but it had started to rain just as we were to meet. However, Caroline, a German teacher, called minutes before I was to meet Andy to say that she was going to a hearing for a family whose city housing was been challenged. They ask teachers to go to be in the courtroom to show support for the family. She said it was an interesting building, and asked me if I wanted to go! Of course! Both Andy and I followed her to the Tribunal Administration Building.

Well, of course, there was not much I understood! It maybe lasted thirty minutes with the judgment to be returned at a later date-even Caroline was confused! The young Chechnyian couple has four children (one handicapped) and speak no French. Their sneaker-wearing attorney introduced himself to us beforehand in his robes; afterwards, he quickly took off the robe to show his jeans and Izod jersey. EAch side presented their case; apparently the prosecution had not followed the date guidelines they had been given
It was a spectacular building, overlooking the sea! The President (judge) wore business attire; when he came in and started talking, his wide Cheshire grin took over his face. Unfortunately my camera could not really capture his eyes!

From window in courtroom

I was not supposed to take his picture, but I took this at the end with no repercussions. (One is poor, and the other is worse, but his was such a very expressive face!) It was a great opportunity to witness the French judicial system! Thanks, Caroline for thinking of asking me!
Last night I saw a movie in France for the first time, as Caroline and I went to see "Blue Jasmine" in English with French sub-titles. Afterwards we had a filling risotto dinner (followed by lemon meringue tart) at Scuderia, a block back from Promenade des Anglais.
This morning I met Mary, whom I had met on the hike last Saturday.

She has lived her for six years. She lives about five minutes away around the corner and is a fund of information! After we had coffee, we walked around, and she showed me some of the shops-butcher, florist, hairdresser-she uses. VERY helpful!!
Now I am looking forward to having my friend Marcia come for a visit, as she arrives tomorrow morning!
Thank you again for traveling with me. I am so happy to have you all along-even if you are not here in person, except when we Skype!! Feel free to comment too....