Winding Down in Nice...

Family time

Sunday January 19th

It was the fourth day of SERIOUS rain! I know, I know, and IF it had been snow, we would be buried....But after the Meetup coffee, I wanted to go walk along the Promenade des Etats Unis. What a huge difference from so many previous Sundays!

And with all the news about Hollande's latest escapades, I found this interesting.

At 3:30 I ambled over to the church in the Port for their weekly hour-long concert, which was delightful as ever-especially with the gloomy weather.

Really enjoyed watching the kettle drum player..

That night I had dinner with Mike and Tim. Mike made a delicious Thai dish with lots of veggies and duck.

L to R: Mike the Chef, and Tim, the sommelier

It was a perfect day to end a rainy day in Nice, as I watch the calendar gallop towards January 31st, when I am off to Collioure and more adventures!

Thanks for coming along!!!!

...and I Discovered the William Morris Gallery Before I left London!!

I had seen the signs for the William Morris Gallery by the underground stop, so I finally found it  on-line. So Saturday morning, I dashed over to visit! He had lived there as a boy. I really knew  nothing about him beside the famous Morris chair and wallpaper designs. I had no idea that he had become a Socialist, as he had grown up in a very comfortable family, although his father died when he was young. Another delightful find in my wanderings!!

The Morris Chair!!

Rear view of same chair

Warning to passengers to cross onto the platform from train or tube car!

Five Days in the UK

Tuesday January 7, 2014

Welcome to the City of Cambridge,UK!

Since I have visited Cambridge, Massachusetts, MANY times, I luckily decided to visit the other Cambridge. I say luckily, because I was invited to couch surf with Clare Harriette and her delightfully interesting 5 year old Arthur. Her couch surfing profile says she is a fashion designer and mom. Well, she is a very talented seamstress! These pictures show the tuxedo jacket she designed and made for herself for New Year's Eve in TWO HOURS!! As one who used to sew, I have an idea of what this project would entail!

Wednesday January 8, 2014

While I was fully prepared for cold and rainy weather, it promised to be a lovely day in Cambridge, as Clare Harriette and I walked Arthur to the Park School Church of England Primary School along the very swollen River Cam.

Our first stop was coffee at Bill’s where I succumbed to an English breakfast of eggs Benedict. We wandered through this charming old city filled with wonderful architecture and Cambridge University consisting of various colleges and more than 400 churches and chapels. Clare Harriette’s favorite is the King’s College Chapel, which we toured.

Then we walked over to the famous Fitzwilliam Museum, where we had a tasty lunch of leek and potato soup with egg mayonnaise rolls. We wandered through this very pleasant museum filled with a John Braxton show, pottery, wide variety of paintings from Monet, Matisse, Modigliano, to some Italian Renaissance paintings. They have very cleverly built a very small display around the periphery of one gallery (pictures). I had never seen something like this before. She especially enjoys the small fan collection where each fan tells its own story. 

Signs warn you not to bang the paintings!

The athletic shoes...going down!!

The athletic shoes...going down!!

We picked up Arthur at school, stopped at his grandfather's

house, where Clare Harriette put together a delicious dinner of ham, risotto, and veggies. By about 9 PM, six of her friends had come by her house, as she had organized a sewing or knitting (or whatever you want to do) circle! One woman was crocheting; one was making drapes!

Thursday January 9^th

Clare Harriette’s friend Jason had offered to drive us to London along with her father-in-law to see Paul Klee’s show at the Tate Modern. But I was to meet Kathleen and Phil at 12:30 at Waterloo Station, so I had to meet them instead. Luckily they also wanted to go to the Tate Modern, so we had delightful walk along the Thames. They are members, so first we went to the 5th floor for lunch with a spectacular view!

We went to the Klee exhibit, and, while I really liked his use of color, his pictures for the most part did not appeal to me because they are quite abstract.  It was interesting that he had worked with Walter Gropius who came to the US and has built a home in the Bauhaus style in Lincoln, the next town to Weston, which is open to the public. I did see someone taking pictures, so I thought it was allowed, until I was told differently!! I had already taken these.

"Threatening Storm"

Then we saw the Mira Schendel show http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/mira-schendel This ranged from abstract paintings to 3D works which really looked like clear or plastic thread hanging from the ceiling in an area roughly 8' X 8'-maybe bigger.

Friday January 10th

Today I went to meet my friend Anne's cousin Wendy whom I had not since for eight years. We met at the Victoria and Albert Museum which I had never visited. But while I waited for her, I enjoyed this interesting garden in the courtyard.

It was done by Xu Bing and based on a 421 Chinese fable called Peach Blossom Spring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peach_Blossom_Spring. He gathered rocks from five places in China. It was very special!! And I have not even read the fable!

After a nice lunch (LOVE eating lunch at museums!) and lots of catching up, we went to see the "Club to Catwalk:London Fashion in the 1980's"....OH, MY!!! London fashions I never knew!! Wendy and I both felt old as we looked at some of these-High Romantic and High Camp!-which are now quite dated!

So tomorrow I am back to Nice, as January 31st looms on the horizon, when I will be off to Collioure!

Thanks again for coming along!!

The Holidays in Nice

January 1, 2014

Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Since my return from Paris, I have been doing what I had wanted when I decided to come here=LIVING HERE!! That has included morning exercise sessions, except the instructors are all on holiday for the two weeks over the holidays....going to various Meetup events...hike up above Ezes Village and down to La Turbie (5 miles)...etc.

Well, it was great fun to celebrate Christmas and New Years’ in Nice. On Christmas Eve I had a most delicious roast duck dinner at Tim and Mike’s with four of their friends. (This was actually the first time I had had duck!)  

Linda and Mike

Roast duck, wild rice, brussel sprouts!! YUM!!

Mini buche de Noel!!

Christmas night I went across the Promenade to Louise and Bernard's for a drink.

On New Year’s Eve Tim and Mike asked me to join them at their friend Adrian Leeds who had twelve people in to celebrate the arrival of 2014! It was fun to be welcoming the New Year in a balcony overlooking the street I had enjoyed walking when they first put out the holiday decorations!

Tim and Mike

I could not have said it better!!

  Soon into the new year, I spotted some local karaoke bars!! What fun to hear the different songs in French, Italian, and English....and not a bad way to learn some new vocabulary!!


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!! I hope you will continue to join me in my 2014 travels....