Villefranche and Elena's 21st Birthday

After such an incredible week, It's going to be hard to top the last two entries. However, Friday saw the coming of age for my Costa Rican friend Elena, hard to believe she is so young! So.....we had a little fete! avec a pavlova...what's a celebration without an Aussie Pav! A few of us from school, met up at my place for a couple of drinks and then hit the old town for a few more. Not the largest 21st I have been to, but very special.

After a quiet Sat, Cassandra, David and I went to a very pretty neighbouring village called Villefranche. There was a very beautiful beach with smaller more comfortable pebbles than Nice, and apart from the tourists annoying English and American accents, it was a very nice afternoon. The water was perfect and it was great to get a good swim in. We were determined to steer clear of Monaco this weekend as the Grand Prix was on...apparently it's impossible to get into the town.
This is Cassandra and Elena's last week in Nice (Boo hoo), so we are enjoying the mornings together, having dinner together tomorrow night and then more drinkies on Fri night. What will I do without them, they have made my Nice experience unforgettable!

Cannes Film Festival

On Tues night, a couple of us from Alliance Francais went to Cannes after school. Lucky enough to arrive just as the stars were walking up the red carpet, I managed to climb up someones ladder and hang on for dear life as I snapped away at french celebrities and then Voila....all of a sudden I realise one of them is Toni Colette, how excited was I to see a fellow Aussie. A little later, we heard this shouting from everyone around us 'tcharon tcharon'...it was Sharon Stone, so funny to hear all the frenchies calling her name! I managed to get a few snapps of her and then...my favourite..Misha Barton. By the time I saw Misha, I had hoisted myself up even further, was pushing the photographer in front of me's shirt out of the way and I managed to get some great shots.
But wait for it, about half an hour later, further down the promenade we saw Claudia Shiffer doing a live broadcast for TV. Oh my god she is so beautiful, she literally took my breath away.
The evening was topped off with a fabulous meal in the old town, which is so beautiful, and a quick tour of the town before we jumped on the last train back to Nice. Oh what a night!

The 60th Cannes Film Festival
The three of us (Zoran, Elena and I) strutting our stuff on the red carpet!

French Bulldogs

These are the ugliest and the cutest dogs I think I have met. I am blessed with a pet store on the walk into the vieux Nice and every day, there are the cutest puppies in the window trying to attack each other, playing and performing for the people walking by. The french bulldogs have ears like bats and very squashed faces, and are a popular dog here in Nice. They are always the first dogs to dissapear and are always up the front of the pet shop at eye level.
I don't know if I will manage to escape France without purchasing a cute puppy for my travels. Although I have to keep reminding myself that 1. Dad will kill me if I return with a dog and 2. Dog's arn't good backpackers, and do not hold YHA hostel memberships.

Check these cuties out!

A Day on the Riviera!

Cassandra and I were supposed to be heading to Cannes for the afternoon when I recieved an invitation from Nicholas to spend the afternoon on the yaght...mmmm what to do!
Cassandra didn't need convincing and so instead of mingling with the stars in Cannes, we pretended like we were stars on our own yaght....oh this is the life, How will I ever be able to come back home.
Nicholas, Benoix, Francois, Amelie, Cassandra and I spent a fantastic afternoon moored off Antibes swimming to the beach and then relaxing in the sun. Francois even let me drive the boat on the way back, so much fun!
A couple of drinks back in the old town of Nice topped off a perfect day.

5 days under the Tuscan rain

I little late for the entry but...well its my blog!
Florence was great except for the rain, London sunny......Florence, pouring with rain, and there were massive bloody mossies. We manged to glimpse the sun for a couple of hours and headed up to the gardens overlooking Florence for a beautiful afternoon wandering through ancient statues. As typical girls we also managed a bit of shopping, wandering around aimlessly and eventually we did actually see bits of Florence.
While waiting for the rain to stop/start we did however manage to do a bit of drinking....we wont complain about this.

After I dinted the car (because I couldn't get it into reverse), we headed out into the Tuscan countryside to explore...wait for it... more rain!

San Gimigiano (I can never spell that place) was magical, the hotel was fantastic with a view of the town and yet again another stupid crane ( I can never escape the scoffolding or cranes throughout europe..and India).
A couple of hours of sunshine managed to see us leave the hotel for a wander through the town, get a glimpse of the incredible Tuscan hillside and then Gelati, and more drinking.

Pisa was a little dissapointing...Rain and I think Jody's 'IS THAT IT!' seemed to say it all!
Apart from the rain, and poor Gracie's mossies bites, we had a great time and manged to avoid the excess on the car rental...Bonus!
Flights back for the others to sunny London and for me....to sunny Nice..the adventure begins.

Market Day

Another public holiday
Yipee.

After a fantastic sleep in, I spent the morning strolling around the market in town which was absolutely beautiful, then met some friends on the beach for an afternoon of sun.

The Market is a wonderful place for the senses.... fresh strawberries lined up in rows in little tubs, having only a couple of hourse before plucked from their bush, cherries and rapberries, the pinks, reds and colours are incredible. Spices, dried fruits, vegetables, zuchinni's with flowers on the ends, women and their dogs searching for any morcel of food on the ground, the flowers are another thing all together. The dogs here are a whole other story, will have to fill you in another time. I adore Paeony roses and there were so many sitting in tubs waiting to be taken home and put in peoples vases. The sounds, sights and smells were something not to miss. It was great to try and buy things in french, I managed ruby grapefruits, zuchinnis with their flowers, kiwi's, asparagus and some potoatoes. Last night I tried to make stuffed Corgette (a nicois delicacy) although what we ate was something a little further from a delicacy. I will attempt to stuff the zuchini flowers with Mozerella and fry them tonight for dinner.

The ocean is this fantastic colour and when finally braving the cold to go swimming, we found that it was impossible to see further down than where our hands were, unable to stand on the bottom after only a couple of metres, Cassandra and I decided it was very deep and the colour was due to the insane amount of salt. I havent been able to wash out the fabulous stuff from my hair, it seems to love the salt water and has gone very ringlety.
Back to class today, then a trip to Cannes tomorrow.....

Nice is nice

Well, so far so good. I am managing to string simple sentences together and well...we will have to wait and see how far my french takes me.

I started this blog so I can share with you my experiences, photos and thoughts on Nice, the language and the french culture,
and...hopefully you can all share with me whats going on in your neck of the woods too.

I am putting on some photos of the French men playing Boules in the parc yesterday. It was a very amusing event, me sneaking over to them and asking in my pigeon french if it was alright that I took photos of them.....needless to say they all wanted to pose for the camera which I then had to try and discourage. It was a lovely day spent with my friends Cassandra and David from the french school, sitting in the olive grove in front of this incredible old house which is now the Matisse museum. Sun, grass, heat and our own french TV...the public
Hope you enjoy