SATURDAY EVENING – 11:00 PM
Jackie is reading in bed. Since I can’t sleep with the lights on and she can’t read with them off – I’m sitting in the dining room updating the journal. She has accused me tonight of being a creature of habit, which, as I sit here while she (habitually) reads in bed find amusing. I find as I grow older I do not understand the logic of a woman’s mind any more than before, in fact I think there must be some inverse relationship. Women seem to make some sense when you are young but in a decreasing fashion, make less and less sense as years go by. Someday some bright mathematician will win the Nobel prize for discovering a formula that describes that relationship.
We arrived home from our adventure around 7:30 or 8:00. I took a quick shower and Jackie and I were playing cribbage when everyone else returned from attending the boat show in Nante.
Apparently there was some marital strife going on. Michel had too much Pastis during the day and was being lectured by Vianyette about his driving. He undoubtably had had too much to drink as he was arguing with her, something that no man in a normal state of mind will do; argue with a woman, especially a wife. My limited experience has been that even if you think you win the argument, you really lose in the end.
The adventure was fun today, except for the amount of driving. I was behind the wheel for about six hours. We covered quite a distance. What made it trying was that we were on narrow mountain roads in the French Alps. After a while you develop a rhythm to it as you swerve from a curve in one direction to a curve in the other, all the time looking behind for some crazy Frenchman trying to pass on a blind corner and in front for a careening truck or camper bearing down on you driving in the middle of the road.
We stopped in Castilion to by some food in an outdoor marketplace. It was just closing up but we manage to buy some killer sausage, fromage and some fruit. We then walked across the street to a wine dealer and bought a bottle of vin rouge and a small bottle of water for Jackie.
My French has reached tourist level 2 I think. I asked the dealer where a patisserie was, to buy some bread and he told me exactly how to get to several, but that maintenant, le patiserrie est ferme. We took what we bought, piled back into the car and headed toward the Gorge du Verdun.
The gorge is a beautiful area. Very touristy, especially for camping and hang gliding. But despite that it is still quite beautiful. Step cliffs plummeting down to a river. The water in the river, and in the lake it empties to, is a vivid aquamarine color similar to the color of the Mediterranean ocean near the shore. We stopped at another small village to buy a baguette and continued to the Lac du St Croix. This is a very large lake with a lot of tourist facilities. We found a park like area and stopped for lunch.
11:00 AM Sunday Morning.
I have just returned from my morning in Nice. I’ve figured out why driving is so much fun here. The main reason is that you get the fabulous illusion of speed. This is because of three factors. First the speedometers are calibrated in kilometers per hour rather than miles per hour. Thus, when you glance at the dial, you are easily doing between 80 and 100. Second is the size of the cars and the road. Both are much smaller than in America, this creates and illusion of speed as well. The third, and most important reason, is that you typically drive like a bat out of hell here!
The morning was fantastic. Driving to Nice at 7:30 or so was beautiful with very little traffic. The sun was just up, a bright orange globe reflecting off the azure blue of the sea. I parked under the open air market place next to the old ville du Nice. The market was still getting set up but already customers eager for the first pick of the fruit and vegetables were squeezing and poking the food. In addition to the fruits and vegetables were all kinds of meat and poultry. I saw twenty different preparations of olives, many types of mushrooms, peaches and nectarines, beef, lamb, rabbit and chickens.
I leave the market and begin to wander the streets looking for photo opportunities. It is still a little early – the light hasn’t quite reached down to touch the pastel walls of the buildings. People are beginning to come out. There is a ledge with pigeons on it that makes a good photo composition. Around 9:00 I wander back to the market place and sit down at an outdoor cafe.
I order a cafe au lait and enjoy the view of people wandering by. I hear French, Italian, German and American voices. Of all of the languages I find French the most beautiful to listen to ( and English the least.) Across the courtyard a woman and small boy are setting up tables for another café. The boy is struggling with a table much too big for him, trying to help. He tires of working and having put in a hard day, mounts his bike (with a training wheel) and begins the tour de France though the marketplace.
A little while later I get up and wander the marketplace again. I see some cute little girls dressed up for Sunday feeding lettuce to some live chickens in cages. I try to get some shots but it is difficult to compose the shot.
The sun is in front of me. I look at my watch and decide it is time to return to the house.
SUNDAY EVENING.
After returning home from my morning journey to Nice I relaxed for a while with Jackie and then we ate lunch. A simple meal of leg of lamb, salad, and beans. It was wonderful. Each time I’m here I resolve to fix my stove and oven, but somehow the resolve doesn’t last for the trip home.
After the lunch Jackie and I dashed to Biot to buy our souvenirs. Jackie made up for her previous indecision. We found a pottery that Vianyette recommended and Jackie went into a rabid buying frenzy. I was concerned that she was spending too much of her money and was trying – without much success to restrain her. At which time she looks at me and says. “oh dear – I forgot my credit card” So I was the one who was on the rabid buying frenzy without even knowing it. She did get some nice pieces – very simple provincial style.
We also went to another more tourist oriented store and I bought some bowls like those used by Michel for the morning coffee. They have descriptive phrases on them, i.e., le plus snob and le plus sexy…
We returned in time to say our goodbyes to Gilbert and Bernadette. Afterwards Jackie and I took a short swim and played cribbage. She is slowing closing the gap but is still four games down. We then went back to the house. Jackie continued to read her science fiction book and I played Yahtzee with Michel, Delphine and Vianyette (I won.) The vacation is almost over. Vianyette and Michel have covered the pool and Michel says it was probably the last time they will use it this year. Gilbert and Bernadette have gone back to Nante and it has been a quiet evening.