Today, the sun is shining, the mimosa is blooming, and it definitely feels like spring is on its way.  Nice is getting ready for Carnaval, which starts this Friday…

and we took a walk up to the Fort on Mont Alban.

The way up was lovely and had the feeling of a secluded path…

while glimpses of the city…

gave reminders of just how close to everything the site is (our apartment is right in the center of this photo)…

At the top, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of Villefranche-sur-Mer…

and we rescued three tiles from the rooftop of the fort as they are renovating – how cool is that for two roofing freaks! (we did have to venture into a place we probably shouldn’t have gone into, but…)

Then, we chose this ‘path’…

had a wonderful time with lots of unexpected views…

and ended up finding Sunset Park in Nice…

Finally, we headed back to home via the park at Mont Boron…

where they do know how to place their benches…

and everywhere you turn there is a beautiful sight of nature…

or the city below…

We are hoping spring is here to stay – and we have been able to extend our lease through the end of March…yay!

It has been quite stormy everywhere, or so it seems, and Nice has been no exception.  That said, stormy here means something other than a clear blue sky, at least to us.  Over the last few days, we have been rewarded with some lovely sunsets…

They typically begin with gold reflecting off the buildings…

a bit of color in the sky…

and on the facades…

Everyone seems to be drawn to the show…

The airplanes have been cooperative…

as have the ferry boats…

and even the birds…

and the results have been spectacular!

On our way back home, we have the joy of seeing the clear blue of the darkening sky before heading home.

Someone volunteered to take our picture, so now we have another one!

Many artists have enjoyed and been inspired by the extraordinary light and color in this area. 

Color is everywhere, be it in a store front…

plastic boots…

fruits and vegetables…

or a local church…

Yet, the most inspirational colors are found in the natural world, whether on a cloudy day when the water turns a dark blue…

or on the sunniest of days when the turquoise is undeniable…

and the world is full of contrasting colors…

and vibrant hues…

Perhaps the colors here are no different from those in other places, but it certainly helps that the sun shines so frequently, something very much treasured by two who have spent much of their lives in the second-most cloudy part of the US!

After visiting Antibes many times, we decided to venture into the Picasso Museum, which we enjoyed.  The building was recently renovated, and was a bit too perfect for our taste, but it is undeniably beautiful.  We took two pictures there, the one above and this one (you can’t really take pictures in a museum)…

Outside is the Antibes Cathedral,…

and the covered market is nearby…

as is the ever-present sea.

Antibes has lots of narrow roads…

open squares…

and enough covered passages to make it interesting.

and Jeff enjoyed looking at the knife store…

On the way home yesterday, Jeff noticed that there were clouds in the sky and it was sunset time, and so we went to the beach to see what the earth had to offer.  It was stunning.  There was also an enourmous flock of birds flying back and forth in amazing patterns…

and keeping us turning around and around so as to not miss anything.  The sky became increasingly colorful…

and gave us a classic palm tree shot…

before darkening…

as we headed around the point, to the port…

taking one last look at the promenade and the newly created night.

The old part of Menton has been fixed up a lot since we were first there 20 years ago, and it feels like a totally different place, with the exception of one small area…

A very scary dog (or so he thought) tried very hard to scare us away…

as we walked through the town…

Each time you enter an open square in this part of town, there is an impressive view of the sea (much prettier when the sky is blue!).

However, in our opinion, the most wonderful reward is found at the top of the climb within the walls of the old chateau – the city cemetery.

It overlooks the sea…

and is old and crumbly (like the whole old town used to be!)…

with lots of pretty little places…

and special glimpses.

This is our favorite cemetery, and we never tire of it (and we hope you don’t either!).

Today we headed off to Menton and walked around the shore…

where the English translation was a bit problematic…

The market building is about 100 years old and is quite lovely.

Inside, there are all sorts of lovely things including cheeses…

Meats…

Dried fruits…

All sorts of marinated things…

Olives…

Vegetables…

And fish!

Ugh…

And yet, we had a wonderful pasta and seafood lunch…

Afterward, we headed into the old part of town, which we will post tomorrow.

We are fortunate to have our niece visiting for a few weeks and this evening we took a walk around the town.

They have been digging up the road in order to extend the bike path and pedestrian walkway along the port…

leaving chunks of the former sidewalk…

and sections of old rebar in artistic blobs.

Jeff helped the city of Nice by putting the barriers back in place…

while Kate took pictures of the pretty boats (we have a good friend named Petra!)…

or arguably ships…

We had a beautiful evening.

On our walk to the airport to meet our niece, we found a lovely example of a restaurant not quite dug out from the recent storms, but lovely anyway – if only due to the matching blues!  Another view in its context…

and then on the way home, we said hello to the neighborhood burned out car…don’t know if they are ever going to move it.

It has been difficult to get excited about pictures when the weather has been so stormy.  However, Kate needed to go shopping, one of her less favorite things, in order to buy some hiking boots, and since it is sale time…

she headed out past the central square where preparations are in process for Mardi Gras…

and saw the many other people also shopping (one of the reasons she doesn’t enjoy it).

First, a minor distraction at the FNAC, a book/music/movie store.

Then a consideration and rejection of the local mall.

A glance at a familiar name…

And a final decision to go by the main department store…

to a sports store where she found out that, she is a boy.  Note the size (pointure) in the picture for Women’s Boots…

Kate is a 41.5 to 42…so she worked hard and found one pair of women’s in her size (on left) but ended up getting the men’s on the right…isn’t this just thrilling?  At least Jeff will be glad that she finally has boots!

Nothing profound to say, but we are grateful for hearing that the orphanage, from which two of our friends adopted a lovely little girl, was spared.  Watching the news has been interesting, given France’s strong ties and relative distance from Haiti.  Very sad.

The weather continues to be foreboding, so Jeff searched online to find something for us to do today and found this:

We were a little nervous about going, being animal lovers in no position to have a pet, but it turned out to be a great time with the cutest puppies!  We took a ton of pictures…

Today’s post, the third in a series taken on a magical day along the shore, is a tribute to sunsets…and to Jeff’s mother, who never tires of taking pictures of sunsets.  We thought of her throughout this series of pictures, from when we first got sucked in, still thinking we would go home before dusk…

to when it started to get interesting, as the water turned from glittering…

to golden…

Then, sky started to get pretty…

and slowly became darker…

and more colorful…

until it became truly beautiful.

Goodnight Mom!

The thing about airplanes, at least for us, is that its is always such fun to watch them!  Among the many attractions of Nice is the landing of airplanes when they come from the east.

They come from the east…

cross over the bay…

especially beautiful at sunset…

and then head to the airport to the west of Nice.

It doesn’t happen too frequently, as they typically land in the opposite direction, so it is always a treat when they give us a show!

There are many birds on the coast here, and yesterday one in particular seemed to find us quite interesting.

He/she flew along side us on the Promenade, sometimes on the street side…

sometimes along the sea side…

he/she really did get quite close…

so today we are posting only pictures with seabirds in them…

not only when they are tiny (aka Where’s Waldo)…

but also when we were given a perfect shot.

Lots more wind and stormy weather has brought back the high waters and waves and so we went out today and had a splendid time along the Promenade…

taking many pictures of the waves…

our favorite beach (or what is left of it for now)…

and the general unrest of the normally calm water.

The beaches were all closed, for obvious reasons, but also in part because of a number of unfortunate incidents and one death yesterday, due to people being swept into the water by the high waves when they were walking on the coastal trail (not in this location, but the photos below give you a sense of what the waves are like today).

In the first of the two photos, you can see a horizontal bar in the center of the picture which is a handrail for steps down to where the beach normally is.

The day was beautiful and sunny, and we had the additional joy of seeing the smallest dog ever…

and a Sammy dog (Jeff’s sister and her husband have one named Sammy)!

The new year is here, and it was celebrated in Nice in a pleasant, if moderate way.  We weren’t sure about what was happening where, so we simply went down to the water at about 10:30 and then waited and watched.

We noted some large ships in the port on our way and talked about how they would have a great view if there were fireworks on the port…

Some people went swimming as the fireworks started along the Promenade…

and there were also fireworks on the Port…

Happy New Year to all from Nice! 

Today, unlike the picture above, is a cloudy, rainy, cold day.  Unfortunately, we don’t take pictures of this sort of day, so we will instead show you another beautiful picture…

one of the classic Nice color combinations.  Apparently, there isn’t a lot of freedom of choice in color selection – or so we have heard.

Jeff, meanwhile, has been taking artistic photos…

and we have been sitting inside listening to music…and while we are here, relaxing in the lousy weather, here is a picture we have wanted to post but haven’t found the right time….

aren’t the sheep just lovely?  Well, hope you are all having a lovely day!

It seems that, no matter how long we live here, our enjoyment of the park continues to grow.  Yesterday, we took yet another walk and had a wonderful time…

taking advantage of the sunny day…

The view down to the port…

and the bay…

are so beautiful that it is difficult to focus on the park itself…

which is, in fact, quite pretty…

and  has quiet, secluded spots…

intricate mosaics…

and great people-watching…

in addition to the added flash of the turquoise sea below.

And perhaps most exciting to us, we can see our apartment from the park!  Second building on the left, two flights up.

Over the last few days, we had a stormy period including some rain and a lot of wind – though nothing scary.  The biggest effect we saw was on the water where the waves grew big…

and the water level rose significantly.  Below, you can see the normal levels…

and the storm levels. (though the angles are different, you can see the same concrete slab in both pictures and note how the storm has moved the stones)

The Paillon river was tearing itself up, and you can see the tan color where it flows into the sea.

After the storm, there is a fair amount of cleanup to be done, mostly due to the shifting of the stones on the beach.  Here, you can see people clearing out the area in front of a seasonal restaurant…

And here, Jeff is standing in between two shower heads.

Kate spent her time picking up stones…

If you haven’t figured it out yet, we aren’t really city people, and so Monaco hasn’t been high on our list of places to visit.  We went on an appropriately drab day, albeit unintentionally, and were impressed with the massive buildings everywhere.

The Christmas decorations…

and market are still up and running…

We, however, quickly darted toward the closest green area…

and ended up climbing to the old part of town…

the castle where the Prince lives and is guarded in British style…

the lovely aquarium…

and Princess Grace gardens…

where we especially liked the view looking down…

We then walked back along the seaside path to Cap D’Ail, which was quite pleasant…

although it certainly would be prettier in nicer weather.

The winds were howling this Christmas, and Kate’s hair was everywhere – as was this cute little dog’s hair!

which got us looking at the dogs in the area…

and seeing the world from their perspective (at least a little bit!)

Everyone was out and about enjoying the day…

and a few of the market vendors were there…

though most of the stores were closed.

Still, a marvelous day for a stroll through the old town…

Our camera is turning out to be interesting in low light because it can focus when everything we know tells us you simply can’t take a decent picture.  The other night we ended up with the picture above and the one below, both of which we love.

We also took the interesting picture below, but the camera had nothing to do with the bright fuschia color you see…

Someone, with what we consider to be very odd taste, decided to spray all sorts of fake snow (?!) on the trees throughout the major shopping area.  On the positive side, the color is used consistently, if it pushes the idea of snow a bit for our northern (as in have seen real snow!) perspective.

Otherwise, we can also now take pictures from our balcony at night…

and the nearby Place Garibaldi.

Technology is fun…

The other night, we looked out the window in response to the sound of thunder, and look what we saw!

Who knew it could snow in Nice?

Well, it turns out that it does, in fact, snow here regularly, though rarely.

We enjoyed a lovely walk along the newly white Promenade, knowing the snow would be gone with the morning sun…

And our new camera does a much better job in low light situations, so we now can show you the pretty Christmas lights in much better focus…

as they change colors…

and here is the big wheel.

Candy is a big thing around the holidays here, and the shop windows look very enticing…

Back home, we decorated our tree…

in purple, of course…