I've been in a crappy mood all week, and I probably owe many of my colleagues an apology for making them put up with me, but there is something about views over the Mediterranean and early morning sunshine that makes bad moods melt away. I just need to win the lottery, and then I can run away permanently...

(I tried taking you some photos, Tim, and it didn't quite work - it's too hazy. I'll see if the haze burns off later on!)

ETA: Look - photo! (Does that look like London to you?!)

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Cap d'Ail

During the August Exile, we went looking for the beach at Cap d'Ail, having been told it was nice and worth going to. Didn't find it. Did find a picnic area and a very windy coastline, with huge waves. (If anyone knows where we went wrong from the picnic area, do shout...)

Photos:

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Earthquake Action Plan

My village is holding an Earthquake Action Plan Meeting later this week, so we can all update our emergency plans for what we will do in case of an earthquake.

Anyone know when there was last an earthquake round this neck of the woods?

Some googling produced this excellent article, which tells me that there was one in 1887. I think my favourite bit of that article might be the last paragraph:

Many refugees fled to Monte Carlo. Although it was actually closer to the epicenter, Monte Carlo is located on solid bedrock that is less vulnerable to earthquakes. In recognition of the tragedy, gambling was suspended in Monte Carlo for several days.

Though a close contender is:

The Prince of Wales was in Cannes at the time and the British royal family urged him to immediately evacuate. This was made difficult by the thousands of people fleeing the area by train-- many of them wearing only the pajamas they had been sleeping in

Anyway, Prince of Wales facing hordes of pyjama'd citizens aside, this is hardly an annual occurrence, is it? Do we really, really all need Earthquake Action Plans? (I figure our action plan is: "Don't die." - this might be easier said than done, given that our house apparently doesn't have any foundations, built as it is on a sheer cliff face. Oh well...)

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Monegasque bank holidays and national parks

Today, Monaco very kindly declared a bank holiday to mark my dad's birthday, so I have been temporarily freed from the world of employment. Which is nice.

Rather than do what we usually do and waste our days off lying in the sun drinking coffee and beer, we decided to go somewhere. After lots of looking at bus timetables and realising we were limited in where we could go, we decided to go up to the Plateau de la Justice, up in the mountains behind Eze, and look round the national park up there. Since we hadn't planned this very much in advance (read: at all) we didn't have a picnic lunch with us. Which is a shame, since the park is perfect for picnics, and we will have to go back to take advantage of this fact.

We went back down to Eze to get some lunch (their supermarket sells sushi! And quinoa salad! I feel our Casino is letting us down a bit, now...) and ate in the church courtyard. Eze was, predictably, packed full of tourists. Our plan was to go into the gardens, since it was cloudy last time we went there, but as we were eating lunch, it clouded over a bit, and we decided to leave it til next time. There's no point going somewhere you're only going to go once when the weather's a bit off - it's not like we don't have months of guaranteed sunshine coming up, after all.

So, some photos...

This hotel is stunningly pretty - I'm going to stay here one day, if it's not too expensive!:

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Toulon

Ignoring politics for now - it's sort of taken over my life this week, for obvious reasons - we've been doing some exploring over the weekend. On Saturday we went to Toulon - the weather forecast was ok, so we decided to go for it.

The weather forecast lied, obviously. But Toulon is a pretty town on the Mediterranean coast, between here and Marseille (I didn't know this before I went there) - it's much more a place you would live than for tourists to visit, which made me like it instantly! There is a Zoo and cable cars, so we're going to go back in the summer when the weather's guaranteed to be good!

Below, as usual, are pictures - note the colour of the sky in the last few pics. It rained shortly after taking those photos. Heavily.

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Full moon

There's a full moon here tonight. It looks beautiful reflected in the sea, low and golden. I can hear birds singing, a dog barking and there's a train going past. And that noise that boats make when they move in the sea, a sort of clanking noise - I know very little about boats, so I've no idea what causes it. But it's the main source of noise pollution here, once the tourists leave.

There are worse places to live.

ETA: Pictures!

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Things that aren't so good...

Our balcony is falling apart, though. Concerned, we contacted the landlady who sent round the mason. A small Italian man turned up at my door this morning, wandered through to the balcony, took the broken bit of concrete apart and left again, saying "I might be back to put some more cement there. Don't worry."

I'm perfectly reassured now.

Also, my darling boyfriend went to work with our suncream. I am left with the remains of a bottle of children's suncream that probably won't last long enough to stop all of me from burning. I may sacrifice my lower legs to the greater good. Or stay inside til it's 3 o'clock, which is when I reckon I can go to the beach without burning. Maybe 3:30. Possibly 4.

There was something else I was going to talk about, but I can't think what. The sea distracted me. If it comes back to me, I'll be sure to share it. I bet you're all on tenterhooks.

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Oscar the orange tree

Shopping yesterday in Italy was fun! I came back several euros lighter, but with a new rug, a new shirt and Oscar. Our new orange tree. We're going to have fresh orange juice in the mornings any day now...

Here are the first photos of Oscar in his new home. He looks more settled there than on the train, where I did get several odd looks. One family of older people sitting across the aisle from us were concerned that I might be trying to take him back to the UK - they relaxed noticeably when I reassured them I knew that would kill him, he was going to live on my balcony over here...

Oscar:

Today I may go and buy a hammock for the balcony.

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Saint Raphael and Frejus

Yesterday was a national holiday in Monaco, so we were both at home. It was sunny (as you can see from the photos) and warm and I actually didn't feel like I was dying, for the first time in ages, so we decided to go exploring - and went to Saint Raphael, along the coast towards Marseille.

Photos of sunshine
Upside down boat, now colonised by seagulls:

That part of the coast is beautiful - huge red rocks and cliffs, as you can see a bit in this photo from the train window.

Saint Raphael is nothing special - the beach is nice, though, and the church is pretty from the outside.

Church:

Beach:

The old town in Saint Raphael was... limited (I was feeling ill again by that point, though, so I might be doing it a disservice. Or we might have missed bits.) There's a museum that might be worth going to, we walked past it. That was about it.

Frejus was pretty, but small. It's noted for its Roman ruins - we got as far as the amphitheatre, which is being re-built, and got bored and went home. The church is prettier on the outside than the inside, but it is pretty.

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