Walking in a winter wonderland...

That song never said you'd be walking because there would be no trains. Misleading, I feel.

Train service of a kind finally restarted today, after yesterday's complete shutdown. It's not what you might call back to normal though - I've just spent an hour standing in the snow waiting first for a train that never came, then for a train that was heavily delayed, and packed solid. Even those men with big people-brooms on the Japanese metro couldn't have got us on. And finally, for a train that when it did come was delayed, but has seats.

I'd like to thank Southern for their clear communication during this difficult period, but since there was absolutely none, I find I can't. Bonus points go to the woman in the nice warm National Rail call centre who insisted that we must have had announcements - every 7 minutes - because that was what her list said was supposed to happen. Despite those of us actually, you know, living it telling her otherwise.

I would genuinely like to thank the lovely people in the cafe upstairs who made me the best bacon sandwich and coffee in the world. A small ray of sunshine in the day, but better than nothing!

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Happy Bastille Day!

It's the 14th July today, so that means it's Bastille Day! Oddly, given the number of years we've lived in France, this is the first time I've ever been here for Bastille Day; it had better live up to expectations!

Last night Villefranche had a parade of lit-up boats who threw flowers at the people waiting in the harbour (night time version of the Combat des Fleurs, if you ask me), followed by fireworks - which were awesome (pics above are from last night) - and dancing in the main square, where all who were taking part looked like they were having fun. I might post more pics later, but they're up on Flickr if you're really interested.

Tonight, Nice has a big firework display, and there's bound to be music and all sorts of things in Place Massena, so I'll see if I can persuade Paul we should go into town. The problem will be getting back, given the appalling standard of night-time public transport round here. We shall see.

(Oh and my jewellery sale is going well - I've sold 10 things since the beginning of the month, which is rather more than normal! Hopefully the rest of the month will be similarly good!)

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Eurovision 2010

Eurovision was great, even without alcohol. (Trust me, no one was as surprised as I was to find this to be true!) Moldova, as usual, were the entry par excellence, with elves and a neon blue violin, and space aliens. The (Armenian?) song about an apricot stone, complete with giant apricot stone in the background, was awesome too. Much better than the German song that won about painting toenails. I mean, really. Not only was the girl functionally incapable of communicating, she also sang a terrible song about toenails. Europe, you should be ashamed of yourself.

And I was thrilled to see poor, neglected Belarus leap ahead of the UK's appalling entry. If you take that show and imagine it as the setting to a Bond song, though, it was passable. The public school boy who sang it would have to be Bond, and pull out a gun and shoot someone at the end (the German girl, if at all possible...) - it so nearly works.

The one I did like for actual musical talent - and leather trousers - was the Romanian entry. I think it was them, anyway; with the see-through double piano. And the fire.

I'd link to all these things on YouTube, but that's effort. So I won't do it yet. Maybe in slow, stealthy edits, I'll add in links and see if anyone notices...

What, oh captive audience, were your favourites? (Americans, you can play too - go to http://eurovision.tv and I suspect you'll be able to watch the entire mess. If you pick a crap choice, though, I might excommunicate you. Or whatever the blog equivalent is.)

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Carnival!

Last night was the last night of carnival, here in Nice. They continue the charming French tradition of regicide, ending carnival by setting fire to the Carnival King, and then have a massive display of fireworks. Which was stunning.

Photos of the Carnival King and his fiery demise are below - I'm still trying to find a way to get the videos I took of the fireworks off my computer and onto the internet somewhere where I can show them off. They're blurry, some of them, but you can still see the awesomeness! Any ideas, anyone?

Photos, then.

Presumably, the Carnival Queen...

Various photos of the King and his little creepy egg babies:

The Burning of the King:

The fireworks came next, and this is where I would put the videos, for your entertainment and enlightenment. But I can't, since they are apparently too big...

The quiet after the storm - the only time I've ever seen Nice station completely empty...

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Flower festival - with pirate ship and everything

Continuing the carnival theme - the UK should totally do carnival, you know - today was the combat naval fleuri here in Villefranche. Though I'm not sure I didn't miss something, since I saw no combat, per se... Perhaps it's named after the vicious competition amongst otherwise grown women for flowers on the quayside - honestly, I thought some of them were going to leave bruises as they attempted to grab their share!

Lots of fleurs though - the boats, owned by families that have been in Villefranche for generations - are decked out in bunches and bunches of flowers, which are slowly stripped in the course of the afternoon and thrown at the people watching. My bouquet, since I arrived early enough to be at the front, is clearly fabulous - I left after a while to let the less fortunate people have a chance. I'm just that nice ;-) Also, I feared getting pushed into the sea by those behind me. It looks cold.

So, anyway, flower boat photos:

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Lemon Festival - Part 2: the parade

Apart from the idiocy of people and their apparent inability to stand in a line to watch a parade go past, I loved this. (When I rule the world, though, snipers will be stationed at parades to look for people pushing in front. Particularly you tall people who push in front. Don't say I didn't warn you...)

Photos:

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