Sunrise and strikes

There's a general strike on all across France today, protesting the pension reform that Sarkozy is trying to introduce. Pretty much no public transport is running - it's a good thing we're not getting married this weekend instead!

There was, however, a train at some unearthly hour of the morning and my new husband went to get it, so I happened to be awake to watch sunrise this morning. It was quite pretty.

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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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Fete St Pierre

Yesterday was the Fete St Pierrre, in addition to being America's birthday. It's a day where communities remember those who died at sea, as well as celebrating the sea for all it brings to their lives. In villages along the coast, masses were being held and processions took place.

In Villefranche, the priest and the mayor led a band carrying flags, as well as sailors in uniform, and some obviously retired sailors (also in uniform) from the church down to the seaside. They all piled onto a boat, while Paul and I had a coffee in the very nice, but very expensive, hotel bar along the seafront, and then we rejoined them accidentally when I wanted to go and take a photo of the big (American?) boat with all the flags on it. By that point, they'd started handing out free pastis and pissaladiere, which was nice. And l'Amicale des Anciens Marins de Villefranche opened the doors to their little building, which was a bar in one half, and the most amazing collection of model ships in the other.

Photos abound, below.

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Sunshine - it's summer after all

Apparently the news in the UK has been full of the woe that has hit our little corner of the world. (I can think of no other reason my grandmother would fear I was drowned...) Fear not, faithful readers, we are coping just fine. There have been some transport problems, but our little village has been fine - even the tourists are fine.

To demonstrate, here's a photo of the beach today - as you can see, the sky is blue, the sun is out, and the sea is lovely and clean again. The large boat in the distance is the tourists.

Also, apparently lizards like sunshine after rain - I nearly trod on three as I was going down the stairs to the beach this afternoon. Here's a photo of one little one that stood still for a while.

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Summer, it is here again

It is - today, I spent all morning on the balcony in the sun (after going to the post office to send off our applications for various pieces of paper from the embassy - fucking extortionate amount of money and hassle just to get a piece of paper that does some unknown thing...), and then the afternoon was on the beach.

Oscar is growing little flowers now, and his oranges are nearly orange.

Suicidal pigeon:

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