Last photos from the south

Alfred Nobel's villa at Sanremo



Pictured: the problems in the Catholic Church (sorry sorry sorry, Catholic friends! For the benefit of anyone reading this who doesn't know me, I was raised Catholic so can just about get away with those kinds of jokes!)



A sand Mickey Mouse takes shape on the beach at Cannes



Disturbing ad for Orangina...



The tacky-looking Palais des Festivals at Cannes. You can just see the ad I was talking about - puppy in your pocket or something. There was some sort of an exposition or something going on while I was there, I think a TV event, people getting together to pitch show ideas or something?? Anyway, there were lots of journalists and supposedly some minor stars were in town, but I didn't see any.



Eetu, me & Sab at my leaving drinks Friday night at Sansas



Me (standing), Ibiye, Wen & Thomas (sitting)



Tony, Ibiye & Wen


Not too much to report, I went out for some leaving drinks on Friday night. Was quite pleased, it was a civilised affair, very low-key, which is what I wanted. Probably about a dozen people popped by, which was nice. I always hate hosting things because I think it will suck and be my fault, but I think it went well :)

I tried to take my suitcase to the UPS place on Friday, but I ran out of time. The wheel broke on the replacement suitcase as well, so basically it's a 30 euro carton... At the moment, you can still pull it on the other wheel, but who knows how long that will last. Anyway, I'll have to get it sent off on Monday in between my morning lesson and an afternoon tea we're having at school. Landlady is coming to inspect the flat today, so have just been cleaning and packing the last couple of days. It looks like everything else will fit in my suitcase and backpack with no worries, so that's good. Bit disturbing that I've acquired an extra 20 kg suitcase of stuff in the last 7 months, but I am taking 2 double sheets, 2 towels, and a pillow, as well as having bought some more clothes when I was in the UK and just yeah random bits and pieces I suppose.

Feel a bit more like I'm really leaving now that my room is bare, as usual it probably won't quite sink in until I'm on the train. Which reminds me, still don't have anywhere to sleep the first night! I contacted someone offering short-stay studio accommodation but haven't heard back so may have to book a hotel room, sigh. Anyway, might go take the opportunity to enjoy some sun before I go to probably chilly Tours!

Cans in Cannes

I walked all this way and back again!



The beach about halfway between Cannes and La Napoule



Castle by the beach at La Napoule



The beach near the Cannes port

I don't really have much to say about Cannes, where I went for the first time on Saturday, except that it was a gorgeous sunny day and I enjoyed lying on a sandy beach again. The blog title is an awful, immature reference to the fact that there were a lot of boobs on show, if I were a 14 year-old boy, I would have been in heaven!

Not being a 14 year-old boy, I wasn't all that impressed by Cannes. To be fair, I got off the bus pretty much in the centre of the shopping bit I think, and then headed down, around the port, and to the beach, so I actually didn't see all that much of Cannes proper. I lay on the beach for a while and then I started walking towards a town I could see in the distance - didn't actually realise at first that I was effectively walking out of Cannes. Ended up walking what I am informed is a bit over 7 km, to La Napoule, where I spent some more time on the beach, and then walked allll the way back to Cannes, so over 14 km :)

I actually went the wrong way for the famous 'Croisette', so I suppose I should go back and walk the other way for the full Cannes experience. I think I saw the place where they hold the Cannes film festival, although it was very ingloriously covered with ads for some sort of Polly Pocket-type thing, so if it was the place, not at all glamorous!

I had my first encounter with a tourist asking if I spoke English, and I said 'a little bit' which was supposed to be a joke but completely didn't work as one. Won't do that again... Then on the train back I was reading a French woman's mag which had a fashion spread with girls wearing cut-off jeans so short that the pockets hung out below the line of the jeans. I was all 'that looks so stupid' and then 5 minutes later, there's a dumb American tourist wearing them! I probably sound completely anti-American here, but the shorts do look stupid and I'm basing the dumb comment on the fact that we were all waiting to get off the train and she was standing in front of the button and didn't press it. Which, yeah, happens when you travel I know... But tourists just annoy me generally (hypocrite!) especially when they talk really loudly in English, which she was.

Also, some Italian tramp came up while I was eating my lunch and asked me if I spoke English and I was actually really super-rude to him, which I now feel bad about. Much like I hate tourists speaking English loudly, I hate people assuming I'm an English-speaker off the bat and addressing me accordingly. Although a) this is probably a good tramp technique to maximise your gains in a touristy place and b) maybe he didn't even speak French. But, you know, I'm also not a super fan of people asking me for money, kinda grown out of being the bleeding-heart I was when I first came to Europe, at least as far as tramps are concerned. There's so many of them and the state is so generous that even I, a foreigner, technically qualify for housing assistance, I'm sure there's all kinds of help out there for them. This whole post is starting to make me sound kind of fascisty! I'm actually not a terrible person, I swear! (And I'm liberal politically, but not sounding that way today!!) You just get sick of people begging... two homeless people have taken over the bus-stop where I get off for school most days, luckily it's not where I catch the bus home so I don't have to hang around there, but still, you have to walk over them every day... Okay, seriously, rant over, quit before I look even worse! Ciao!