Happy trails!

Mostly inspired by my discovery that podcasts are to walking what rubber ducky is to bathtime, I've been shanks ponying it up over the last few days. Saturday was gorge gorge gorge so I headed out and walked from the Old Town of Nice, over the Colline du Chateau, around the port and along the coast up Mt Boron - all in all, about 2 hours' worth of walking, in about 15 degree heat (seriously, for the inattentive amongst you, it SNOWED a couple of weeks ago and last night I actually saw some snow still lingering on in a corner somewhere), with the sun beating down in a totally pleasant and bearable way, sparkling off the true-to-form azure sea. It was wonderful and a great reminder that living somewhere like this is the dream of a lot of people and I should get off my arse (to be fair, it has rained a lot lately) and see more of it.

Anyway, in keeping with this philosophy, I got off said arse today and took the bus to where I left off last time, at roughly the mid-point of the road around Mt Boron, and walked through Villefranche and a little bit past Beaulieu-sur-Mer, where I reluctantly gave up after about 1 1/2 hour because me wee trotters were too sore. It started out sunny but clouded over a bit as I went today.

Photos!



Sea view from the hills above Villefranche. On the left is Cap Ferrat, on the right is Mt Boron



View of Villefranche from the east



View of Villefranche from the west



The coast between the port at Nice and Mt Boron



Looking towards Nice, you can see the war memorial archy-thing set into the cliff to the left of the cruise ship and snow-capped mountains in the background!



View of the Old Town from the Colline du Chateau



View of the coast from partway up Mt Boron



Looking from Villefranche towards Cap Ferrat sticking out to the right



My expertly-photoshopped route-map for those of you playing at home!

Happy Mardi Gras!

As promised, here are photos from Carnaval on Saturday - I had a great time. Great atmosphere, we were standing up in Place Massena. On the Promenade there are crowd barriers, so we asked someone on the gate if they were going to put them up and where to stand - the answer? Stand wherever you want, and if a float's coming, move. Ha ha, can you imagine that in an Anglo health & safety obsessed country? I went with a Canadian girl Katie I met up with off Couchsurfing, who was really nice & whole evening was fun-filled! It's something like the 160th Carnaval, it's always nice that it's actually a real tradition and not just something invented for tourists... The theme this year was the environment, so lots of floats of animals and so forth. Kind of ironic when you see how much mess the thing generates!

I've got tickets for the seated section today, which I bought before deciding to go on Saturday. Am a bit meh about it right now since I've seen all the floats and the atmosphere probably won't be the same, but it is actually Mardi Gras today after all. Will also have to get some crepes!



Stork with baby



The effect of a guy with some streamers and a leaf-blower thing



The pavement view of Carnaval



Obama to the rescue! Oddly enough, he's dressed like superman and clutching (you can't see this) the Kyoto Protocol - erm, would that be the Kyoto Protocol his administration rejected? Or, like, some other one that he's all in favour of?



Please, no paparazzi!



Noah's Ark. I got me two alligators, some long-necked geese, a humpy-backed camel and some chimpanzees. Good times



Me & Katie & anonymous photo bomber at Carnaval



The King of Carnaval



Oh noes! Jellyfish have taken to the skies!



The frog was the symbol for this year's Carnaval for some reason



Froggy astride the world



Freaky flying Cupid float



Me after taking a particularly heavy confetti attack to the face, was picking these off for a while



Confetti in the sky



This is a bit hard to see, but they're tossing some guy in a blanket




Carnaval vid - in case you're wondering whence the startledness, I don't know I was taking this video myself!



Weird loud me-talking effect here... Those earths with giant mouths are also a bit too friendly. Ends for some reason on one of the annoying Italian priests that kept trying to ruin every photo. Probably trying to ruin this too

Nice sous la neige! (And not sous la neige)

Well it has already snowed once in Nice this season, but this time it came not like Jesus (aka a thief in the night), but right in the middle of the day - AND it had the courtesy to do it while I was equipped with my new camera Santy Claus brought me! Yay! Now I know there are people out there in the world at the moment who have been almost literally up to their eyeballs with snow, and they might not get the excitement, but I'm from a place where it doesn't snow, and, while I've seen it before, I still think it's pretty damn cool. And it's got to get a little extra caché for snowing in the fricking French Riviera, non?

So I rushed (as fast as the sloooow bus with a sticking back door would take me) down to the beach, because I was hoping to get some cool pics of snow on it, but noooo it didn't settle anywhere down in the town. Up in C-mizzle where I live, however, we got a semi-impressive haul that lasted until Saturday or maybe even yesterday.

Below the snow pictures are some more pictures of Nice that I've been meaning to get around to posting, mix of snaps from when my family were here and ones I've taken out and about in the town. I still couldn't get the pics from Paris to load (there are ones from Chenonceau below if you scroll down though...) In honour of Mardi Gras tomorrow I'll probably post my photos from Carnaval on Saturday night - so much fun!



The snow starts falling on the neighbours' garden



It's snowing at the beach! (Trust me, it is)



At the beach again



Snowflakes on me! Face removed due to the fact that I looked about 12 years old. It is beginning to seem like a good thing that one of the receptionists at school constantly tries to send me around the back (student) entrance though! I may have made that comment before... once you get to my advanced age you start treasuring these moments, ha!



Snowy tree on Allée Miles Davis in my park



Form 2 science taught me something - my uber-scientific snow gauge on my balcony hit over 8 cms before it started to melt (and yep, my bank gave me a ruler, score!)



Snow in 'my' park



Snow-covered palm tree



The next day - bright and sunny and still snowy!



The waterfall on the Colline du Chateau



Roman arena at Cimiez



The Roman ruins in Cimiez



The Palais de Justice in Old Town



Narrow streets in Old Nice



Cathedral in Nice



This is too dark to see really, but I had to take a pic of my neighbour-across-the-way's living (?) room, as for some reason they have a purple light (permanently, not just for 'disco night'). And they sit in there with the shades up all night watching TV (I can't see them, but I can see the light of the TV) WITH the purple light still on - isn't that annoying?



Meh and Peh on the hill with the Baie des Anges in the background



Me & my bro on a night out in Nice



Mum & me in Roman mode up at the ruins in Cimiez



Me & Mum on the Colline du Chateau



At the Cours Saleya Flower Market



My 'rents on the Promenade des Anglais with the Colline du Chateau in the background



Looking down on Old Town from the hill



Ze beach



The Baie des Anges from the hill - my parents were unfortunately here during a run of drizzly, overcast weather, but I suppose it is winter after all!



The cemetery up on the castle hill



Video of the snow falling! Nice big juicy flakes as well. Btw, that "la la la" isn't me, I couldn't figure out where it came from and I finally remembered I was watching Project Runway on my laptop at the time, ha. Still, not a bad soundtrack!



Snow at the beach - and what are actually some pretty angry waves by Nice standards! Possibly of interest to my brother...