So Nice in France

Bonjour!

I just got back from France (flights to Prague went up too much), and it was absolutely beautiful. I can definitely see myself living with the French at some point in my life. Perhaps being paid to sit on the plage, drinking cafe and eating the best croissante I've ever eaten.

Nice was my first attempt at planning a long distance European adventure. Now that I'm back in Siena, I've definitely learned a few notes about train traveling. One of them being, when embarking on a 13hr train trip with multiple (ahem, 6) transfers...dress warmly. Also, when arriving in the middle of the night at one station with a 3hr delay...be prepared to sleep on train station floor with wafting urine smell without wanting to give up on life. These are all character building moments I suppose. On our way home, though, I avoided re-learning these lessons.

We're on our way, the 'traveling family'. It's incredible how well and how quickly you get to know someone when traveling through countries together. Blake, and Danielle will forever be embedded in my mind when thinking of this summer.

**note my new black leather tote. It's name is Roberto. (rolled r of course).

This is to commemorate our time spent in Pisa, Italy. We were literally in and out of the train station, but at least we saw some of it. Pisa is a big city, but apparently nothing much is there except the Torre (tower) to see besides regular city things. I'm not sure I believe that because Pisa's history is quite intense.

I forget what station we saw this gent in. Perhaps Pisa. Aside from his obsession with Louis V, what floored me more was that he had not a wrinkle on him. His clothes wereso crisply ironed and starched, and hes clearly waiting for a train, and it was in the evening and still hot out. I felt drastically underdressed when he was around.

After our intensely long train trip this is what the morning view looked like. We rode into Monte Carlo and then Nice, and after spending so much time on so many different trains and stations, it was well worth it to wake up with the city of Nice.

No sand on the beach in Nice. Not sure why, but there is only medium sized rocks everywhere.

I misunderstood the man who was selling watermelons: I thought he said 1euro for 3 slices. He made me pay 3euro for 1 slice. It wasn't special at all, just a regular watermelon. This photo is to prove how much more expensive Nice is than Siena. Siena a quality bottle of wine from Fruili cost 1.90euro. Nice is full of money. But me going there if proof that you can do it cheaply.

We're not as tanned, or as fit, or as relaxed as the French or Italians, but we're Canadian so we're...polite.

The most French Frenchman I've ever seen. He was sitting about two feet away from me during le petit dejeuner so it was somewhat difficile to take his photo. Mustache, aviators, niccotine stained fingers, espresso, shabby cell phone, flip flops with dress pants,...he was awesome.

A bit ahead of Toronto's TTC.

I'm not big into taking photos of food but this was genuinley the best croissante I've ever had. Granted, I've not had many but still...this was not bad to wake up to. If any of you ever go to Nice, you must go to La Grande Cafe de Lyon. It's great for people watching, and the food was divine.

A gypsy. I have an awesome photo of a gypsy from Siena that I haven't posted yet, but this lady is much younger, and French! Gypsy's are just that by profession. They don't look like a Toronto homeless person. They usually are women (from what I can see) and almost always have a young child strapped to them. The kids are always really lethargic and sometimes have red or murky eyes. All medicated or filled with eye drops probably.