Profitez!

Sorry for my recent truancy from blogging; as they say here, "j'en profitais" meaning I've been taking advantage of everything. Although the weather is still leaving a lot to be desired (many Niçois are asking what country they are in) the past 2 weekends have brought about beautiful sunny weather that causes me to gravitate outside.

Saturday the 6th was spent with 3 of my girlfriends taking a hike along a beautiful nature walk path. We headed east and walked all the way to Villefranche. We ate a picnic lunch near the port, and then I discovered my favorite new "downtime game." A game where you start with a celebrity, let's say Meg Ryan, and the next person must then find another celeb whose name starts with R and so on. If I were to say Ryan Reynolds (double letter) then the order of the game would reverse. It sounds pretty banal, but its my type of game, and you find ways to entertain yourself when walking around.


After lunch, we walked on over to the beach which is made of tiny pebbles more resembling sand. We took a nice leisurely siesta on the beach, where I swore to commute to Villefranche more often. Its in this cove and the beach is just lovely. After a quick shower, I headed out to have dinner with some other friends at Festival de la Moule where you can get unlimited mussels and fries for like 14€, delicious!

Sunday had turned grey and colder, but no matter because there was a Chocolate Show in Nice! I have given up chocolate for Lent, but I made my friends wait to go until Sunday because they are "mini-Easters" :) Entry was 4€ but included free tastes and one sample that some chefs were making (it was strange: pop rocks, grapefruit mousse and a chocolate stick inside). There were so many vendors selling yummies: chocolate covered marshmallows, macarons, chocolate spread, chocolate bars, chocolate without sugar, olive oil chocolate, hot chocolate, chocolate sculptures and even sweeeeet wine that pairs with chocolate. At the end, I had no desire to have chocolate for the next week.

Then, the weather stayed cold and grey, so I did not go out as much during the week. Plus, March has been a hard month budget-wise, so I was feeling a little down. Nevertheless, I spent a lot of time cooking, eating and chatting at Kiran's apartment.

Fast forward to this past weekend. It started Friday with some stirfry chez moi, and over to a new French friend's apt for dessert crêpes. In a small intimate group we chatted in French over Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and delicious crêpes. I was thrilled to finally have some friends to speak French with!

Saturday was yet another excursion. This time, my friend Alex loaded up his car and took us to Antibes to walk around. Antibes is a cute little town between Nice and Cannes where many artists have spent time. I would have liked to go to the Picasso museum, but my body would just not let me walk into a museum on such a nice day. Instead we sauntered around the city, enjoying each others company for a few hours, got some pizza at an outdoor cafe, and took the long way home. I managed to get shotgun both ways and relished in my first real carride in months :)

Saturday night was spent cooking a delicious French mac n' cheese at Kiran's (emmental cheese, parmesan on top, bread crumbs and baked) and fresh salsa for an appetizer. And then I went out to listen to some live music with a musician whom we have befriended in Nice. Fun times!

Hopefully having some Irish food and festivities tomorrow. Erin go bragh! and then a birthday and hopefully more good weather this weekend.