Day 387 (Friday)

Had an early start today as I had to be in class in Nice at 9am and luckily I had no problem with the bus today and I arrived early. I ate my breakfast on Avenue Jean Medicine sitting on my usual plant pot near the school.

These plant pots used to be filled with gorgeous flowers but since the terrorist attack on the Promenade de anglais they have removed the flowers and filled them with concrete to weigh them down to prevent any traffic from ploughing down the streets, so sad. I had a pleasant two hours with Vincent and Isabel and it was a little sad to say goodbye to Isabel, as this was her last class. It’s very interesting to watch France slowing down now that the season has properly arrived. I knew France stopped working in August but I didn’t realise that July was also a no-work month. Guillaume helped me work out my very complicated pay claim as it’s coming to the end of the month – I can’t believe how quickly June has gone.

I met Huw at the Cathedral tram stop to go and see if I am tall enough to ride a Vespa. I really want an orange Vespa with an orange helmet and Huw had been to this shop last week and they suggested that I sit on one in the showroom to see if I felt comfortable.

Outside the showroom I saw a lovely church that I’ve never noticed before, which is a bit bizarre, as I have caught a bus from here many times.

We also saw this great little three-wheeler vehicle outside the showroom.

On entering the showroom I saw the dream machine, an orange Vespa 50CC. The salesman was very obliging and allowed me to sit on it and I was absolutely gutted when I couldn’t reach the floor with both feet, I was on tiptoe and felt that I had no control over this beautiful machine whatsoever! The salesman told me that as long as I could put one foot down properly I’d be fine but I was very sensible and admitted that it didn’t feel safe at all. I then sat on two more scooters and they felt a lot better and the Peugeot model comes in red so I suppose that’s better than white, grey or black. He also reassured me that I can buy a matching helmet! I really wanted an orange Vespa but as long as I can have a coloured scooter I can live with it.

Outside the shop we saw another scooter that looked a lot smaller so we need to do some research to find a suitable make that my little legs can handle!

We walked through the park to get to Garibaldi to do some shopping for the guests arriving on Saturday and for ourselves.

         

We went into the huge supermarket called Monoprix and got pretty much everything on the list and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the vegetable stall with cold water spraying the produce to keep them fresh.

I was also impressed to see that they sold beer called Camden

We walked through Place Garibaldi and I’m sure these gorgeous red trees are fading in the sunshine.

We saw another example of incredible French parking – two cars parked on a zebra crossing – only in France!

 

I’m happy to report that we had no bother getting the bus home and I am convinced that Huw is my lucky charm when it comes to buses. As we arrived home it was great to hear the first cicada (like a cricket only louder) of the summer and it’s found a home in one of the olive trees in the garden below our terrace.

As usual on a Friday we went to Le Phare for sun-downers and it felt really good to be able to pay Sean for painting the doors in the apartment. We had a great laugh with the usual crowd and invited Sean and Alex to a BBQ on our terrace on Thursday evening – we really feel like we belong here and it’s bloody marvellous.