Monthly Archives: July 2018
Wirewalker Rides Again, or Wirewalker Monte a Nouveau!
Greetings! After two years of rest and recovery, the Wirewalker crew (Diane and Bill) are ready for the next crossing; this time, France, on the “Via Podiensis”.
We’ve spent the last two years attempting to learn French so that we can communicate adequately with our host country. We’ve taken two community courses in French and will, on arrival in France, take a two-week intensive French language course. Our goals are modest; we simply want to be understood as we say: Bonjour, Merci, and Ou sont les toillettes!
This first blog is mostly a test; so I’ll publish one photo to test out the “Banner” feature. The photo is an image of Diane and I, and our old sailing catamaran, transiting the Panama Canal in 2006. Those were great times, as are these adventures.
Thank you for sharing our adventures … and commenting when it strikes your interest!
Nous Sommes Arrivés
Following a long night and day of airplane flights, we have arrived. The French Riviera is beautiful. I guess that kind of explains why so many people come here. Our plan is to spend 2 days here in nice, and then go 20 miles down the road to on Antibes. Antibes is where the language school is that we will be attending for 2 weeks.
As you can see by the photo, the Mediterranean is beautiful, with the full moon shining in the background.
Just for completeness comment here is a picture of bill also on the promenade.
Jet lag Jet lag is catching up with us, so that’s all for now.
Jet lag Jet lag is catching up with us, so that’s all for now.
Accidental Eclipses in Nice are nice!
OK, so we are just enjoying the tourist life before we start our walk, and all that work. Nice is a beautiful city to visit. We had a wonderful run/walk in the morning, then explored the city including the Chagal museum. This photo is of one of his mosaics.
- After dinner, we went out for a walk and wondered why so many people were down on the beach. We were also wondering where the moon was, because we knew it should be full and just rising in the Eastern sky. But where was it? It’s slowly dawned on us that the moon is up, it is just hidden by the eclipse. That explains why all the people are out on the beach. We will post a picture of the eclipse in the banner, above, and also write here. Hopefully, one of them will show how beautiful it is.
Antibes
We have now taken the short train ride from Nice to Antibes and have found our rental flat for the next 2 weeks.
Perhaps the train ride was training for our stay in Antibes. On arrival to the Nice train station, the signs stated that our train would be on Platform C. An easy walk downstairs, under the tracks and then back up the stairs got us to “C”. Where are the other riders? Another check of the monitors showed that our train would now be on “D”. No problem. Another walk with the suitcase, backpacks and book packs downstairs and up and we’re on “D”. The train arrives and it’s not ours. Hmm. Another check of the monitor and we see that the train is now due on “A”. Down, up and we’re there! But, we’ve had our stairs for today (with luggage)!
On arrival in Antibes, we found our place … on the 4th floor, with no elevator. Now, in most countries (not the U.S.), the ground floor is not “1”, but “0”. This means that the 4th floor is 5 levels (stair sets) up. After all the training at the train station, we put our new-found strength to the test and climbed to our flat. It was worth it! The ‘banner’ above shows the view of the harbor from our window. From other windows, we see the old town. We’re gonna be okay here!
Sunday we will explore the town and learn where our language school is located (don’t want to be late for our first day is school).
Hope all is well with each of you.
Sunday Musings
As former boaters, staying near a large harbor evokes good feelings. We often muse about returning to the cruising life, but perhaps as power boaters, not as sailors. So, let’s examine our options:
With our current budget, we figure this one is affordable. 
Okay, no too roomy, but affordable!
Next up, what if we hit the lottery? Here’s an option, though Diane wasn’t too enthused: 
Much more commodious, but it doesn’t have that “je ne sais quoi” that Diane is looking for.
Now, if we inherit a country, or something like that, here’s an option: 
That’s Katara, a 408′ luxury yacht, built for the Emir of Qatar. It only accommodates 28 (it’ll fit our family), but requires a crew of 60 to sail her. Maybe if my consulting project is successful?
Now, if you have a ship like that, you have to get around on land, right? Here are a couple of offerings we found: 
Yes, that’s a Bentley SUV! But perhaps something more modest might be your taste? How about this one? 
That’s only a Rolls Royce sedan. Kind of inconspicuous, but it gets you from here to there.
Enough of that. We hope you had a great weekend. Au revoir.
Jellies, Bellies and Books
We’re now three days into Antibes and are feeling pretty comfortable getting around. We know where the stores, the restaurants, the beaches and the school are located. Everything else is a bonus.
So, Bellies: Filling your belly with good eats is really easy here! Many excellent restaurants do choose from. And since this whole region used to be part of Italy, there is a very strong Italian flavor to the food. Hard to complain! While we ate Italian for the first 3 nights, we decided to really go local with our dining last night. Therefore, we chose a Thai restaurant! In the French Riviera? Sure, why not?
Well, Bill did one Italian dining thing last night; he stood in a long line to get a sampling of the city’s best gelato! Here’s a photo of the offering. 
It was truly worth the wait! Tonight, we needed a break so we cooked at home.
Jellies: Following his recent long ride, Bill has had some hip issues (inflamed bursa) and so has backed off from running for a bit to insure there’s no difficulty with the upcoming Camino. He’s focused on swimming. The water is calm and warm, so it’s been an easy transition.
Well, warm water is good for other things, like Jellies (jellyfish). Yep, he managed to make the acquaintance of one this morning. It was a painful meeting, but it didn’t last long. Hopefully the jelly and his friends have drifted elsewhere by tomorrow morning …
Books: School is going well! We are, no doubt, the oldest students, but … so what? We’re having fun, working hard and learning a lot. Actually, the are several families that are here studying together. That seems like a fun thing to do. Maybe our kids/ grandkids will join us next time?!
Finally, another beach shot just to remind folks about why we’re studying French in Antibes.