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.

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.

We are closing in on our first complete week of French schooling. In one more week, we will be let loose on the French countryside to ply our newfound skills as Francophones.

So, how are we doing? Recall those conversations when someone says something to you and perhaps hours later you think; ‘you know, I should have said such and such’?! Well, that’s what conversations in french are like! Someone asks you a question or just says something and you are immediately at a loss for: “what did they say? “, and “what do I say back?”. If only you had 5 minutes or so to figure out what they said and how to respond, our French would be so much better! Well, it doesn’t work that way.

Here are a couple of examples of speech-gone- wrong:

1. This morning, a woman cleaning the stairs at our apartment complex asked us (in French), “are you going for a hike?”. Bill’s response: “Yes, we have an apartment up there!”. She smiled, thoroughly convinced that Americans are really dumb!

2. Yesterday, Bill was asked, “where do you come from?”. Bill’s response? “We leave next Saturday!” Once again, that universal look of “dumbness” broke out on the French person’s face.

Seriously, everyone we’ve met have been very gracious and patient with our efforts to speak French. But, boy, do we have a long way to go!

Jelly update: On day one (when we first noted Bill’s jelly sting), it was a painful nuisance. Yesterday, it caught fire. Much swelling and welting. A visit to the local pharmacy (using our newfound French skills) put us on the path to relief! It will be a while before it goes away, but at least it is not continuing to worsen. 

Hope all is well with our family and friends back home.

With the weekend at hand, it’s time for some adventuring! Monaco is but a 45 minute train ride to the East, so off we went.

Had I remembered to pull out my phone, I could be showing you all of these amazing coves we passed by on the train. Unfortunately, we were too busy enjoying the view to think about photos.

Once in Monaco, we remembered the phone and took photos of another kind of beauty, the opulent kind. Here’s Diane showing some of the nicer things available in Monaco: 

Actually, where this Rolls was parked, there were probably another 6 or 8 more Rolls and Bentleys.  Now, if you started counting the Ferraris and Lamborghinis, you might be there for a while … seriously.

And, of course, if you’ve got these kind of goods, you simply must go to the Monte Carlo casino, which is what Diane did. Tomorrow, we are planning a hike, then dinner over some newfound friend’s home. They are Germans, living in Liberia, and studying French at our school.

Au revoir.

On Sunday, we’re decided to take a hike along the Sentier littoral Cap d’Antibes. This is a beautiful hike along the edge of the cape. From our home, around the Cape and back, it was just about 10 miles … a good warmup for next week. Like all the coastline around here, it was beautiful! 

Sunday evening, we had the pleasure of joining a German family for dinner. He works in Liberia, as a professor of school administration and she is a teacher. They have adopted a Liberian orphan, who is now 16.

Monday was back to school and learning about partatives, conjugations, vocabulary, and how to interact in the: train station, store, post office, etc. Very useful skills!

Before school, we try to get our exercising done as it is too hot and humid in the afternoon for that kind of work. The photos below are Diane’s running route and Bill’s swimming route (the water, to the left). It is so cool to be out here as the sun is rising.

At school on Mondays, they receive new students. All morning, these students take placement tests.  On Tuesday, the students join the appropriate classes already in progress … like our class. We’re now have 12 in our class; 2 from Spain, 3 from Germany, 2 from Italy, 1 from Switzerland, 1 from Norway, 1 from Latvia, and of course, 2 from the US. And the international language is ..  English. A very helpful language to know.

Today, we did interviews in French and learned how to read (and place) classified ads. It was actually very helpful, as the classified ads have a whole lot of useable words in a short space.

After class, we typically go to the grocery store, then the boulangerie. We must have fresh baguettes every day!

This afternoon, a visit to the local Picasso museum was in order. Seems Picasso spent a few months here and, well, that requires a museum. It was really pretty cool. Some of his paintings are below

Bill clearly could use some help in understanding these. He typically looks intently at the painting, tips his head right, then left, nods in appreciation, smiles them moves on. Why? He has no idea! However, others around him think he is really appreciating the work of art! Maybe Micah and Alex can help him here …

Dinner and a later evening walk finish the day for us students. So ends a day in the life!

Here on the Cote d’Azur, predicting the weather has been straightforward. It will be sunny and 90 F. Done. Except today.  At 12:30,  there were clouds filling the sky and the question  of rain  entered the conversation. This was important because we were planning on going to Ile St. Marguerite, a beautiful local island, in the afternoon.

Our U.S.-based weather app suggested the possiblity of rain on the horizon. Some of our European friends offered their preferred Euro- based weather app, as it had “local knowledge”. That app said rain was possible, but not probable.

So, we went to the island.  It was really beautiful! Here’s a photo of the island interior: 

What you can’t see in the photo is the lightning storm going on overhead. It was impressive! The next photo shows the anchorage. Again, beautiful. Within 5 minutes of this photo, you could not see the boats because of the rain. It poured! And it continued for another hour-plus.

We have a friend who sailed in Mexico at the same time we did, Doug Brownell. He had the most fool-proof weather app available. It worked like this: Stick your head out the port (window). Look around. What do you see? Trust your eyes, not the ‘experts’. Doug, we’re still learning those lessons!

Fair winds and following seas, all. We miss you.