Hello Mediterranean! (Bay of Angels, Nice, France)
“Provence, we have arrived!” Saying “Hello” to the Mediterranean on the Promenade des Anglais, the Bay of Angels, we extended our awe-inspired gratitude for the magical adventure to come.
“Every dear friend I have was once a stranger on the street.” – T. David Rush
The Doors declare that, “People are strange when you’re a stranger,” and that is often the case. However, this is not our experience in France.
Reality has set in on the French Riviera as we stroll the Bay of Angels in the alluring city of Nice, cradled along the Mediterranean in the region of Provence. We arrived twenty-four hours earlier, marking the beginning of an adventure that started with a decision made less than five months ago. We finally did it and the world is ours to explore.
As you will read, we have fallen in love with so much that is France. While common, for us this is honestly unexpected. Bonjour is all we know and is, quite literally, sung to us each morning as a musical tone of welcome in every shop we enter, and even by the strangers passing by. We are at a loss to find the infamous rude French rumoured to roam these fragrant lands. Instead there are only warm, helpful people willing to make that extra effort to answer the asks of an English-speaking Canadian man actively flailing his arms with an apologetic smile, struggling hard to speak his bungled French-glish. Their patience is heroic.
The sunshine is a warm new year’s gift for these unaccustomed Canadians. Warm air envelops us like a hug as palm trees sway along the promenade. The French Riviera has already delivered on its promise of sublime food, stunning architecture and beautiful people. The gentle waters of the Mediterranean remind us that we are far away from home and it is exciting.
Sprawling train adventures lead us to the opulent delights of Monte Carlo and Cannes, to the touch of an ancient world in Carcassonne and then to the quiet day-to-day of the tiny medieval village of Saint Chinian. We have a lot to share.
The food, the flavours, the quality, the dress and not least, the atmosphere, have taught us how to savour setting the desired tone for our explorations to come. Please enjoy the blog we have included below.
“Zeis is impossibul.” Our First Steps in Nice
We didn’t see that coming. “What’s the plan, Phil?” – Claire Dunphy, ABC’s Modern Family Do you like to have a solid plan when you’re hurtling your young family overseas? So do we. That’s exactly why we didn’t. Oops. Like most people, we prefer to have a plan; it just makes things easier. That said, a large part of our “shake-up” is to change the way we do things; try them on for size. So instead of making a firm plan we simply selected a global destination, booked a hotel for...
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