Merci!

Rosetta Stone and I are still having an issue with my French lessons. The screen shot below perfectly illustrates my frustration. I can say everything to RS's liking until I get to the word Merci.

Now everyone that I've met in France understands me when I thank them, but RS can't and keeps me from going forward with my lessons. I often have to repeat the word 15 times before getting their okay. Yet the most complicated sentences that I pronounce like I have marbles in my mouth get approved!

My new friend, Evelyne Nabet, la chanteuse, tells me that I must practice, practice and practice. Following her advise, and in honor of Thanksgiving, I dedicate this blog to Merci.

Following is my list of things I'm very grateful for:

1. First I need to say Merci for my health. Today, I took the bus to Cimiez, an area of Nice, high in the hills abaove Old Town and Nice Central. It is famous for its Roman ruins, Chagall and Matisse museums and lovely tree-lined streets with villas and grand houses many in the Beaux Arts style. What's that have to do with my health? Well I walked all the way back...6 kilometres. Merci pour ma sante.

2. While walking in Cimiez, I stopped frequently to photograph many of the architectural delights and other street scenes that caught my eye. In fact, while taking the picture above, I stepped back for a better view and voila, I stepped in...! Well it's another French M word that I won't use here, but I've always been told that it is good luck, so here is a great big MERCI to all the negligent dog walkers in Nice.

3. I am SO very grateful that many of my friends believe that I take good pictures. So for them, I say Merci and offer these additional random shots of Cimiez, Nice, Antibes, Cannes, and Villefranche-sur-mer for their viewing pleasure.

Merci for architecture and Merci for shutters. J'adore shutters! Can you tell?



Henri Bosco - Novelist and Poet 
Qui habite la "Maison Rose" de 1955 a 1976



 4. Merci for the markets. For the fabulous colors, scents and tastes! 

  

5. La Grignotiere, in Villefranche-sur-mer a gets huge Merci for consistently giving great food and for great service from Brigitte! And bisous to Shelley Dobyns Benton http://www.rivieraexperience.com/ for having the greatest apartments. 

 

6. Speaking of food! Merci to Oliver who has Pain Chaud downstairs from the apartment in Nice. Who wants to make petit-dejeuner when all you have to do is go down 61 steps (or take the ascensur) for fresh cafe creme and pain au chocolate. Plus good conversation in francais/anglais.

He also makes fresh sandwiches.

7. Merci for French sandwiches. I can no longer eat New York City mile-high sandwiches. Look! Just one slice of jambon, fresh pain and beurre. Superb!

Of course you can always go to McDonald's. No joke. It's fresh here, not like home at all! Merci!

And eating light like that for lunch allows you to eat a bit more for dinner. My Thanksgiving dinner tonight is champagne (Pol Roger of course) and foie gras! Yum! Give me Merci!

8. My biggest Mercis goes to Romain, Fouzia, Sam and Zack. Without their frienship and an apartment in Nice non of this would be happening. Fouzia introduced me to the beauty of Nice. Merci beaucoup.

9. To an old acquaintance, I owe a great Merci for downloading hundreds of songs onto my computer. In the words of ABBA...

Thank you for the music, for the songs I'm singing

Thanks for all the joy they're bringing

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty

What would life be?

Without a song or dance what are we?

So I say thank you for the music

For giving it to me.

10. And finally. To Peter...Merci is not enough!

Christmas is coming to the Cote d'Azur.

The next and most likely last blog will be about that.

In the meantime,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

and

MERCI!

La Toussaint - Deuxieme partie (Part 2)

What was supposed to be a long holdiay weekend for the French didn't turn out so well. Here are some headlines from the daily newspaper nice-matin:

My apolgies to those who speak and read French, but this blog does not recognize nor allow me to enter accents.

lundi 1er november (November 1-All Saints Day)
Deluge de Toussaint (I don't think this requires transaltion)

mardi 2 november (November 2-All Souls Day)
Trois longues journees de deluge (Three long days of deluge) and
my personal favorite Tourisme: un week-end cauchemardesque (Tourism: A nightmarish weekend)

Yep. It poured all day on Sunday and when it looked like Monday might see some sun, it poured again. Which caught me off-guard as I decided that I sould honor All Soul Days by visiting the Nice Cimetiere (Cemetary). So to be able to take my photographs unencumbered, I left mon parapluie a la maison (my umbrella at the house). Not only was the day gray, so were the monuments, and day-light savings ended on this day which meant that it was dark gray and wet by 1700 (5pm).

I love the peace and quiet of European cemetaries (not US cemetaries as they have always be rather frightening to me since I was a child). I love looking at the tomb sculptures and in Nice there is a great selection dating back to the 19eme siecle (19th century). They may not be great art but I find they display the love and emotions of those who erected them in honor of their departed.

Not everything is gray though, there is plenty of green in the park-like settings, but in addition there is a wide range of colors from the flowers left in memory by the family survivors.

Many graves are lacking flowers as the families have died off or moved away. This monument of the Grosso family is said to be the most photographed in the Nice cemetary. I found it dificult to get a good picture as it is so large, but this distance shot caught other visitors with une parapluie that was almost as colorful as the flowers.

 

I'm sure these visitors are viewing these two beautiful portraits of the departed Grosso children.

Grosso sounds Italian to me, no? So many people ask me why I like Nice so much. Well there is a strong Italian heritage here as well as French. Just in this alley of the cemetary I noted the following names:

Imbrosciano
   Bruno
      Casiglia
         Chrubini
            Beringeri
               Tagliafico
                  Pasquale
                     Pellegrino
                       Magnani
                      


So when I come to Nice, I can have my French and my Italian too! The best of both!

I should mention my French lessons. I'm up to level 2 of Rosetta Stone (RS), but after one month of living in Nice, RS has determined that I cannot pronounce Merci (Thanks) or Salut (Hello)! How do you say DUH!!! in French?

Yet RS passed my pronunciation of this word...quincaillerie (hardware store)! Like anyone uses that word here as all they say is Bricarama which is a store much like our Home Depot! So spending a day in a cemetary wasn't so bad. No one was correcting my pronunciation.

With that said, hopefully you too will find this grave art to be as pleasing as I do.

In honor of the these souls I offer these photographs in silence.

By the time I took this photograph I was as wet and cold as the marble.

In my earlier post I mentioned that the cemtary in St. Paul de Vence had a view, well so does Nice. It is perched well above the Bay of Angels.