Nice - Cote d'Azur

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2009-10-07T21:33:00.002+02:00

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French politics going backwards in time

2007-04-19T12:38:00.000+02:00

This weekend the first round of the presidential elections takes place. The direction where French politics are going is.. backward in time ! As you can see in this picture from newspaper Le Monde.

Christmas

2007-01-07T00:10:00.000+01:00

Saturday night before Christmas, our neighbours came over for a dance. Here are some pictures:

Nissa Rebela

2006-12-28T10:32:00.000+01:00

As in other parts of France, here too you have some organized regionalism. Unlike in Corsica, here the argument is not so much about independence from France, but rather of « preserving identity ».

Promotion of the local language Niçois is in fact the only point being made that might be construed as serving local identity. Otherwise their publications are full of hate speech along the lines of

Harmonie, paix et sécurité ne peuvent exister que dans une société ethniquement et culturellement homogène.

.. and much worse. See for example this site.

Even the Front National is seen as an « assimilationist » pro-immigration party, what with its recent strategy to try and appear as a party for all people French, as exemplified by posters like this one:

A bunch of reactionary bigots, all of them, that's what I say.

Residence permit

2006-11-26T17:23:00.000+01:00

Cristina has finally been able to succesfully apply for a residence permit, known as Carte de Séjour ! Even if this is only the application, it already grants her the rights to work in France, and to stay longer than 3 months in the "Schengen" countries. If all goes as expected she'll receive the final document around New Year.

It was not at all so easy to get to this stage. To apply for such documents, you have to go to the Prefecture and take part in the race to get heard that day. Everyday there are many more people than they can help during their limited opening hours. After various visits I now think the best strategy is to join the queue around 08:00 (one hour before they open), try to get as much in front as you can (abandoning your sense of civility) and when the doors open, run as fast as you can to the room where the queue will form again.

The first step then is to get past the "document check". After a few visits where we were actually organizing all necessary documents, came the time we really had everything ready. This time, at the document check there was a particularly badly educated woman who refused to help us further other than claiming that Cristina would need a long term visa, which you can only get in Brazil and which takes some 6 months to be issued. She turned us down with a malevolent indulgent smile that makes you want to !

The information she gave us, however, is false, which was confirmed by both the French consulate in Brasilia and by the telephone information line of the Prefecture Alpes-Maritimes itself. The long term visa requirement goes for French citizens with a non-EU partner; but I am of course a European Citizen, living in another country than where I was born. You may find it strange but in this case different laws apply, namely those of the EU, rather than those of the country where you happen to be. So, the next day we went back; this time there was a most friendly young man at the document check. He however also believed Cristina'd need a long term visa. I entered a yes-no discussion that lasted quite awhile until he went to the back to ask advice, and some fifteen minutes later returned smiling saying, OK, you go ahead to the second desk. This is where you actually do the application.

And who was working at the second desk? Yesterday's witch !! She of course recognized us, exploded with rage, and managed to utter "who let you through here ?". I pointed out the nice young man. She grabbed our passports and without a word, raced to the back, steaming with anger. We were left sitting at the desk for one whole hour with no information (and no coffee) when her boss came by, saying sorry, we were right, and it's all his fault. After this the witch finished the application without saying more than the bare necessary.

So hopefully now all will be well; as you can see in the document below, the residence application is for 10 years ! This seems to be quite unusual (normally it'd be 1 or at most 3). Must be because the witch never wants to see our face again !

Although I do think it is a sad circumstance that people in the immigration office either don't know the law, or wilfully obstruct it. This lawlessness happens all the time in Holland (see this site (in Dutch)) but France generally seems to be less xenophobic than Holland; then again at times like this it doesn't look that way.

Halloween 2006 - noite das bruxas !

2006-11-03T21:08:00.000+01:00

Last Tuesday was Halloween, and we went to the party organised by our Baiana neighbour Solange, in the small Italian bar Rafaello's down the block in Rue de France. WARNING: these pictures are frightening !

Cristina turned witch

Heikki also turned witch

Mysterious glowing object

Cristina

Heikki

Heikki

Cristina

More witches

Angel of Death came along too

Witches dancing

More witches

Clan of witches

The film we watched late at night

Texas Chainsaw Massacre !

Politics

2006-10-26T00:53:00.000+02:00

Soon there are elections in Brazil, Holland, and France, and probably in more places. To find out in what political camp you are, you can take a 10-questions test here. My result is:

Monaco

2006-10-24T23:58:00.000+02:00

You think of Holland as a small country. Think again; between Nice and the Italian frontier lies a tiny mountainous settlement, that to this day managed to save its independence from France and the European Union. The ruling family call themselves princes, since François Grimaldi in the year 1297 treacherously gained entrance to the Genoan fortress on the rock, hiding his weapons under his monk's disguise. At 15 minutes from the Nice Ville train station it makes for a nice day trip, where everybody takes almost the same photographs. So did we!

The Monaco train station, built inside a mountain

Banana tree near the casino

The royal palace on the rock

Cristina assisting the defenses of the Principality

Canon balls

Heikki and Cristina on a cannon

Sainte Cecile, in Monaco mistakenly taken for a patron of musicians

The port of Monte Carlo

Some Brazilian influences?

From afar it looks like a favela

Restrictions on civil liberties protect the sensitivities of the royal family

Colline de Chateau

2006-10-15T19:06:00.000+02:00

Staying in Amsterdam had left me with a cold from which I've still not fully recovered. The contrast in climate with the Rivièra is particularly striking this time of year. Cristina and me took a walk up the Colline de Chateau, the hill between the old city and the port, where there used to be a castle until its destruction in 1706 by Louis XIV. For reference here you have an image of Nice in the old days, when the castle still stood:

The hill now has a beautiful park, with waterfalls and great views of the town and the sea. Believe it or not, this was the first time we actually went up there. Enjoy the pictures!

Cristina entering the ruins of the castle

View of Nice

The Cascades, the waterfalls at the Colline de Chateau

Cristina in front of the Cascades

The Cascades

The Cascades

The Cascades

View of the sea

View of the sea

View of the old city

View of the old city

On top of the hill

Cactus

View of the port of Nice

Cristina

Cristina

Flowers

Cactus

Flowers

Flowers. This one smells exactly like passion fruit.

The old town

Beach

People swimming in the sea

The light of the setting sun striking the Colline de Chateau

Wedded !

2006-10-09T23:51:00.000+02:00

The wedding! On an autumn Monday morning with sunshine, rain and strong winds in Amsterdam. The ceremony took place in the city hall known as Stopera. Complete with speeches by Alexander and my mum, the latter recited by Youri. Cristina was very beautiful in her white dress, and did not faint at the moment suprême, as she had predicted. Daniela kindly did a great job of translating (almost) everything to Portuguese. Gertjan performed the role of ring-bearer. Sylvia took photographs, Youri made a film, my Hamburg friends Rik and Delia acted (with Daniela) as witnesses, Ingrid and Roy just back from Costa Rica didn't bring their IDs so they couldn't join the witness table, and Maurice and Hévila were almost in time. Could not have been more perfect!

Vows and rings having been exchanged, we went with this party to the nearby Cafe Danzig, and then we went home to consume the marriage and prepare for the party in the evening. Home being Elma's house, our temporary dwelling; she herself unfortunately could not be there because she was in Mozambique. The party in the evening, lasting late into the night was very nice with lots of people and live Brazilian music by the great Mozambican musician Leo. At some point there wasn't a single person not dancing!

A fuller photo report will be posted here once I have some more photos; most were taken by other people who have yet to send me copies (hint, hint). Here is a small preview, from the pictures on my camera.

The night before: Cristina in Cafe Cuba, Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam

Daniela and Cristina just before the wedding ceremony

Heikki and Cristina before the altar

Done! Sanctioned kissing, from now on!

My mum looking at my hand where my engagement ring used to be..

Wedding

2006-09-20T19:17:00.000+02:00

Yes ! Cristina and I sent out the invitation to our wedding. It looks like this:

French keyboard

2006-09-17T14:48:00.000+02:00

A new keyboard ! It has a very smooth touch and would make for really fast easy typing, if not for one small detail : it's French ! I suppose one gets used to the letters being in different positions, although especially hitting the 'a' and 'm' still needs my undivided attention. But what to make of having to use the shift key to hit a dot? To enter a number you also need to shift. And I didn't think the semi-column was used more often in French than the dot.. and why is precious keyboard space offered to characters like '¤' and 'µ' ?? But then again it's sort of handy to have keys for 'ç' and the like. And with no effort at all I can now square² things from the keyboard !

iPod manufacturing

2006-08-27T00:45:00.000+02:00

These days everyone and their mother owns an i-pod. Apart from the fact that these devices sell for outrageous prices, and that it's apparently quite usual to be re-formatting them regularly (for example if you use some 3rd party program, and Boom! it's gone. No problem, just re-format..), it also appears that your beloved snubs' company Apple has them produced in Shenzhen, China, in circumstances that are bad enough to put this company on a par with other heroes of exploitation like Nike and McDonalds. See for example this story.

If you really must ignore the circumstances of where you are, plugging your auditory orifices with out-of-ambience sound, why don't you assemble a small radio for yourself? Low-tech, low-price, and you're not stuck with the same songs you already heard too often.

"Peace Dormitory" where many hundreds of iPod assembly employees stink together after their 15 hour work day

Puget-Theniers

2006-08-13T19:51:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I went with my visitors Ingrid, Roy and Youri to Puget-Theniers, a village some 65 km north-west of Nice (or 1,5 hours by the little train) in a mountainous area. The train basically follows the Var, the river that meanders down to Nice in a pebbly river bed at least 10 times wider than the river itself. We did a beautiful hike, at times a bit scary for those who fear heights (like me), especially when crossing a ridge with steep limestone ravine-ish slopes to both sides. We enjoyed nice views over the vally of the Var, though. I'll definitely do more exploring in this area.

World Cup 2006

2006-08-13T18:37:00.000+02:00

A bit after the fact, here you have some pictures of the final match of the World Cup football: France - Italy. The game where Zidane exited his career with the famous head-butt. Italy won.

The phenomenon of football is in France not nearly the social issue that it is, for example, in Holland. All the time during the World Cup no-one was interested in it at all, not until France won the semi-finals from Brazil and there were just a few days to go to the finals. No French flags in every street and every shop - this kind of thing, which in Holland so sickens me, blissfully absent. For the final match, however, a very large screen was put out on the Promenade des Anglais, and thousands of people came to watch. Another striking contrast to how this would have been in Holland: the crowd was completely quiet during the game, no fighting, even practically no shouting - and when lost, everyone simply went home and the 25% Italians in Nice took over the streets..

Crowd watches match on the Promenade

Meanwhile, the beach lies quiet

Some fireworks when Italy won

Jellyfish Côte d’Azur

2006-08-09T09:20:00.000+02:00

The last couple of days, this blog has been frequently visited by American people searching Google for jellyfish in Nice or Corsica. Somehow this blog turns up high, even before this post, all because of 1 picture of a jellyfish in Corsica. So what's the news? Earlier this summer the newspaper Nice-Matin ran a story that there were "more" jellyfish than in normal years, here in the Baie des Anges. The article also neatly explained the effect of a sting (feels like an electric shock and a hot iron at the same time) and what to do about it when you get one (go to medical post at the beach; or rinse with 10% ammonia solution; and there was something involving tomatoes or bananas too, I don't remember).

Personally I've seen only one jellyfish so far, this side of the sea. And it doesn't look like anyone at all is deterred from the beaches and the sea for this reason. But yesterday, the Riviera Times ran a story explaining

Hundreds of Pelagia noctiluca jellyfish that swept in on a current from Italy at the weekend are still present on the Côte d’Azur

So now we know where they are from !!

In any case, they are very beautiful.. just think of that to ease your pain.

Bus #230 summertime blues

2006-08-06T15:03:00.000+02:00

Now that it's July and August, the company STCAR that operates line #230, the "express" between Nice and Sophia Antipolis, has had the brilliant idea of reducing bus frequency. Not that it was all that frequent anyway, but why not even less buses.. it's summer after all. Unfortunately this does not quite correspond to any lesser number of potential passengers. Added to that the fact that this bus does not take anyone if all seats are taken, the effect is that in the more popular hours, like going-to-work-time, the bus everyday refuses passengers at my stop Gambetta/Promenade. If it happens to you, you just have to hope the next bus (which will come after a very long time) has a seat for you. Or else, the one after that.. in which case you might as well take the rest of the day off and stay on the beach.

My own solution is preventing this by walking all the way to the stop at Albert Premier at the edge of the old town. This way I get on the bus a couple of stops earlier, and I've never been refused there yet. But I have to leave home even earlier..

Trailing mouse pointer

2006-08-01T23:54:00.000+02:00

Happened to open this site, which features an interesting but eery trailing mouse pointer.. you never get to see his face.

Fridge !

2006-07-26T00:48:00.000+02:00

The latest addition in household items: a fridge !!! So very comfortable in the heat wave, and after having done without for so long. Enjoy the pictures !

Paintings

2006-07-21T19:24:00.000+02:00

Despite the heat, finally managing another post.. I've some catching up to do. This one is to draw your attention to the works of the Mozambican painter Kheto Lualuali, who has just opened a new website at khetolualuali.com. Enjoy !

Usage of Portuguese

2006-07-02T19:05:00.000+02:00

Daniela, who used to be my Portuguese teacher in Amsterdam and who is greatly recommended to anyone interested in learning the language, forwarded me this blog about (in)correct usage of Portuguese. Brazilian point of view, of course. The site is no longer updated but it contains many funny pieces on this beautiful language:

Este blog pretende contribuir para "a difícil arte de escrever fácil".

Cat pictures

2006-07-01T13:10:00.000+02:00

Little cat is doing very well and growing .. here are some pics :

Sand

2006-06-23T19:45:00.000+02:00

After a relatively cloudy week the skies are blue again. At around the day the weather turned, huge amounts of sand came down from the sky, as in these pictures of cars. I think we got sprayed with some of the Sahara up here in Nice -- although I'm not entirely sure this was the famous Sirocco, as I didn't notice no 100 km/h winds. Hopefully next time all will land on the beach ..

Alexander & Jaciara visiting

2006-06-22T22:40:00.000+02:00

For a week, Alexander and Jaciara came to visit me. They did not get to see too much sunshine, but they were fine with that as they rather make trips than sit on the beach. I went with them in the weekend to the Eglise Russe in Nice, not too far from home, and to Antibes. The port of Antibes is chokeful of very expensive yachts, most of which are registered in Georgetown, Cayman Islands -- how richess breeds greed. Other days, they also took the Chemin des Pignes to Entrevaux and beyond, and they went to Monaco, when I was working. It was very nice for me to have visitors, being all alone now that Cristina is still in Brazil ! Who's next ?

Alexander & Jaciara at home

Eglise Russe - Russian Church

Alexander & Jaciara in the bar at the corner

Port of Antibes

Alexander & Jaciara in the very Antibes restuarant where Alexander had watched the 1974 Holland-Germany World Cup

Heikki in the train from Antibes to Nice

Sophia prison

2006-06-15T10:08:00.000+02:00

Yesterday there was apparently some terrible accident on the A8 (the highway between Antibes and Nice) causing the highway to be closed in both directions. The effect of this in Sophia was that the normally quiet roads were filled with tens of thousands of cars, unable to go faster than a snail. The buses couldn't get through and I was already wondering what to do about my friends arriving from Amsterdam in the evening, and what about sleeping out in the open but the ants here are so big.. after waiting for 2.5 hours however, there showed up a #230, who took such a long time to go towards the highway that by time it got there, the A8 was clear again..

the red parts are inaccessible