Wordy Update

Here I am on a Sunday morning looking in both directions, backwards and forwards. It's been 5 weeks but it seems much longer. My french is coming a long. I am not sure that I will ever find a teacher. I am making out best , again, when I am thrown into the deep end and have to speak. So many people have been helpful when they hear me trying. I want to find more of these circumstances.
I am going to skype with my great teacher in California this week...I need to study more. But I am progressing.
I do find that I need to warm up. I also find that if someone does speak English, and I know it, I resort to Engliah. My fault. Perhaps it's part of my black or white nature.

I tell the time by when the gun shots start. During the week, they start about 7 and the dog down the hill starts barking and crying about then as well. I think he barks because his family goes off to work ( they own a fancy restaurant in Cagnes called Renoir) . They must put him out for the day and he is unhappy. He has a big yard and a beautiful vista. I have seen him a few times. He is a big beautiful long haired mountain dog. During the week, he tells me what time it is.

On the weekends, the shooting starts later, around 8 and lasts longer. The dog does not bark in the morning on weekends.

In California, I was able to tell the time in the morning , any day, by the sound of the traffic on the highway. When it became a solid whoosh, I knew it was 8 am or so and people were rushing off to work enmass.

The weekends are a little difficult for me. It may be that everyone goes into their family unit and I am left on the outside, but I feel a little rudderless. I need to get the dogs out and exercised before I can go anywhere for any length of time. I feel guilty not giving them a good run. However, I can't get them out into the woods until noon or so as I fear the hunters. I wish I could take them with me on adventures, but it's impossible, I think, with the 2 of them. I would love to go on a hike around a little town and then go into the town, look around, have lunch, but I don't think I can do it with 2 and I would feel terrible if I left one home. So I am torn.
I cannot seem to find a dog sitter. Mme.L. Tells me that she can't find a gardener, she says no one wants to work and that if she finds someone, they complain. It's frustrating...no french teacher, no dog sitter. I must make some headway this week with those 2 things.

Today, I will find a place to take the dogs, a hike in the woods. North west of me is a town called Tourette's Sur Loup that is on a cliff. It is known for it's violet production . They grown them under the olive trees. They supply violets to grasse for perfume.
There is a festival in march that I will try to go to. Today, I think we will take a drive there and see if I can find a trail along the river for us to walk.

There is a mimosa festival today in a town called Tanneron. It is about 45 minutes form here way up at the top of a small mountain in the Esterels. I have driven up there in June and have wanted to go back to see the Mimosas in bloom. They are blooming everywhere here, but in that area, they have a Mimosa Trail, like the Lavendar Trail in Provence where it is miles and miles of acid yellow flowers. I decided against the festival. The driving and traffic and parking would be hell. I will go later this week to see the sights.

It's so beautiful here. California is very beautiful too, but I love this type of landscape. I never grow tired of the sunrises and sunsets or the view of the sea.
I feel like the time is passing quickly and I need to do more. How will I get deeper into things?
I will start the exercise classes this week, go to the Meet Up on Wednesday, go to a movie, get a key
 made, find the famous hardware store in Nice, get more secure about using my credi card, eat no bread, cut down on cheese. I need to take more serious photos ( I have actually had quiet a few serious shots ( big camera) accepted by my stock agency, have to do a lot more of that,  work on my painting, more writing little vignettes that have been great for me, I need to get on a schedule, find a dog sitter. I also need to find more inroads into French everyday life. I need to go on a date with a man that speaks no English at all.

What have I learned about myself? It's interesting. In the house the are many mirrors. To me, I look different. I look at myself and can really see myself for the first time. I have that same ailment that many women have, that they are over weight ...but, seeing myself here, I'm not. It's like I see myself more clearly.

 I know that people thinks its very brave of me to just pick up and move to a foreign country. For some reason, that part is easy for me. I don't really miss California at all. The hard part for me is forging a new social path. I think this is one of the main reasons I am here and not just existing day to day in California or in the US where it was easy for me. Easy equals boring to me.

I think I needed a "tabla rasa" .People don't know me here. It's not easy to make friends , but there are so many opportunities for me to push through. I can be socially awkward as I am not from here, so people accept me as they see me trying. I am making aquaintances everyday, but I need to go deeper, as I keep saying. I need to find inroads into areas that I am interested in, the flower production, farmers, antique dealers, hunters, truffles, dogs, the sea, the old towns...
I need to use my photography skills to get me in. Why don't I try to have a vernisage ( exhibition) or have a show in a gallery here. I  have always shied away from this, but it would be good for me to get my images and myself out there.

So that's where I am at the moment. Sorry to be long winded. So many have been sharing this path with me that I thought I would tell you how I am feeling about this all and how it is shaping me.
All comments and ideas greatly appreciated.

Shot today

June Bugs

Frozen Bay

First Two Crepes

Just now, a knock came on the window and Mme. L was there with a plate with 2 crepes on it. She (explained in French) that today, you make an give crepes to someone as a traditional custom, to assure them of prosperity ( she made the universal money sign rubbing her thumb with her forefinger accompanied by a big smile)  in the new year.
One was just sugar, the other was fig. I would have included a picture, but I think she said something about eating them quickly, and so I did. .
Behind her the sky was black and thundering loudly. There is a complete break of the storm over the sea in the distance. There it is blue with salmon colored clouds.
These pictures are right outside my door at 4 pm.

West towards Spain

South Towards The Sea

Untitled

Two Tails

"Mom....."

My First Absinthe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe
Mme. L. had encouraged me to visit her husband in the evening, around 6pm when his men friends come and visit his Brocante ( antique shop)  in town. There would be no English spoken . So tonight I quickly went to the supermarket, where I saw a man rewinding up his young daughter's pig tail with a pink hair band. I had to get wood cleaner and polish for my new dressing table. I'm good and flying in and out of there now.

I drove back to La Colle under an incredibly dark sky with red clouds...a storm is coming tomorrow.

I parked in Le Jeu De Palme parking lot. Monsieur L. was there with one of his friends that I have met before. They warmly invited me in , found me a very pretty tall purple glass and poured the absinthe and then the very cold water into it. It was not that strong and it's not like it used to be back in the time of Degas and Toulouse Lautrec. Back then, it was a hallucinogen.
I loved listening to them go back and forth, some I could understand, some, I could not. It's only been a month, so I won't be too hard on myself. We talked about red skies at night .

 “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning” true, or is it just an old wives’ tale?

or, at least, I think we talked about that.

The 2 men kept feeling each other's heads as when the absinthe makes you hot, it's time to go home. They told me to be careful driving back to the house. I said that I worried about the narrow spot where only one car can pass...they told me the absinthe makes the narrow spot seem really wide...to which I added...and seem really hot! We all laughed.
Al Capone and Prohibition was mentioned. 

I left when the other man did. I kissed Monsieur L on both cheeks ( for the first time) and they joked, that I should kiss the other man, but no way.

No pictures but imagine it as in a narrow glass room surrounded by antiques. There are antique lamps on....so the light is soft and orangeish. I am sitting on a chair across from Monsieur L.  There is a table in between us with a green bottle of absinthe and a green bottle with iced water in it, like it had been in the freezer. On the table is also 3 different tall glasses with the cloudy white liquid in it. The other man stands so that I can have the chair. He stands very close with his back to the door. We are in a very tight circle.
But, picture this, I am in France in a small village, drinking absinthe, speaking French, living life. 

What a great experience. I will visit with them again!

Making Progress

So I am through the dry cleaning hoop. There is one very close to me. I walked right in, told them that I am an American and that I do my best to speak French. The girl could not have been nicer. She corrected my French twice and stayed in French, except to say Tuesday. I was able to speak and understand. Yippppeeeee.

The Episode In Which I Buy The Dressing Table

Call me crazy but I decided to buy this dressing table. Somewhere in my head, I think I was imagining that it was some fabulous Louis XIV antique.

I started the day by going to about 4 furniture stores filled with modern crap that I would have to put together. I did find a very simple bamboo dresser for 75 euro that would have worked perfectly. I figured that I would check out the antique place down the road and come back and get the dresser if I didn't find anything.

The antique place was like a consignment shop with many antique vendors. The antiques here, in Europe, are fascinating to me. I wish I had a better knowledge.

I walked into this little side shop. The man was so nice. You see him here in the beige...No English Spoken! He showed me quite a few pieces until I saw this old dressing table with it's back to me. It opens out to reveal a mirror that moves back and forth, sleeves that pull out and unfold out. It's a very busy little piece...

He said it was 30 or 40 years old, but I think older. It was well made. He pointed out the workmanship to me. 

How much, I ask in French....50 euro. WHAT? He held up the palm of his had and drew our 50...I said, Really? and he said yes, 50 euro...whoooshhh, hand movements out the door.

Sold! 

So then we needed to find knobs for it. There is an old 3rd Generation store in Old Nice that is jammed packed full of knobs and other old hardware things. Can't wait to go there. My friend went to find someone who spoke English to explain this part. After asking about 20 people, people that were having lunch at a plastic cafe set up in front of a restaurant truck, ( he managed to scarf some fries off one man's plate) he finally found an old British guy with bright blue eyes. The Brit looked at me and gave me a "Hi!" as opposed to the usual formal French greeting. He helped explain and find the address of the hardware store in Nice. That will be another story.

Next, we had to get the dresser into my car. It took the 4 of us to figure out how to get it into my car. 

We managed to fit it in after a few attempts.

My new friend was helping me with my French, and correcting me, just the way I like. He had some interesting things. I shook his hand ( which always shocks men) and told him that I would come back another day.

Now that I have it here...it's not ideal. It's too big and the drawers are only for small things...so I still need a dresser.

Also, one foot is cut off, so it does not stand correctly., It also needs to be fixed a little , re nailed on the left side. 

It's Ok though, It was the experience that was important to me. I learned a few new words. I made a new friend.