Nice is nice

Chere Soso,

My first day in Nice, my last stop in France, Europe and my 2010 trip.

Last time when I was here, more than ten years ago, I simply past by this place. I just spent some time sleeping in my sleeping bag in front of the train station waiting for my train to Italy. At that time I thought beach towns like this weren't my cup of tea. The palm trees were a bore to me. Now (perhaps as I grow older), I finally know how to appreciate it.

Well, I just arrived here today. I have just walked a little bit around the town centre for about 2 hours. And it seemed pretty and...nice.

Finally, I think I could do some shopping here. Love the chocolates and cheese of France, not to mention foie gras.

Beaches, and more beaches. There's so much sea to see in this trip, to my surprise, for I am the kind that used to avoid the beach when travelling. But the sea I've seen has been lovely, with such lovely blue color. I must say I enjoy my beach town days.

And I have realised at least two wishes so far. One was watching a football match of FCB at Camp Nou in Barcelona. The other one was having un rendez-vous avec Monsieur Yann Tiersen at Marseille, though this time he's more rock than the early YT that I used to know. The concert was good. Sadly no accordion, no A quai, mais heureusement, there's still the familar violin.

And I've seen so much beauty in this trip, des paysages et des hommes!

Bisous! A bientot!

Carcassonne day 2

Chère Soso,

To my surprise, the French here seems to be friendlier than the Spanish. It's the contrary last time when I travelled from France to Spain. Then I thought the Spanish were warmer than the French.

Here people would almost always say bonjour and au revoir when you enter and leave a place. And I could have little chat with people at sandwich store or at the post office. There were people greeting me or even asking me tourist info in the street, en français bien sur. And on the train to France yesterday I had already felt the difference. There was more friendly look than questioning stare (that I got a lot from Spanish women, while the guys were generally friendly. Perhaps there's something about Spanish women, think about the Almodovar films). And I even managed to talk with a madam.

Well Carcassone is pretty. But it's winter, the night falls a bit too early. Please let me walk a little bit more before it gets dark. And the Cité I have walk around it for hours and have not yet get tired of it. The views up here looking over the town around are lovely at endless angles.

Bonsoir, je suis en France

Chère Soso,

Maitenant, je suis à Carcassonne. Je peux encore une fois parler français, mais je l'ai beaucoup oubliè...

Leaving Spain is fast. The French border is just half an hour away from Figueres. Before I was really awake, I was already in France this morning. No time for missing anything...

But (to my surprise) I don't really miss Spain, after 3 weeks there. (I missed Portugal, I missed Morocco.) The cities I visited were interesting, pretty, or even beautiful. But it was hard to talk with the Spanish. I found myself hardly talk to any Spaniards during the whole trip, except the necessary conversations for service or at shops and eateries.

A la prochaine fois!