Or rather, 'tchin tchong' in French. Spotted this in the window of the Big Ben Pub in Nice. Besides being racist, this place has crappy opening hours. Too bad because it's cosy inside and they have a nice selection of beer. Alas.

Near my place. This corner is always like this.

Double-parking extravaganza in downtown Antibes, near Place de Gaulle.

Yesterday I was scuttling around the apartment wearing two pairs of knee-high socks, slippers, three shirts, a cardigan my grandmother made me and my warmest 'Montreal winter' scarf. (I can't bring myself to turn on the heat until sundown). Today, I went to the post office and boulangerie and thought I was gonna melt under the sun. I was sweating. It's 20C right now. 

A couple of weeks ago, we walked the trail around the Cap d'Antibes and I came across a lone but happy dandelion. In early January.

As weird - unnatural - as these Mediterranean winters still are to me, I can't deny the advantages, like being able to bike along the Cap to meet a friend for a free visit of the Villa Eilenroc earlier this week. Here's the view as you bike along the coast.

Gardening time will be here before I know it...meanwhile, the plants on the balcony are mostly asleep or in low-power mode except for the cactii, which appear to be extra-happy, and a few basil plants who quit this dimension some time ago.

After over a year and a half here, I should probably write about, y'know, UNESCO World Heritage-designated French cuisine, or just about food here in general.

To be honest, I haven't been that inspired because eating here isn't that different from eating in North America, with the great exception of attempting to dine in a restaurant as a vegan. More on that later. Also, herbivory precludes about 90 percent of French cuisine, which frankly appears repulsive to me anyway at this point. I did buy a book of traditional Provençal recipes though, because many of the dishes are wholesome and easily rendered vegan. See, for example, tians, socca and, of course, ratatouille.

The biggest difference is that I have easy access to a wonderful and sometimes mind-boggling array of bread, vegetables and fruits. It's easy to find local items (du pays) or from across France. Imported veggies are usually from Spain or Italy. Overall though, I get the impression that everything under the sun grows in France. Organic fruits and veggies can be found in health food stores, which are fairly common around here - off the top of my head, I can think of seven such stores in Antibes.

I'm not big on fruits but my favourites, berries of all sorts, are prohibitively expensive here and I don't know why.

I've learned to cook with with more vegetables here - leeks, shallots, potimarrons, sunchokes, romanesco broccoli, rose onions, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, artichokes. I've discovered mechouia, a spicy Tunisian salad/topping often sold in jars and sans animal products, and a delicious Italian spicy pepper spread. And, uh, Speculoos spread. No redeeming nutritional value whatsoever but delicious and 100 percent vegan!

There are a few things that were easy to find in North America but are trickier here, requiring trips to health food or 'ethnic' grocery stores: 100 percent unadulterated organic peanut butter, smoked or hot paprika, black beans. Any sort of Latin American specialty apart from tortillas, hot sauce and salsa in the 'exotic' food aisle of the grocery store appears to be non-existent here.

My partner would add that they don't do decent potato chips here, although you can find North American-style chips at Geoffrey's of London in old Antibes (excellent food selection but expensive). There's always an 'anglo' food endcap or little section in the supermarket too,  with marmite, chips, hot sauces, etc.

Also, JF and I are both in agreement that pizza, as conceived by North Americans (and Italians, I'd venture), sucks here. It's just an unbridgeable cultural gap - they think pizza dough is a very thin, almost pita bread-like thing made with dairy or egg. Someone needs to school them. You can easily get your proper pizza fix in actual Italian restaurants though, and with vegan dough.

As for eating in restaurants, I avoid it for two reasons. One, it's expensive. Two, and I'll be frank, servers here have terrible attitudes. They're insulted if you ask them to modify one of the dishes, and usually they'll just refuse to do so or offer you a salad. For example, a few months ago I ate at an 'Italian' restaurant in the nearby village of Biot. They declined to make me a pizza with only vegetables on it because they just 'don't do that'. This was the actual reason given. I don't have any difficulty ordering in authentic Italian restaurants, Middle Eastern 'falafel places' or Indian restaurants, though. Since ordering at a regular restaurant in France is unpleasant, stressful and expensive, I just avoid it. I don't feel I'm missing out on anything.

I love the coffee here. Even the coffee out of the ubiquitous beverage machines (which also make tea) is usually decent. It'll set you back about 40 centimes.

I make frequent - almost daily - trips to various stores for groceries. One day I might head to the Biocoop for organic veggies and specialty items (i.e. flavoured soy yoghurt, but you can find unflavoured in many chain supermarkets). The next day, I'll go to the local chain store for tomato sauce, ratatouille, pasta, juice, soy milk. Hit up yet another store or the boulangerie down the street for bread, although I've stopped going there since their young boulanger asked me for my number a little while ago. I feel all awkward now, so I just send JF in my stead or go elsewhere. Coincidentally, he just now asked me why I don't buy 'the good bread' anymore... 

Warning: this is long and ranty.

This year I'd like to pay a little more attention to this blog. The truth is that I don't lack subjects but rather I self-censor in an effort to not be too negative or critical, fundamental flaws of mine. However, following a triumvirate of uncalled-for bad social experiences over the past month, I've decided to just let it all hang out and be more open about life here in Antibes. After 1.5 years here and much reflection, I can answer the following questions:

Q1: Do you like living in France?

Q2: Do you like your life in France?

The two questions may appear similar - but there is a nuance.

A Q1: Non.

I don't like living in France - or more specifically Antibes. I don't know if I'd enjoy living in Paris, but a cosmopolitan, world-class alpha city is a world away from this small seaside city of not 80,000 residents.

I know many people dream of living a quiet life near the sea, mountains, of having warmth and sunshine year-round, but I'm not feeling that right now. Give me four seasons and the embrace of concrete and urban green spaces. Undeniably beautiful though it is, Antibes is too much like the Florida that I hated. Yachts, beautiful people, bad techno music, fur coats, botox, slimming treatments, astrology conferences, million-Euro villas, everyone with a car. Most surprisingly, dozens of dirty-looking strip malls and soulless shopping centres. In the summertime Antibes is overrun by tourists. It's quiet the rest of the year though, which admittedly makes for pleasant urban flânerie. These days, after 7pm or so, the city is dead. But during the summer, people everywhere, browning (or reddening) bodies lining the beaches like seals or walruses. And the heat! The intolerable heat.

To be fair, since we're in Europe, there are also thousand-year old villages, charming ancient traditions, communal bread ovens and lovely gardens, which are all indeed very nice.

In addition to living in a city that just doesn't jive with me or my values (and that's important to me), the French character can be... frustrating. Their confidence, sense of self, intellectual rigour, attachment to history, tradition and the land - these things can quickly devolve to arrogance, ridigity, conformism, insularity and xenophobia. Ah, the famous French xenophobia...another post.

I hate the dog shit all over the sidewalks and alleys. The city actually has a motocrotte squad - riders on scooters who go around picking up dog crap. I hate how even the post office can close whenever it feels like it. I hate the obsession with procedure and form - but it's a selective obession, only if it suits the person. French web sites often, quite frankly, suck - it's as if they haven't grasped that the point of the Internet is to share up-to-date, easily accessible information and simplify certain transactions. People around here tend not to take criticism well and, generally, are too proud to say sorry or admit to mistakes. I hate the recyling bins. No glass in the home bins - they have to be deposited at a public recycling station down the street. And both home and public bins have one small aperture through which to insert items - so you pretty much dump items one by one. You're not supposed to deposit broken glass at the public stations yet when you slip a bottle through the hole, it falls to the bottoms and breaks. 

The general grouchiness of Antibes' denizens can really bring me down. Interestingly, it's not something I've experienced much of elsewhere in France - it really seems endemic to the South, which has a reputation for being unfriendly even among the French. The library doesn't have wifi as far as I can tell and has rather limited opening hours for a municipal library. The scooters! Oh, how I detest those reckless adolescent riders. I hate how some seem to think French ways and French culture are the best in the world... an attitude redolent of that of another certain country with a red, white and blue flag.

Despite all this, I think I've built a decent life here. My best friend here is French. I take dance classes in French with French (and Spanish, Arabic, Brazilian and Romanian) girls and take an Italian language class in French with French senior citizens. From time to time I go on OVS outings. I go to picnics and dinners, have coffee with acquaintances. I'm not living in an anglo or expat ghetto. 

There are things that I like about living here. I'm grateful for having health insurance (through my partner's social security contributions). I love the variety and quality of food here. Being vegan is easy - except for dining at restaurants. Traffic circles are very efficient and I wish they were more common in North America. Although it can be maddening when wielded by the thoughtless and selfish, I appreciate the relaxed 'do what you want' attitude that seems to touch upon most aspects of life here. I like that you can be a little late and no one cares. I love the trains (but hate how expensive they are). I like that windows in homes here have shutters that can block almost all light and sound. The beautiful bread. The coffee. The long gardening season. I've hardly had to touch my container garden in preparation for 'winter' (right now it's sunny, big blue sky, 16C).

A Q2: Oui.

...but that is more to do with personal circumstances that could probably be reproduced anywhere at this point. I work part-time from home doing research, writing and editing. I work when I want, and can stay up late and sleep in. I get to spend quality time with the kitties. I have the time and space to practise yoga and dance at home several days a week. Antibes being a small city (at least the central area where we live - there's 'Super Antibes', which is basically residential, gated communities and strip malls), I can walk pretty much everywhere, and all services are nearby.

So perhaps the best description I can give to my experience living here so far is 'it's been real'. I don't know what 2012 holds - so far what's planned is essentially a repeat of 2011 - but, I admit, more and more I feel 'done' with Antibes.

One thing that hangs over me, and that I must resolve soon, is the looming expiration of my Canadian permanent residence card. I am not going to lose this precious status. For all its problems, current nasty Conservative government, poor environmental policy, and crazy language/anglo-franco tensions, there isn't anywhere else I'd rather live.

Just a quick note about a new site that lets you search all the public transport services in the Alpes-Maritimes in one shot. I've been waiting for this since I got here - trying to figure out how to get from one commune to another is incredibly frustrating.

Céparou06

Recently I attended a couple of events for the annual Journées européennes du patrimoine (European Heritage Days). That links to the French version, here's the pan-European site in English. During those two days various cultural buildings normally closed to the public are open, free tours are offered, etc.

I got up early for a tour of the Antibes Municipal Archives. They don't yet have a proper website but they're working on it, and they plan to make available images, public records and more. I checked out their photo exhibits, which mainly documented extravagant villas in Antibes and Juan les Pins, posh hotels, beach scenes, everyone in the photos probably dead or very, very old. 

They also had sketches of Turkish scenes from the notebook of an 18th century French military engineer. The notebook was lost until the 1930s when a worker found it in some dusty corner, and it eventually ended up in the Antibes archives even though it's technically got nothing to do with Antibes. Too good to pass up was all.

The coolest thing on display was the archives' oldest document, a 13th century scroll containing the city statutes of Fréjus, a city in the Var about an hour west of here. 

I attended the half-hour guided tour, which consisted mainly of a visit to the archives room, usually closed off to the public. The reading room is open to the public obviously, and anyone with valid ID can consult the archives' documents there. 

Afterwards I went to the nearby Espace Culturel des Arcades, where they held an open house for this year's course offerings. I'm pretty sure it was technically unrelated to the Journées but the organisers probably figured it was a good time to hold the event, and classes began not long after anyway. They offer various courses - languages, fitness, fine arts- for children and adults. I wanted to take a German class but since a beginner's level class wasn't available, I shifted over to the Italian instructor's table and signed up for her beginning Italian class. At 69 EUR per 'semester' for a weekly 1.5 hour-long class, I think it's a good deal. I had to special order a couple of exercise books (29 EUR) for the course but they'll be good for the Italian 2 class, should I get that far. Classes began two weeks ago and so far I'm enjoying it, it's good to get the brain moving again.

Later that afternoon, after lunch and chillage, I went to the Antibes Médiathèque (that's how they call their municipal libraries here) for a guided visit of the rare books department. Like at the archives, we were treated to a visit of the stacks, which are usually closed to the public. Their oldest book dates from 1503, if my memory serves me correctly. It was in amazing shape, it could have been printed yesterday. They also had wonderful oversized books - I mean books as big as me, apparently these were hot items during the 19th century. 

Monaco will be having its Journées du patrimoine this month. Before I moved here, Monaco conjured only vague associations in my mind...mainly it was a Peter Hook side project. It's actually a little enclave of monarchy and obscene wealth less than an hour from here, on the coast. Technically it's a 'principality'. I haven't been there yet and to be perfectly honest, it doesn't seem like my type of place. Nevertheless, I'd feel a bit silly leaving here not having visited it since it's so close. So, I'll be heading over there for their Journées, at least everything will be free.

Somehow it's already the last week of July. Tourist season is in full swing here although August is the big vacation month - the worst is yet to come!

Some time ago, I saw a TV commercial for this campaign to help presumably socio-economically underprivileged children go on vacation.

To be honest, I was stunned after seeing this since it seems to me that vacation is a privilege and not a right. Allow me to clarify - I think that time off from work is a right, but to go away somewhere and 'get away from it all'...well, sadly not everyone has the means. I grew up in a lower middle-class immigrant home in the USA and lived most of my life there without health care, for example, so maybe I'm just used to missing out on certain things. I'm not a parent to a human either, so perhaps I don't understand children's needs.

This campaign says a ton about French society, though, and just how important vacation is to them. Not simply to have time off, but to go away somewhere with the family. And go away they do, as all the tourists here in Antibes and the campers parked by the seashore and the hundreds of campsites across the country attest. Having been here in France just over a year, I probably don't even fully grasp the importance of it.

I'm not sure how I feel about the campaign. Within the context of French society, I can see how not going on vacation when everyone else does could make a child feel sad and marginalised, and there's no doubt that getting away is a) fun and b) good for physical and mental health. But is this truly a pressing issue for children here? My question is sincere. Is access to the health, education and housing systems in France so good that there's no room for improvement? Is France just that rich and developed of a country?

(I'm on a roll today.)

I was maintaining a list of French pseudo-anglicisms but just saw that Wikipedia has a good list. Pseudo-anglicisms are English words inappropriately used in French. Of course English does the same. I've yet to hear a French speaker use déjà vu like we do to describe some sort of strange psychological experience. They use it to mean old news, nothing new. C'est du déjà vu. Anyway, here are my additions to Wiki's list:

cranberries - in Québec, they use the perfectly good French word canneberge or the Amerindian atoca/ataca (sigh. This is just a plain old anglicism, like le weekend, le parking. This is what happens when, after working on the computer for a couple of hours, you decide to blog for relaxation, heh.)
footing - jogging 
mail - email. In QC they use courriel, courrie(r) (mail) + él(ectronique). Nice huh? of course no one here understands when I say that word.
roller - rollerblading
scratch - velcro
baskets - sneakers
zapper - to forget a detail, j'ai zappé la date.

Also, the Wikipedia article includes the oft-used word le top, meaning 'the best'. C'est le top! We heard it so much from our bank rep when we first moved here that we refer to him as Le Top.

I'll add more as I come across them. Feel free to add in the comments if you know of others.