Fraternité

Quick disclaimer: I am currently using a french keyboard, which has all the letters in different places, so I may have a typo or ten. For example, to hit the "." key, I need to press the shift button first, and if I don't, I get a ";". I hope this isn't too disruptive, and if it is, well, just deal with it;

The last few days have been fun here in Nice. I took a quick train into Italy and went to the open air market. The real highlight of my little sample of Italy was (surprise) the lunch we had at this little divey restaraunt. Best fried calamari I've ever had. I had a day at the beach, which was, if I may use the expression, a real day at the beach.

On Friday I saw some jazz in a bar with some french people that my buddy Andrew introduced me to. First, they all spoke very good english, which was very helpful, and they all had a great time making fun of my American accent. The "r" in this country is quite impossible for me to say, but all the frenchies keep telling me that as long as I keep trying to pronounce it, I'll be okay (and the source of some humor for the people of France). After the concert I was taken to an apartment right in the old part of town (very cool!) and had a glass of homemade orange wine. It was good stuff, although a little sweet for my taste. Despite my difficulty with the local toungue, I had a great time and was really grateful for the hospitality that the french folks showed me. Fraternité indeed.

Yesterday was one of the highlights of the trip so far, as I moved from the apartment I was sharing with an American and two Russians, into a French couple's apartment. The French couple, Morgan and Severine, (randomly) stayed with me in my house in San Francisco three years ago, and we became fast friends because we are all musicians. When they heard I was visting Nice they were eager to return the favor for my visit in Nice. So yesterday they volunteered to drive me around Nice, show me Morgan's brand new recording studio, and take me to a party.

The first thing we did was drive to a great lookout spot on the top of a mountain. That's what this picture is from. That's Nice! On the way back to the car we saw a coule of guys playing patonk, the French national pastime. I was proud of the action photo I got. No, I am not a good photographer.
Then we drove to the other side of the mountain, and looked down upon the other side of the Nice shoreline. Like an idiot I forgot what the name of it is, but again it provided a pretty good photo op.
There was a neat castle up there also.
Then we drove to Eze, a small mountaintop village that had yet another castle. We drank pastis and had a sandwich. Yeah, I know, tough life. I only took one (rather poor) photo because it was the kind of place you had to see. Although if you've ever been to a thousand year old village perched on a mountain next to a sea, then you know exactly what this place looks like. Nonetheless, this is from the fancy hotel in the village.
After Eze we went to look at Morgan's studio. Nerd alert: this next paragraph may only be interesting to musicians and recording engineers. But hey, it's my blog.

If you've ever been an amateur musician, then you've heard of, and probably seen, the home "studio." Usually it is one, small, run-down room, with a half-assed collection of gear, and without any thought to accoustic balance. You can imagine my surprise when I saw this (that's Morgan on the couch and Severine scooting out of the way).
Pretty neat, eh?

So after the studio, we head back to the apqrtment, Severine made a great curry for dinner, Morgan's best friend Lorice came over and we prepared to go to the party run by some Italians. Severine and Morgan warned me about the party, they said that if you don't bring more women than men you don't get in the party. Their explanation, " what do you expect? They are Italian. They want to be Macho."

The four of us (three men, one woman) drive over to the party and, sure enough, the Italians wouldn't let us in. We had to wait outside the front door, and yeah, we started to get unhappy. Fraternité? Felt more like a fraternity

Then Lorice took over. This is Lorice.

Lorice is straight out of the movies. He is easy to talk to, very friendly, and just doesn't give a crap what people think (i.e. he's loud and hilarious). After 10 minutes of gibberish (to my ears anyway) we were finally let in the party. Lorice declared, "I should be a politician!!"

The party was great, if only because everything was new to me. Overall it wasn't realy my scene, actually felt very much like a fraternity party. But needless to say I had a great time. Lorice, Morgan, Severine, and the Gin and Tonic saw to that. Fraternité!!

In New York, after a party, usually people are hungry and go for the cheapest easiest greasiest food available: pizza. But in France, pizza is not the food of choice at 4AM. Nay, after the party we did what every self-respecting Frenchman does, we went for croissants.

The best part was that there was a line at the bakery! And the croissants were fresh. Ineed, the French know how to live.

On Monday night I will be taking a train to Bordeaux to stay with a friend of Morgan's. I will rent a car and see the wine country, so you can be sure I will have plenty of food and wine details to bore you with in the coming days (pending internet access of course).

Below are some Nice photos, just because I can.

Le Clock

Le Vieux de Apartment

Le Church

Le Beach

Le Sandwich