Où est la piscine?

The name for my blog comes very uncreatively from the title of Julia Child's autobiography. Not that I'm comparing myself to her at all (I'm a terrible cook) but I'm hoping that living here in Nice for a year will inspire me to get better at this.(I'm also hoping to see the movie 'Julie and Julia' sometime soon for further inspiration!)

Today is my first official full day on the French Riviera. I arrived here last Thursday evening but left early the next morning for a week of cross-cultural orientation in Otford, England. As I don't have an apartment yet, I'm staying with my team leaders and their children for a couple days. We also share the apartment with a slim black cat with a Spanish name I can't remember who has her own European passport. For real. Her previous owner was a Spanish woman who moved countries with her cat so she had to get all the paperwork done. I am totally jealous of this cat. It does not seem fair that she can get an EU passport when I can't.

This morning M (my host) took me to the open air market in town to buy fruits and veggies. The market is open every morning except for Monday. It was super hot in the sun as we walked over (which I think is typical for summer). The market was made up of rows and rows of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, fish and other products. I bought myself a bag of seven yummy figs for only .90 euro! I ate them for lunch with fresh goat cheese on top :) An elderly man tried to talk with me but unfortunately my French is a bit out of practise and I couldn't catch everything he was saying. Hopefully I'll improve quickly over the next few weeks.

On the way home, we stopped in the health food store so I could look for 'gluten-free' bread. I was so excited to find that they had gluten free baguettes(!) - and the brochure in the store also promised gluten-free 'pain au chocolat' - which would be amazing! I also loved the health food store because it was the first store we visited that felt very familiar somehow to me - I guess that health food stores are the same around the world.

I haven't seen any celebrities yet...although there was a whole 'parking lot' for private jets at the airport here in Nice so they must be around somewhere... On the bus ride back from the airport yesterday we passed the clinic where Angelina Jolie gave birth to her twins. It is also the place where A (M's daughter) goes to the dentist :)

The rest of the family has gone to the pool this afternoon while I opted to sit and rest for a bit. This reminds me of one of my favourite 'Flight of the Conchords' episodes when they sing the French song...and look for the pool (la piscine). ;)