Stuff We Do!

December is a busy month and we've had a great start so far!

Adrien's birthday was a few days ago and we celebrated twice. The first was a homemade dinner of his choosing, complete with colorful birthday decor and balloons and a bag of birthday presents. The second was a lovely dinner with friends at our favorite raw restaurant, Grassroot, in Tampa.



And here's one we all can relate to... putting up the Christmas tree! This year we graduated to a 6 ft tree, which is a big change from last year's 2 footer. The theme this year is "gold." Very imaginative, as you can clearly see! ;]



Next on my list... Christmas shopping!

Everyone is on Facebook!

I asked someone the other day whether they had a facebook, and they looked at me as though I asked whether they have a cell phone. I have to admit I was weary for a while of joining Facebook, I just wasn't sure how I felt about this "Open Book Lifestyle." Though I'm still a little weary about it, I just spent over 2 hours on it. I guess that's not a lot to most of you, but I feel like I just spent my entire day, uploading pictures commenting on peoples pages and liking everything I see. So now I find myself facing another problem, deciding when Facebook has become an addiction or just something I do for fun. I mean, yes it can be fun, but is checking your facebook on your iphon every 30 mins too crazy? When does it end?

Adrien

It's as if I haven't talked about it enough, but I have to say it again... the food we ate in Europe was amazing. We did have a few absolutely horrible meals (ahem, in Milan... and we know how I feel about Milan), but overall, I can't say enough good things about the food.

Seafood tastes of the sea - it's perfectly salty and fresh and delicious and was one of my favorite things to order.

The pizza was equally impressive, and since there's no such thing as doughy crust over there, it was right up my alley - crispy and thin with more toppings than crust.

The smoothest ice cream, the richest chocolate, the freshest bread - I haven't had enough! So now that we're back in Tampa, I've been trying to recreate all things French.

We went to the grocery store last week after we got back, and shopped for the essentials: bread, cheese, and wine... okay, okay and some produce! Unfortunately the tastes just aren't the same... somehow the skin on tomatoes here is tougher, the mozzarella has no taste, and the wine is... well, less than great.

I haven't figured out how, but I MUST figure out a way to bring the taste of France into MY kitchen without going bankrupt!

I'm gonna see what I can do over the next few days...

We've had such a crazy week. Knowing it was the last one before we came back to Tampa, we wanted to make sure we got in all the major stuff.

We went scuba diving, drove to Eze which is famous for their perfume (and consequently spent a billion euros on beautiful scents - totally worth it), ate at a teeny weeny and very intimate 20-person restaurant and had a gorgeous dinner, slept in a castle, went to countless markets, went to Biot (the city where the glass with bubbles originated!), a botanical garden, went to a wedding, celebrated a 76th birthday, an 80th birthday, and a 53 year anniversary, had amazing family dinners (large family dinners... and I emphasize the word large here), and hiked a few mountain trails.

Get ready...


Biot


Chocolate bread is AMAZING!


Our night view from the castle apartment...


Family dinner for Adrien's grandmother's Birthday.


Villefranche


Villefranche again!

I'm sure I'm still leaving details out - we had an incredible time and some of my most memorable time spent was while I was eating! I've never had such delicious and tasty food in all my life.

After a very long and exhausting trip home and a teary goodbye at the airport, Adrien and I are back in Tampa enjoying friends and family, but looking forward to being able to go back.

I'll be around! ...talking mostly about food!

Erin

Okay, so some of you are probably wondering what the hell happened to us going to Spain. Well, here's the story:
After going through Italy we spent over 6 hours in a train at a time. Certainly it was an experience, but not a pleasant one I can assure you. So that kinda scratched the idea of 30 hours of train to and from Spain within 4 days. So then we decided we would fly down. Unfortunately due to the time we started to look for tickets we couldn't find anything under 230Euros (approx. $336) per person!! That would have been over 700 just for the trip there and backs, to stay 2 days. Also not a desirable option. But, the effort did not stop there, we had also looked at ships, but unfortunately non were leaving from Nice, and those that we found were cruise ships, and as fun as that may have been, it would have taken over 2 weeks to get there!

So unfortunately we were not able to go to Spain, which I am still extremely disappointed about due to the fact that we were going to meet my friend Sam there. I was sooooo looking forward to that, and after all the anticipation, I think I was the most disappointed of all. Now we will have to reschedule and plan a little bit ahead of time. Which means we'll all have to come back at the same time, you hear that Sam?? Meeting in Spain, for real this time, next year!! We'll swim there if necessary haha.

On a somewhat positive note, not going was good because we were able to help my family with a rather large leak in the house. Good thing we've only had 3 days of rain :0) ...

So there's the whole story, I'm really disappointed, but I promise we will make it up.

For me, I’ve gotten pretty comfortable here in Nice. I know where I can get a beautiful view, I know the bus system pretty well (at least, I’m confident I could get anywhere between Vieux Nice and Monaco by myself with very little difficulty if any), I know which yogurts I like to get from the grocery store, and I’m even starting to complain about the general public here (!).

My personal favorite so far is the French’s insistence on being THISCLOSE to the person nearest to them at all times, regardless of whether or not they know the other. Oh, I’m sorry sir… the 20 feet of free space in front of you on the bus isn’t sufficient? It’s necessary for you to hold onto the handrail DIRECTLY above me so your armpit can cup my cheek? It’s brilliant, really… Next time I’m just gonna tell the guy to cut out the formalities and take his seat in my lap.

My other gripes for the moment include the absurd amount of smokers in France (and from what I hear, in Europe in general), the shockingly high price of cell phones and the inconvenience it is to get on, and lastly, the fact that everything is closed all day on Sunday! Everything except restaurants anyway… I guess it could be a good thing, making people slow down and enjoy their family’s/friends’ company, but for now I want to take advantage of every minute I’m here. This does not work for me, France!

ANYWAY, it would figure that two weeks before we go back to Tampa, I start feeling a little bit of consistency and comfort in this place, about which, before we got here, I knew nothing beyond what pictures could communicate.

We’re still doing stuff – this afternoon we’re doing some shopping and tomorrow we’ll be in Eze, but despite our busy lifestyle for the moment, I feel like I’ve just started to settle - the initial shock of newness of scenery and language is over.

I’m extremely excited to see my parents and my sister and my dogs, but I’m happy. I like it here. I’m writing this from our apartment inside a castle with a view onto the entire city of Nice on a cool, sunny day. There’s about 40 people below our apartment who are swimming in the sea, a few more a little further away are kayaking, and up on the beach and onto the Promenade is teeming with life and activity.

It’s beautiful. I’ll definitely be back.

Strangely, it's been raining in Nice for the past few days, so we haven't been out and about as much lately.

SO, we've been in the house playing Scrabble and every other game we could find. On a completely random note, I've had "Lip Gloss" stuck in my head for DAYS for absolutely no reason! And because we've been stuck in the house I've been annoying Adrien with alarming frequency - all of my unused energy makes me break into song without even being provoked!

"WATCHU KNOW 'BOUT ME WATCHUWATCHU KNOW 'BOUT ME?!"

"Adrien, Adrien.. shh, shh.. MAH LIP GLOSS BE POPPIN', I'M SITTIN' AT MAH LOCKER AND ALL THE BOYZ BE STOPPIN'!"

My performances aren't typically well-received. Must be a French thing.