03.02.08
Posted in Climbing, Visitors at 11:52 pm by tesstess
well, then it goes another way.
This weekend Katarina came to visit me. On saturday, we had found a place to make a promenad on horse while Anthony would go skiing. Anthony realized on the friday that we only have one car so we had a problem, but this problem we solved by asking the neighbours to borrow a car from them which was not a problem. Then, friday evening when I was getting Kat at the train talked on the phone with Anthony who just had remembered that he let his skiis for reparation earlier that week and that it would be a bit hard to go skiing without skiis. Ok, so the car problem was solved another time. And a third time on saturday morning when the woman from the horse place called and said it was cancelled, I think because of the wind, it was almost storm. Me and Kat were really dissapointed, we long so much to be with horses both of us.
So instead, the saturday was spent inside, me and Kat doing pearls, and Anthony working on his website. You’ll see not too far from now (I hope) the new site of Anthony that his doing with some coaching from me. It’s a site about all his sport activities, where he will enter data about the things he does, and also have a kind of blog functionality.
Today, sunday, we have been climbing in Castellaras (one hour from us, above Grasse) with two other friends. Katarina said she was a bit scared of hights, but on her second try she was up at the top (which was infact quite high) fast as a squerril.
The sun were shining, and with 20 degrees in the shadow you can imagine how much it was in the sun with no wind. Almost to hot to climb! Luckily it came a bit of nice warm wind later in the day and made it perfect.
I must say it felt a bit strange to see the snow on the other side of the valley… in contrast to the heat and the flowering fruit tree (Anthony thinks it’s apple or pear).
We finally moved out the frog this weekend. He talked to us the morning before so we know it was alive when we moved the big plant out on the terasse. It feels good to have kept it alive all winter!
06.05.07
Posted in Garden, Visitors, Beach at 4:18 pm by tesstess
Karin was with me here for five days and we did lots of fun together. And for you who don’t know her you’ll have to take a look at her homepage www.nejlika.se. You should also know that Karin = Loriel, who has written a comment on almost all my blog posts!
We began by visiting Nice and ate lunch at a nice Créperie (which can now be found on my restaurants page, I will tell you more about that one in another post). After eating we walked down to the sea and on the way we found a zoo with sooo cute rabbits. Sorry I didn’t take a picture on them. After seeing them I was totally obsessed with rabits and couldn’t think about something else than how to be able to have one at home for the next few hours. Poor Karin.
Karin was of course happy to see the sea and to go down in the water. Unfortunately there were jelly fish, so it was not possible to swim really.
When we came home Karin investigated the garden and documented some of the fruits we have. Upper left: Nefle (Mispel), upper right: Valnöt, lower left: figue (fikon), lower right: mullbär. Ok, now half the names are in french and half in swedish… don’t remember/know the translations.
The next day we went to a red beach in Les Esterelles and here even I managed to go in swiming, only saw one jelly fish this day. And on the way back we got some nice pictures of the bubbel house, or barbapapa house as I call it:
In the evening we went climbing with Anthony and some other guys. I managed to forget the rope so since there were only two ropes for six people me and Karin decided to stay at the stream instead.
I kept my clothes on but Karin went down into the icy cold water.
I’m impressed by her. I spent the time playing around with her camera. I more and more want such a big digital system camera. One day when I’m earning lots of money I will buy one.
From the stream we had a good view of the climbers and after a while at the small beach we climbed up to where they were.
Two different flowers. The one to the left is innocent and kind, but the one to the right you should be really carefull with. If you touch the flower, you will not notice anything strange, but two days later the place will burn, and it becomes big and nasty burn marks. Anthony has a scar on his leg from last summer.
The next day it was supposed to rain so we took a walk in a forest nearby, named “La bois d’Opio”, meaning the forest of Opio. For me it was more a biology lesson than a walk, it’s so fun to be with Karin, I allways learn a lot about all the animals and plants around me which I wouldn’t even had noticed without her.
Trip to the Paradis
Anthony had recommended the stream/smal river La Seigne, so we looked it up on the map and went there. It’s just close St Vallier de Thiey, which in turn is close to Grasse.
The small road should lead us next to the water and our plan was to park the car, walk a little bit along the river side and then take a swim, if not too cold. But we didn’t see the river from the car. We parked and followed a path down the vally to where we thought the water must be, but it was completely dry, and had not been filled with water for a long long time. Strange.
There was a water leading system, so we figured out that they must have taken the water from the stream. We followed the signs up on the other side and then along the mountain side, in fact the path were really flat since it was following the water system. The whole place smelled of Timjan and the birds sang beautifully for us.
A lilja, a snake a view and a lizzard (for my dad), found on the way.
It took a loong time, and we were close to turning around and head back when we heard something that sounded like water. Since we had gone straight for so long we were now high up compared to the bottom of the valley which were going down all the time. Luckily we found a path down and began walking towards the water.
Halfway down we found this place. A big roof in the mountain and in the innermost part there were built small walls dividing the place into small room. It was easily to imagine a big fire with people from the stone age.
Three hours after leaving the car we found ourselves in the paradis. This place was worth all effort of getting there. We were stunned! I never saw a nicer place and we were all alone in it.
Karin took a short swim before eating. It was cold, but not too cold and the sun warmed well.
We had brought bread, cheese and apples, and it was a feast.
And then it was my turn to try to get into the water. It took some time, but ooo, it was fantastic when finally in!
Better than Liseberg!
Karin was most brave and went in under the waterfall.
Who needs to buy an expensive bubbel bath? Wiiii!
After some hours we noticed dark clouds coming up. These two pictures are taken at the same time, in different directions of the valley.
Time to go. Or, rather, run. The way back took us only one and a half hour instead of three and we were totally exhausted. But we didn’t get the rain on us. As soon as we came to the car the rain started and just a quarter it had completely drowned the world.
End of hollidays
The last day it was supposed to rain all day, but luckily the weather forcast was wrong and we had sun half of the day. We went to the beach, played beach-badminton and Karin took pictures of the jelly fish.
All in all we had a really good time together and we’re hoping to see Karin back here soon again.
02.19.07
Posted in Hollidays, Valbonne, Visitors at 5:48 pm by tesstess
My mum has been with me for a week and we had a great time together.
The first night we ate a french speciality with cheese.
The cheese is called a b… something… and is put on top of layers of potatis with bacon. Anthony told us it is often eaten in winter, since it such a heavy meal, and often when skiing. I can tell that it was really good. I love cheese! And my mum bought with her a cheese home and made it for my family who also appreciated it 
When she arrived the daffodills had not come out yet, but when she left one week later they were opening. See the difference!
All photos are on the photo page.
09.06.06
Posted in Hollidays, Visitors at 2:19 pm by tesstess
Today is the last day of my parents visit. They have been here for two weeks. The first night they slept in my appartment Katarina were here as well, so then we were five people. That was crowded. Still crowded with four and it will be quite empty now when they leave.
Dad got the best place: on the balcony. Or, it was the best solution for the rest of us not to have to wake up from him snooring. Luckily it didn’t rain once!
The first day of their visit I was working, and their goal of the day was to find Carrefour (the supermarket) and to eat at a nice French restaurant (the one you can see above). Unfortunately they didn’t manage to find Carrefour because of all roundabouts and the lack of a good map. And I’m sad to tell that the restaurant was one of their worst experiences on the whole trip. They have explained in great detail to me exactly how awfull and uneatable the food was.
Can you spot us?
In the weekend we wanted to take the boat to outside of Cannes (where Katarina went), but when we came to Cannes we found a nice parking which was just at the beach and where we could only stay for two hours so we decided to stay at the beach there. Definitely too many people for our tastes, but it’s fun to have seen once. The icecream was good.
After swimming we took a walk in the harbour. The boats are so luxury and expensive it’s difficult to understand that anyone with a normal job can afford them. Probably they can’t, probably they’re rich of other reasons than working hard for it.
Story to be continued…
09.04.06
Posted in Visitors at 5:47 pm by tesstess
The 15th of August Katarina, my very best and oldest childhood friend came to visit me down here for ten days.
It was a real pleassure to have her here with me! I hoped she wouldn’t get too lonely when I was working all days, but she was surprisingly good at making up things to do so I didn’t need to worry.
Of course I brought Kat with me when climbing. Here she is up on a, for beginners, quite difficult route.
Here is the view of Monaco from La Tete du Chien. We climbed on the other side of this cliff so we didn’t se the view when climbing, but here on the way back we stopped and enjoyed the wonderful view.
This is the view at the Nice side of the cliff. At the middle you see the climbing site.
One day we went to Monaco where I never was before. It was fun to go exploring together. Kat and I makes a good couple for touristing since we have so similar tastes on what to do.
We took the tourist train around the city. It had headphones where the story of the place were told. Luckily for us, one could chose the language so we didn’t have to have it in french.
For example we learned that what you can see on the picture above is part of an extension of Monaco. They have built houses out in the water and in this way increased the area of the land with 17%.
After being in Monaco we were quite hungry and drove up to La Turbie above Monaco and found the perfect restaurant where we could sit in the sun and have a view of the mountains and the sea.
On the way home we didn’t want to take the highway directly so we crossed it and drove up into the mountains. Here we found cute villages. Unfortunately it was a bit dark for taking photos, but I’ll include one just to show how beautiful the sky was.
On the friday night we went to a party in a house in Antibes.
Unfortunately I don’t have so many good pictures from here, people tend to look quite strange at photos taken at parties… so the one above is one of the best ones even if half the photo is fille with a pink shirt.
Here is Kat and Eric. I had heard that there would be a cafe in Golfe Juan where there were swing dancing on Wednesdays. It was a bit early for the dancing when we arrived so we spent most of the evening eating ice cream and chatting. I and Kat danced to a few songs later on, but since I am not a very good leader and the floor allowed no twists we went back to the table quite soon.
Kat brought her pearls, so some of the evenings we sat at my small table and made bracelets and ear rings. A very nice hobby which I miss doing when I have none of my pearl loving friends from home around.