Just a quick blog post today, but I can’t resist sharing this!
On Saturday it was the annual Wood Street Village Show, a day of children’s races, a car boot sale, food and drink stalls, and most importantly, the judging of various food, drink and art exhibits.
My favourite comment from the judges was this one:
Read the rules!
In case you can’t read the comment, it says:
The best marmalade on the table today but:
1st prize withheld because
– you have used a trade jar (see rules p 3)
– jar a little underfilled
– give full date of making (see rules p 3).
Fancy finding the best marmalade of the day but deciding to withhold 1st prize for such trivial reasons! Those are surely the words of someone with too much power!
For 3 weeks in July Alex scampered off to Nice with his bike and his friend Greg to cycle, watch cycling and talk about cycling (lots).
While I’m not a fan of cycling in any way, shape or form, I really do like the weather, food and shops of the French Riviera, yes I do. Alex and I had a brilliant week-long holiday in Nice last year, so I couldn’t resist inviting myself to join in the fun – but this time for three nights only!
Nice apartment
We stayed in a brilliant little Airbnb apartment near the centre of Nice, which had an awesome bunk bed thing on stilts! Alas we discovered after the first night that it was too hot to sleep up there (GCSE physics was right – hot air does indeed rise), so in the end we slept on the sofa bed on the ground instead!
Plenty of tasty food eating ensued, including several trips to Arlequin Gelati on Avenue Malaussena for their to-die-for gelato. We also paid a much-anticipated visit to Rendez-vous des Amis (an amazing restaurant near where Greg was staying that we also went to last year) for three courses of deliciousness. The chef came all the way from a Michelin starred restaurant in Paris and it’s always full of locals – living proof of how good it is!
French views
To get into the spirit of my little holiday I was reading Ernest Hemingway’s unfinished novel Garden of Eden, where a newly married couple travel around the south of France and get up to all sorts of mischief. While I was reading the part about them driving past Antibes, Alex and I were actually on the train to that very same place (in case you’ve read the book, I hasten to add that all similarities ended there!). In Antibes we found a lovely sandy beach to lie on and the warm Mediterranean Sea to dip in (much nicer than Nice’s pebbled beach and rougher sea!), plus lots of cobbled streets to wander through. During my short stay we also went on a road trip with Greg, taking in the winding cols of the area outside Nice, including the beautiful village of Eze and the hills above Monaco. I couldn’t turn my head without being smacked in the face with another amazing view!
In no time at all it was time to say goodbye to the gelato, the sun and the sea, and leave Alex and Greg to their cycling adventures. I’ll always love Nice and would love to make it an annual holiday, but next year that won’t be possible as we’ll be 10,000 miles away in Australia! More about that to come…!
