Brrrrr.... rather him than me! I called out and asked if it was cold and he replied it was wonderful!
Have a great New Year's Eve everyone.
For an update on Mistral and Mama Mia, the Hell Hole dogs who arrived at Pension Milou yesterday - please click on the link.
Yes...well I wish I wasn't showing you these photographs. Graffiti in the old town - in the Places des Fours (that's where the bread oven would once have been found).
I took the photo at the beginning of December but today, in Nice-Matin, the square is featured with the words 'Sad decoration for Christmas.' Too right. Hopefully now that it's had some publicity, it will be cleaned up.
For anyone interested, today is a BIG DAY at Pension Milou as we are adopting two dogs rescued from a Hell Hole. Shut in a roughly 2 metre square run for 8 years, never let out and never cleaned out. Yes, living on 8 years of excrement. They were lifted out of there yesterday and are currently en route to me from the Languedoc - should be here in a few hours! Obviously, I've not met them - the first dogs given a home by email! If you want to follow the excitement please read more on Postcards from 'Pension Milou.'
One tumbled, decorated gourd. Next time I walked past this window, the gourd had been put back in its proper place.
What is a gourd? Click on the link.
Yesterday, we saw a big bunch of keys in the postman's hand.
In the Old Town, many of the old narrow houses have been transformed into apartments, with the mailboxes just inside the main door or gate. For security, these doors are kept shut, hence the postman has to open each door or gate with one of his many keys.
In the main photo, he is closing one of the gates - he'll then cross the street and climb the steps to the gate you see on the left. In the smaller photo, he unlocks a door.
Delivering mail in the Old Town is no mean feat with much walking and many steps to climb.
The local postman on Rue Longue in the Old Town of Menton. At last, after months and months of work, most of the street is paved - but still much work to do.
The lady is getting money from her purse - perhaps a Christmas tip but unlikely as normally the postmen and women come around with calenders, enabling us to buy one and at the same time, give as much or as little as we wish. My post lady, Crystelle is fabulous. She'll phone me from her portable to check if I'm in for a parcel and then she'll lug it down the track. How's that for good service!
Note the keys in the postman's hand. Come back tomorrow to see where he uses them.
Whilst everyone else was rushing about preparing for Christmas, this gentleman was taking a snooze in the sunshine.
After yesterday's excesses, it's perhaps what we should all be doing today...
Climbing Santas in the medieval hilltop village of Gorbio, near to Menton.
This is Frederique (you met her last year) and in the photograph below, you see Emilie, her daughter. Both delightful and look at those gorgeous eyes that twinkle with life.
Frederique owns the beautiful gift shop in Gorbio - but at Christmas, it's closed and she takes over one of the stalls in the Menton market. The owls you saw the other day come from her stall.
Don't you just love the 'bride' Frederique is holding?
The Jardin Bioves is a child's delight. Nursery rhymes with audio. A little train runs around the displays, overflowing with young children. And note: more steam as in the donkey's photograph the other day.
This nursery rhyme is about a child who asks his mother if the boat has legs - she replies that if it didn't, then it couldn't walk. She says that when the child grows up he will go around the world but will surely come back to kiss his mother. And she finishes by saying that it walks straight ahead but because the world is round, then it will return home. (If I'm wrong, hopefully a French reader will correct me.)
You may remember the photograph of the pots recently posted. The winds, the rains and the sea have smashed loads of them (this is just a small part) but happily more are available for sale.
In the small photograph you see the ice rink. When I was last in Menton, it had been filled and was nearly frozen and ready to go. Now it lies in tatters. And below you see damage caused by the high seas.
The weather forecast is now looking reasonable for the next few days. Other places have had it far worse - Cavaillon, only 30 ks from Avignon, for instance - that's where the famous melons come from - they've had dreadful flooding. And in the mountains above Menton - at St Etienne de Tinée - they've had avalanches, fortunately with no loss of life.
One of the best things about the Menton Christmas Fair is that many of the items on sale are made by artisans using materials that might otherwise be thrown away.
Here you see lamps and ornaments made of coconut shells. I'm not sure what the handbags are made of - perhaps they are also made of morsels of coconut.
I'm rather taken with the dog in the smaller photograph but something tells me there are enough real ones in this house...
Donkeys in the Jardin Bioves. In the smaller photograph, they are being sprayed by a machine. I'm not sure why?
The whole of the Jardin Bioves (in the centre of the town) is given up to a display of enormous painted models depicting French nursery rhymes - with corresponding audio as you walk by.
Note: the rains and the winds continue. 10 families had to be evacuated from high up in Menton, where the hillsides have crashed into their houses. And remember the beautiful pots (see the posting two days ago) about half have been smashed by the violent weather and waves. The skating rink, which you've not yet seen, has also been badly damaged by winds and waves.
Here we see the Big Wheel again, but this time, in more detail - and with its old-fashioned feel. I'll report how comfortable it is - if this endless, endless rain ever stops. Grrrrrr....
It's Christmas, so that means a Big Wheel - somewhat incongruous with the steeples of the Old Town.
Christmas also means pots - hundreds and hundreds of them from north Africa - probably Tunisia or Morocco. They will stay here, day and night, until sold.
The Christmas Market near to the Bastion always has some great gifts - how about an owl!
They are for sale at La Cave de Gorbio, one of the many shops in the Christmas Village by the Bastion. You'll find great Christmas gift ideas here.
We've had rain for days, maybe weeks - I've lost count. Suddenly this morning - blue skies and sunshine. Oh happy day...
As you see, excess water, a bench in the middle of a puddle - but who cares? The sun is back! And these people are enjoying it.
