Tanya in Transition

Spring has taken her time to settle in here in Nice. Despite the psychotic periods of grey-then blue-then grey skies, I have been working hard at maintaining my sanity. D and I are working on a huge renovation project — we bought our first apartment in January — and most of my free time is […]

D turned to me and said, “I will if you will.” I knew he was kidding and he knew my answer would be negative. We stood there watching these young risk takers fill out forms and put on their harnesses and I wondered why on earth would you willingly throw yourself off a bridge, in […]

Yes, I rode up Mont Ventoux. In a car. I am not Andy Schleck or Lance Armstrong.  Plus, it’s been incredibly hot in the south of France. Riding up the famed Mont Ventoux is for people a lot fitter (or more insane) than me.  And there they were, steadily climbing, their legs pumping in a […]

A sunny weekend chez les parents included a day trip to the beach. Before hitting the waves D and I stopped to visit the Pont du Gard.

While many Canadians celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday yesterday I was thinking about Miami.  Why Miami instead of this woman, a monarch, who reigned for almost 64 years?  (I wasn’t even thinking about Charles and Camilla who were both in town for the holiday.) Well, this first long weekend of the summer reminds me of another set […]

Just how optimistic are you?  Are you a ‘the glass half full’ person and do you see the silver lining on every cloud? Do you retire your shoes and socks for flip-flops at the first sign of warm weather? Even if it means sporting your summer footwear with a heavy sweater or even a coat? […]

This time last year, I was in Toronto preparing to return to France with my mother in tow.  Even though we’re only a few days into April, much like last year, much of France was blessed with an early spring.  Even Paris had shrugged off her grey coat in favour of sunny skies. D and […]

On Saturday, probably the last sunny day in Nice –  a petit exaggeration as the sun is shining this morning — D and I set off on a discovery tour.  For our recent trip to Switzerland we had rented a car and had decided to keep it a few extra days for the sole purpose of […]

The weather in Nice last week was nothing less than beautiful.  We had about 3 minutes of rain, very fine rain, on Wednesday afternoon otherwise the days were sunny with very few clouds in the sky.  Thanks to the location of our apartment we benefit from a cooling breeze that, with our open windows, keeps the […]

Six days on the Côte d’Azur and Mom is still going strong.  To say that she’s having a good time  would be an understatement.  And no, I’m not bragging; we’re just having an all-around good time. We left for Grasse after I published the previous post.  The plan for that Wednesday afternoon was to take […]