It has been a while since our last post but I have good reason, kind-of... As mentioned in our previous post, we found an apartment and were due to move in mid-October after our trip to Ireland. Well all went well and we did move in on-time and everything went reasonably smoothly except our connection to telephone, internet and TV. Anyway to make a long story short, we finally managed to get all of our technology up and running about four weeks after we moved in. Since then I have been concentrating on finishing my French school and we have had a few visitor's also.
IRELAND
Before we left Oz Cathy had planned a trip to Ireland in late September / early October for her cousin Fiona's wedding. After the decision to move here we decided that we could both go as we are now only a 2.5 hour flight away - and I think we paid about 90 euros for two return flights! Unfortunately, however, Fiona's wedding was cancelled due to the sudden and tragic loss of her brother Enda in the weeks leading up to the wedding. So our plans changed a little with Cathy leaving a couple of days early to attend the funeral and me following on the original planned date. We wanted to catch up with the Meades as we hadn't seen them since our wedding in February 2008.
Most of our time was spent catching up with family, harassing the dogs or just lying round in front of the fire. On our first day Cathy and I decided to take the "rent-a-family" for a walk - that being our niece Zoe and Olivia's little dog Mille. We walked around the block, more or less; the block in country Ireland is probably about 3 miles. By the time we made it back to the house the rumours had already spread amongst the locals that Cathy Meade had returned from Australia and had herself a husband and child, though I assume they knew the dog belonged to Olivia!
We went and saw some more of the country this time. When we were last was there in 2006 we really just had a look around Kilkenny and a quick trip across to Cork and back. This time Eamon took us over to see Hook Head lighthouse and afterwards we got lost in County Wexford trying to find our way to Kilmore Quay for lunch. Thanks to the combined noses of Adrian & Eamon and Olivia's outstanding navigational skills we managed to find our way back out of Wexford and back to Fiddown.
A few days later Cathy myself and Mrs Meade (Ruth) headed North to Belfast. I had never been to Belfast before and I had also heard all about Cathy's sister, Amy & her husband Charlie's house in Bangor. So we just had to head up there this time to see what all the fuss was about. Well the house and the location lived up to it's outstanding reputation. We went to dinner at the Royal Ulster Yacht Club but unfortunately Lizzie wasn't in so we ate downstairs in the regular dining room.
The following day we headed further north-west towards the Giant's Causeway via inner city Belfast to see the Shankill Road and Falls Road where all "the troubles" were between 1960 & 1988. I travelled with Amy, Charlie and Zoe so I could get a running commentary as we drove past "the murals" and through some of the areas that I had only ever read about before. The southerners followed along behind in their IRL plated car. After a few dodgy U-turns I am sure they were glad to get out of the place! We found our way out of the city and headed out along the coast road towards the Giant's Causeway. Amy was regretting her all night "mother's meeting" and had a less than enjoyable ride through the windy, cliffside road. At least it afforded us some stops along the way to see things a little closer - Amy saw the grass up nice and close!
On the way we stopped in at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. This is a rope bridge which goes across to a small island that has been used over time as a popular fishing spot for the locals. Cathy, Ruth, myself and Amy (even with her then recurrent "health issues") braved the weather and any fear of heights to cross the bridge. It is very touristic now but I am told by the natives that you used to literally climb over fences and walk through a paddock to get to it. It's still very much worth doing if you are ever up that way. The Giant's Causeway itself an amazing natural phenomenon which has pushed all of these pentagon shaped rock columns out of the ground. It reminded me of Superman's ice home. The north coast of the country overall is iconic of the typical images of Ireland with the rolling green hills contracting with the harsh wind-struck cliffs and the grey, windy Irish Sea / North Atlantic Ocean.
THE APARTMENT
We flew back into France in the afternoon / evening and stayed in a cheapy hotel for a night before moving into our new apartment. Whilst I thought the place was OK for a cheap and cheerful, Cathy's work made the booking for us, Cathy had a less than salubrious impression of the place suggesting that certain "ladies of the night" perhaps rent rooms there on an hourly rate basis!
The move went surprisingly well. We arrived early to kick off the day with a pre-occupation inspection. We had our relocation agent present to act as interpreter. immediately after we finished the inspection, the removalists arrived - and just double parked a container truck in the main street out the front for the day! And then an hour or sol later our new cooker arrived, followed shortly thereafter by the new fridge. The lift in the building is a classic 1920's cage type lift that runs through the centre of the spiral staircase, it would be a heritage item in Australia. So the building superintendent turned it off so that the removalists wouldn't use it. So the poor buggers had to carry everything up three full flights of stairs!
Now that we are in we can confirm that we are very happy with our apartment. It is big, airy and light filled. It can be a bit noisy at times as we face onto a main road, but it's fine at night and our bedroom is on the back of the building with double glazed windows. The guest bedroom is at the front and apparently a little noisy but I guess that means the guests won't stay for too long due to lack of sleep...
If you want to get a feel for the area look it up on Google Earth - 32 Avenue Robert Soleau Antibes.
THE IN-LAWS
Cathy's parents, Eamon & Olivia, came to visit on the Saturday night after we moved in. They stayed for five days or so and I think got a good feel for the place. As Cathy was at work and I was at school they had to fend for themselves during the days but we took them to dinner to some of the local spots a couple of nights.
The one thing that Eamon really wanted to see when he was here was a chapel designed by the artist Henri Matisse in a town call St Paul de Vence in the foothills above Nice. Well we found Vence, then we found St Paul de Vence and we had a picnic in one of the town squares, which amused the locals no end - if only we had a euro for every "bon appetit" wished upon us!
After lunch we set off to try and find the chapel; the town itself is a cute little medieval walled village with lots of little art studios, galleries and the like. Outside the old walled village, in the "new town" we came across the Sunday markets (every town has one of those it seems) and after following the signs for the chapel for quite some distance we decided that it was probably a little far to walk. So they sent the gofer (that'd be me) back for the car. We jumped in the car and finally found the chapel only to discover that it is closed on Sunday's! Oh well at least we know where it is for Eamon's next visit.
Rather than just returning to Antibes the same way that we went to Vence we followed the nose once again and ended up driving up through the foothills towards Nice. It's a great drive and very popular on Sundays with the riders of both motorised and pedal powered cycles. As we started coming down towards Nice we decided to quickly dash up to Monaco so that Eamon and Olivia could at least say that they had been there. The traffic, however, had other plans; it was backed up to the bejeezus. While we waited in the que we watched a bunch of cars turning off up ahead and as the nose always says "if there is any doubt follow the car in front". So we decided to follow the locals. Well this took us on a route which is less than well travelled - it was a windy single lane dirt track and if it ended up that it was a dead end we had no way of turning around. But we persevered no less and once again the nose proved right and we found ourselves on a more respectable road, straight out of the set of a James Bond film. We finally / sort of made it to Monaco, well within the borders of the principality before the traffic gazumped us again. We got fuel, Eamon & Olivia got out to put their feet on Monaco soil and we turned around and headed for home.
THE DZ
We have found a drop zone. It's less than an hour from home and it's a nice friendly little place which only operates on weekends. For those of you in the know, it's about similar in size to Nowra or Byron Bay with a fast-climbing Porter, a hangar for packing and a nice cafe.
Phil - they shut down for lunch!!
This is a DZ that I had previously gone searching for during the first couple of weeks we were here. That adventure is a story unto itself and seeing as this blog is about stories I may as well tell you. I dropped Cathy off to work one day so I could have the car and headed toward Cannes. I was of the understanding that the may have been a DZ in a town just south / southwest of Cannes. Long story short, there isn't....yet.
I then headed further southwest towards a town called Le Cannet des Maures / Le Luc. I found the town/s but do you think I could find the DZ / airfield? I couldn't even find somewhere to buy a map. Bear in mind that I had only been in the country for one week and didn't exactly have a great grasp on the language as yet. I drove around and around for a couple of hours and just as I was about to give up I saw an old village up on the very top of a hill. So I thought if I could get to high ground I might be able to see the airfield. Well I did - clever dick, huh? So I turned on the nose, drove back down the hill and through trial and error eventually found the airfield. It's a military base but there was no sign of a skydiving centre.
So I gave up and headed for home. I needed petrol so I went to the petrol station, as you do, but forgot that my Australian credit card didn't work over here as I don't have a PIN number for it. Luckily I had cash so I used all of it to pay for the petrol, got back into the car at which point I remembered about the 13 odd euros it cost me in tolls to get there. No problem, go to a cash machine... Another hour or so of driving around and I finally found a cash machine and was back on the road home. By this stage I was over the whole DZ thing for a while and we stared concentrating on finding somewhere to live, etc.
A couple of weeks after we moved in Cathy started suggesting that we head out and try the big DZ search again. So we trolled the net and asked around a bit. We found a website of what looked like a reasonable sized operation in a place called Aix en Provence. A short note to all - don't follow Google Maps directions literally when in France! We ended up in the car, in the middle of the Sunday markets with everyone looking at the idiots trying to drive through the middle of the pedestrians! No sign of a DZ.
Once again we turned on the nose and after driving around the French countryside for a while longer, and almost to Marseilles, we found the airfield and a tiny demountable with a faded "parachutisme" sign; no-one in sight. We were on the verge of quitting when the pilot turned up and it became evident that the actual DZ was some distance away. So some more driving through the countryside and we stumbled across the DZ but it was just a couple of people in a field. Not much to write home about yet here I am doing just that. We didn't jump - we were over it at that stage.
So the following weekend we decided to head back to Le Luc, the site of my own earlier disastrous trip. The people at Aix en Provence actually suggested we would be better there as it is closer to Antibes. As it turns out, on my first outing I must have missed the sign (I now say it's small, Cathy says it's big) that reads "Club de Parachutisme" right at the very entrance to the airfield!
So we now have a local DZ. We have been twice, jumped a whole four times and we like the feel of the place. We even did a couple of four ways with a couple of the locals. Our first jump with them was filmed and it wasn't long before others were going into the video room to watch the jump - it seems we didn't make a complete spectacle of ourselves and by the end of the day we were asked if we wanted to form a team, I think; I'll figure out this language soon! Time will tell...
THAT MAHONY WOMAN
Helen Mahony had a business conference in Paris in early November and popped over afterwards for a short visit. Unfortunately I was still at school and Cathy was working so she managed her own sightseeing for a couple of days. She decided to ride to Cannes one day but instead just took Cathy's bike for a walk around Cap d'Antibes and told the locals that she was in love with her bicycle. Another day she visited some of the local museums and had wine with the owner of one of the local galleries - funny that she was here for only three days and met more locals than we have in three months!
We took her to a small village called Mougins (or as we pronounce it "Muggins"). And on her last day we went to Monaco. We did a "petit train" tour of Monaco, had a look around the outside of the Princes Palace (it was closed on the day) had lunch and played blackjack at the Monte Carlo Casino - well we put five bucks through the slot machines to at least say that we did.
It was great to see someone from home again and especially Helen who, as most of you will remember, was my best man at our wedding. She has also had a previous mention in this blog due to her and John & Christine's generosity before we left Oz.
Well that's about it for now. I have finished my French course and am now working from home for my former employer in Sydney. That is keeping me busy for about three days a week. Not sure what I actually do with the rest of the time but I will start looking for work locally in the new year. We are off to Ireland to spend Christmas with the Meades (bought a big warm jacket yesterday just for the occasion) and it looks like Laura has some activities set aside for us whilst we are there. Can't wait to see the party pieces...
We head back home to Antibes on 27 December and then straight back out again on 28th for Spain where we will be doing some skydiving in a place called Empuriabrava. The skydivers amongst you will have heard of it. And just to rub it in to them, we are doing invitational 16-ways with Joey Jones and Pete Allum! There will be an update to the blog after that.
Fiona Mc comes to visit in late January and then we are off to Rome for our wedding anniversary. Life's tough over here...
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