The Answer is Yes

So the answer is yes, I miss Nice.

I’m back in the States, and my troisième étage apartment on avenue Auber seems very far away. The butch-blond florist running the shop downstairs, and her constant cigarettes, and the Arab woman and her husband who run the Italian café on my block, who would smile and say Bonjour or Bon Soir to me as I headed in and out of my building, are fading in memory.

My stomach muscles are losing their tightness; the Abdos Fessiers (abs and gluts) and Stretching classes I took at FitnessLand from the high energy young man and the slight, but equally energetic, woman in her thirties seem long, long ago.

I am still swimming, most recently at the Lexington Square pool in Arlington and Puffer’s Pond in Amherst, but the ease of swimming and the beauty of being able to float endlessly in the salty Mediterranean are now memories to be brought up from the recesses of my mind.

I am looking for Provençal rosé wine and white Burgundies, but the prices in the local wine store here are shocking. I miss the wonderful 3 and 4 euro bottles I could find so easily at Cocci Market around the corner in the Quartier Musicien.

But oh, I love having my big Maine blueberries again. I missed them.

Posts from that Last Week

Many of my friends have been following my adventures in France via Facebook over the past several months. Unlike my blog, which requires my readers to think about me, and wonder what I'm up to, and then go to my website page and read my most recent posting (or write me and ask me why I haven't updated my blog in so long!), folks who regularly go to Facebook can see my updates on their Homepage whenever I add something to my status. And this week I managed to make several updates to my Facebook page (and not my blog!), so I thought I'd share here the "What's on your mind?" comments I made on my FB page during my last week in Nice. (I leave out the comments many of my friends made to my posts - all supportive and congratulatory!)

July 25
Mom arrived this morning, so she can pack my apartment while I spend my last days on the beach before I leave Nice for good on Sunday. Nah, just kidding. ;-) But we did go to the beach this afternoon. And I am pleased to have her here to help me pack.

July 29
Four more days in France. Four more days to enjoy good food, good wine, good friends. And a lifetime ahead to remember it all.

July 31
Mom's on her way back to the States after a great visit with her. Took her to the Nice airport this morning, and got that funny feeling in my stomach...I'll be back to leave myself in two days. This will be harder than I thought.

August 1
Last day in Nice was perfect: an early morning run along the Promenade, followed by dip in the sea, followed by a beach day in Antibes, and then some culture at the Picasso Museum in the old city of Antibes. Am ending my adventure with my friend Christiane, who was one of those who welcomed me to Nice last August. Memories? Priceless.