When Diane went to Kansas City for the birth of her first granddaughter, I went back to Villefranche-Sur-Mer for another two weeks at l’Institut de Français. This is the language school that we attended for a month exactly one year ago in April.

After two handsome boys, Leo 6 and Charlie 5, Catherine and Jeff became the parents of a beautiful baby girl, Magnolia Christine, on March 31, Diane’s first granddaughter.

Since Diane is in Kansas City for three weeks, you’re stuck with me writing this blog entry. We were both supposed to fly out of Bordeaux airport on Saturday March 25, Diane to Little Rock through Chicago. I was flying to Nice, but because of a strike (Hey, it’s France) my flight was changed to Friday. I spent the first three nights in a hotel in Villefranche while waiting for my apartment to become available for me to move in. On Sunday night I joined our close Denver friends, Cynthia and Joe Gensheimer, for dinner at the port.

I was able to move into the apartment on Monday morning March 27 but since I wasn’t starting school until the next Monday I had time to do some exploring. That day I took the train to Monaco for a nice lunch. (20 min including stops in Beaulieu and Menton for €4 round trip), and then Tuesday the train to Nice for a much needed haircut at Max Gautier.

Friday I took the bus to Eze, a beautiful old Medieval village perched high on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean, had lunch then took the one hour walk down the hill on the Nietzsche trail to the train station where I took the train back to Villefranche. This rugged rocky path with magnificent views of the Mediterranean was named for Friedrich Nietzsche the 19th century German philosopher who traveled a lot on the Côté d’Azur starting in 1883. He took this trail regularly from the train station to the village on top. On Saturday morning I went to the market in Villefranche then Sunday back on the train to Nice for Palm Sunday mass at the Basilica. After mass I walked to Old Nice to the flower market returning to the train station on the tram then to Villefranche on the train.

Most of these bouquets were in the 12€ to 15€ ($13-$16) range. You will notice on the price tags, their 1s look like 7s.

School started the next day, Monday with breakfast at 8:10 then classes from 8:40 to 4:45 with an hour for lunch, Monday through Friday. I was in a class with five men and five women. One student from Denmark, one from Russia, one from Switzerland, and three from London, two from New York, and one from Austin. We only spoke French to each other and the school was very strict about that.

After class and on weekends I had time to do some fun things such as go to the Nice Opera for a performance of Falstaff with a few of my classmates, a train trip to Cannes and a one hour tour of the city with my cab driver Stephanie, a visit to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and the Villa Rothschild and gardens, and my birthday celebration!

I’ve had a great three weeks! The surroundings are beautiful, the school was intensive but a good learning experience, and the weather has been glorious…but I’m ready for Diane to return, which she does THIS WEEK!!

Renie