By the way, have I told you that I have created a Flickr group, to share photos of old textiles? If you are interested in textile history, you should check it out. I also upload other photos to Flickr; some of which are already on this webpage, but I also post up a lot of extra photos. Sets include renaissance pottery, armour and cutlery.

28 October

Among other places I visited was the museum of the culinary arts. It was quite interesting, but not as much as I had hoped, being really simply a museum of the life of Escoffier. That meant that there wasn't really anything about the history of food as such, but quite a lot about the Escoffier. There were some interesting food toys though!

19th century "noodle maker"	Fine apple slicer	Escoffier's bread crumb maker

I also visited Eze and had lunch at a michelin starred restaurant (which was sadly, not that great). Review on my food blog.

The view was fantastic though!

21 October

A bit to catch up on! Firstly, during the week, I visited the Museum of archeology, which was, although small, quite interesting; all the more so because they have on an exhibition on roman cooking in the area, and were selling jars of confitures made from recipes in Apicius. I had a nice chat in french with the people working there (there were three of them; rather a lot for a museum that is only twice the size of my parent's living room).

Mask of "Seline"; 80-60 bc	10th century jars	Amphoras
Drinking cup in the shape of an antelope (check out just how thin the walls are)	Perfumed oil flask, 360-270bc	Very rare 3rd century, gallo roman perfume flask (isn't he gorgeous?)

On Thursday I visited the musee de la tour, which shows local traditions and objects. Again quite a small museum, I thought it was 'tres mignon'.

I hired a car for the weekend - I am rather (well, very) cash poor at the moment, but hey, I could bung a car on to my credit card. In the end, I drove two other students from the school around with me yesterday, and three today.

Yesterday we headed off in the early afternoon for Cagne su Mere, St Paul, Vence and Gourdon. I had asked at the local tourist office, who gave me a brochure on Gourdon, and the others had heard of St Paul and Vence. The wind was blowing hard as we drove along the sea edge; the first time I had seen anything resembling waves out there (no wonder they rave about Australian surfing if this is the best they can manage!).

Cagne sur Mere has a little chateau perched on top of a hill and narrow steep streets. It was a revelation for me to discover that I could climb the steep hill while holding a conversation - a new high for me fitness wise! The church was quite sweet, and the way it is built into the hill, makes it feel quite cave like, with the arched roof being low enough that when standing in the choir I could touch the ceiling! It also had a very tricky section of Trompe l'Oeil (spelling?).

The church from the choir	A sweet little house; check out the wee round balcony up top... wonder how old it is?	The narrow streets of Cagne sur Mere

There were some very pretty spots and lovely views in Cagne sur Mer.

16 October

A happy day despite a large case of "french time". Turned up at 8.30am as instructed, and like all my fellow newbie students, sat around waiting until 9.15 for someone to talk to us. A charming but slightly odd Italian guy who explained what was going on. Apparently, having climbed up the hill to meet at the school on Avenue de Chateau (25 minutes from my accomodation), we won't actually be studying here at all, and will in fact be studying down the bottom of the hill only 3 minutes walk from my apartment. So why they got us to meet at the chateau is beyond me, as they promptly loaded us on to a bus and, via a quick stop at Cap d'Antibes, took us down to the 2nd campus (Clemenceau). Then we were taken for a quick walk over the ramparts of Antibes to the location of their third campus (du Port). Why he took us there I have no idea, and the oddest thing about it was that he very carefully (and repeatedly) described this third campus once we got there, with details such as which floor of the building the campus is in, how many rooms it has etc. Then he seemed puzzled when some of the confused students asked which campus we are supposed to turn up to tomorrow. Mind you, he also told us in detail how wonderful the Picasso museum is, and how great meals are at the restaurant on the terrace, having told us that the museum is closed for repairs. What is with that?

Two Aussie guys among the group had been telling me about a place to get some cheap chinese and since I had persuaded the autobank to give me money even though my bank account is in minus figures, I decided to eat with them and a few other students (2 Japanese, 1 Estonian and 1 German/Turk) in the spirit of getting to know some of my fellow victims. It was indeed a cheap eat in Antibes terms (a mere 4 euro for a small dish of food plus 1.30 for plain rice), and afterwards we did trawl a nearby Asian supermarket which had a very eclectic and impressive collection of food from India, Thailand, China and Japan. It was interesting talking to the lady who owns the place too; she recommended that if we weren't going to buy something immediately, we should get them to set it aside, because if a boat came in, they would sell out completely in moments.

After lunch we returned to the school to have our French tested. I failed dismally on the written test, having no real clue at all of future or past tenses (and a pretty shabby understanding of everything else). However the French tester was very impressed with my verbal skills and was outright stunned to discover just how little I had studied. She said she thought I must have been speaking French for 10 years. It will be interesting to find out what class they put me in - I suspect I am in a bit of a weird place, being far ahead of a beginner class for spoken French, but in the newbie category for written.

After that we all headed our separate ways - I went in search of a gym that I can use for the week - the cheapest was 15 euros for one week, 25 for two, so that might be the go. Its quite a bit of money I guess, but I really do want to keep up my work, and two weeks without any activity (and access to French food markets) could spell disaster if I am not careful!

So warm and pleasant here.. a sunny 24.5 degrees today (compared to a 15-19 degrees and fog in Geneva) - how I am suffering.

15 October

Well I am now in Antibes, in the Cote d'Azure. I am here, not for a holiday, but to do an intensive 2 week french course; 30 hours a week. I am rather dreading it in many ways, as I just know that by the end of each day I am going to feel like my head is exploding, but I am looking forward to learning new things and improving my lousy french skills.

I arrived yesterday afternoon, but by the time I actually got to the apartment, it was completely dark. You see, to get from the airport, which is in Nice, to Antibes, you must take a bus (I guess the rich folks would take a taxi or get their chauffeur to pick them up). There is supposedly a bus every 15 minutes and I had arrived fortuitously just minutes before the 5.30pm bus was due. Well I bought my ticket for the bus (surprisingly cheap; only 1.30 euro) and joined everyone else waiting for its arrival. 20 minutes after it was due, it rocked up, already full of people! I tried to squeeze on board, but with my two suitcases, there simply wasn't room. The driver assured me that the next bus would come in 15 minutes. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, at 6.50pm a bus turned up (again already almost full) and I found a corner for me and my bags, offering another standing lady the opportunity to rest her shopping bag on my case. Well more people got on at the next 5 stops, and by the time we got to the 6th, the driver told the people there that they would just have to wait for the next. The trip from Nice to Antibes took almost an hour of stopping and starting. Ghastly. So in the end, I arrived at the apartment at 8pm, having arrived at the airport at 5.15!

The apartment is very sweet: it belongs to my friend Alex and he is in mid-renovation - most of it is done and it is looking very good. There aren't any hotplates yet, I am sleeping on a fold out bed, there are no couches, and I gather that the floor tiles are going to be replaced, but apart from that I think it is all done. Unfortunately I suffered very badly last night from what I now think of "Dalmeny syndrome" - the horrible results of being exposed to dust: in particular, the dust that builds up in blankets and beds when they haven't been used for a while. So I awoke to bloodshot and itchy eyes, bouts of sneezing and a bit of a wheeze. Use of the vaccuum cleaner on the bed made it worse, and I discovered upon opening that the bag inside was split so as I vaccuumed dust into the machine, it blew dust out its rear! So I changed the bag (with the expected wheezing and sneezing) and tried again. I also washed my blanket, which being synthetic was not harmed by being stomped on in the bath tub.

But I am sorry, I don't mean to have this sound like a gigantic whining session. In fact, I have had a lovely day. It was so warm I was able to wear a summery skirt (the one I bought in London) and sleeveless top. The apartment is very close to the harbour (boy are there some HUGE yachts in there), and it was only a matter of 2 minutes walk to get to the veggie market, where I used up my meagre supply of euro to buy some fresh cherry tomatoes, a small loaf of bread, a pear, some mushrooms and a small slice of cheese. By the time I got to the cheese stand, I had very little money left so had to ask the cheeseman to point out his cheapest cheese and when he asked how much of it I wanted, I had to reply "1 euro 2 centimes"! He actually gave me 1 euro 3 centimes worth (grin).

After lunch I walked around the edge of the water to visit le fort carre. That's the square fort to you. The fort was designed in 1550 and is somewhat of a marvel of geometry. Designed to cover all angles under attack - you can see in this image how well the defenders would be able to cover the walls:

The bastions are spectacular too: you can best appreciate the shape either in life, or from above so I took a photo of the model they had on display:

Its a pity that you have to do a guided visit and can't just wander freely, but I did manage to snap lots of photos. The kitchen photos I will put into my kitchens page, but here are some others:

Trivia: this fort was used as a film set in the Sean Connery/James Bond "Never say never again" movie.

A girl and her fortification

9 October

I had a wonderful long weekend in London.

I stayed with my friends Steve and Jen, and got to catch up with David, Katrina and BJ, three of my dearest friends who were visiting from Australia.

On Saturday we headed out to Hampton Court. Much to my joy, the kitchens were filled with people cooking! Both Steve and I chatted for a while with one of the guys there, who does redaction of period recipes and keeps a foodblog. Oh to get to do what I do for a living! Colour me jealous.

Then in the evening we met up with two of Steve and Jen's friends, who were very nice. The next day the others headed off to visit Stonehenge and other fascinating places. But for me, I had some practical things to do andI was dropped off near the city centre so that I could commence the search for a bra that fits. ... Marks and Spencers here I come! Except that it was 9am, and M&S doesn't open until 11am on Sundays. Doh.

But not to worry, the British Museum was just down the road, and a perfect way to while away a few hours eh? Luck seemed to be on my side. But not completely... just as I reached the section where the renaissance goodies were hiding, they closed it! WHAT?!! How could they do this to me?! Ah well, it was almost shopping time anyway, and I did manage to snap some photos of some very pretty stuff in the earlier period section, and also photos of some lovely renaissance watches and clocks (one of my many quirky interests).

Horned helmet 150-50 bc	Copper alloy helmet 150-50bc (The first baseball cap?)	Glass drinking horn
5 gold earrings 6-7thC	Penrith Hoard viking silver 10th C	huge brooch 10th c (double the size of a CD)
Pyx, gilded silver 9thC Carolingian	Citole, 1310	belonged to either
Queen Elizabeth	or Robert Dudley	Aquamanile/jug 1300-1400
Travelling spoon (Engl/Flemish 1400-1500)	Ewer 1390-1400 Found in Ghana (with badge of King Richard II) 18.6kg empty	Purse frame (prob Netherlandish or Flemish) about 1450
Swan badge (French or English around 1400)	Enamelled casket with scenes of love (French, Limoges ~1190)	The Lewis Chessmen (Walrus ivory, Scandinavian mid-late 12th C)
Aachen or Harlem ~1600	French watch around1630	Tambour-cased watch, Germany ~1560

On the way to M&S I passed an Evans shop and thought "well even though I am now small enough to buy clothes in normal clothes shops, you never know, I might just find something, and they do, after all, sell bras". To be truthful I no longer had a clue what size bra I wore... and after about 40 minutes in Evans trying bras on, I still didn't have much idea. All the bras were either too big or too small, or just totally the wrong shape.

That said, my bargain-hunting gene did still function, and I managed to snaffle myself a new skirt (with a shirred waist so it will shrink with me) and a top, for... check out this price..... 10 pounds. Thats 10 pounds total! Pretty impressive shopping in any currency! (10 pounds is about 25 Australian dollars). In M&S I discovered I am a 38G, and was able to buy two bras for 8 pounds each (which is less than I would ever be able to find a bra in Australia, much less Geneva!).

I then ran out of time, as I was meeting my friends, Terry, Elizabeth and Dan at London Bridge. I also got to remeet Loren, who I apparently have met before, back in Australia I think (she is from Tassie). My memory is like a goldfish sometimes, and Loren is very quiet so I have no recollection of having met her before. She and Terry look to be a bit of an item, which is nice! We had a drink at 'the George' an original 16th century coach house, owned by the National Trust and still running as a pub. I also got to eat a meat pie, which was absolutely scrumptious. After a lazy hour or two Terry and Loren headed home and Dan and Elizabeth took me to Brick Lane where we found a darling little Indian restaurant (not on the lane itself) and had an impressively inexpensive meal. (15 pounds for the three of us).

Monday morning David and I went off to the Tower of London: Katrina had a date at the V&A and BJ decided to spend the day crashed out. Now that was no bargain; it costs 16 pounds per person!!! Still, I did get to see the crown jewells and Henry VIII's armour which is pretty cool. Between you and I though, most of the crown jewells are too tizzy for my taste, though some of the plate on display was very nice indeed. Sadly no photos permitted, so you will have to make do with cool armour and portraits.

Henry's Garniture (for tilt)	Detail of the border (designed by Holbein)	~1540 (Henry definely looking portly by then!)
Armour of the Earl of Worcester	His feet	These rather charming men are known as Gin and Beer (early 17th C)
Horace, Lord Vere of Tilbury (1565-16350	Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1566-1601)	Sir Henry Hastings 1588

To finish off the weekend, we just had to get a photo of three shrinking friends, Katrina, Steve and I - I guess between us we have lost at least an entire adult in weight!