Farcis niçois

Continuing the series, this is farcis niçois, a speciality in Nice,

It was essentially capsicum stuff with some type of meat. It tasted an awful lot like lamb, even though most of the recipes I’ve subsequently found online say that it is typically Italian sausage. And the meat was really chunky, which I would not expect from a sausage. So it is on my bucket list to return one day and find out more about the stuffing!

Brouillard étrange à Nice – as seen on CNN!

I took this snap one morning late in December while in the Southern French city of Nice. I took the snap from a lookout high above the city that you need to climb.  It was early in the morning, and there was only one person there – a man with a big fancy camera on a tripod.

As you can imagine, it blew my mind when I saw exactly my snap shown on 03. January on CNN in Switzerland!  According to the caption shown on CNN, this is some type of fog phenomena that is very rare in Nice.  Is it true?  Is it not true? At any rate, it is clear that the man with the big camera on the tripod was either working for CNN or else sold his photograph to them!

 

L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue – A man I never knew, and still don’t

Continuing the series, this statue of Alphonse Benoit (1809-1872) is not a trivial little adornment; no sirree, this is a monster obelisk that sits in a very prominent position in the sleepy French Provence town of L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue:

Not only that, but this man has an entire school in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue named after him!

What did he do? Why is he so famous? Good question – I don’t know!  The only reference to him that I could easily find was this one, and it doesn’t say very much.

Here’s part of a snap at the bottom of the obelisk:

Promenade des anglais – entièrement protégée

This is a snap showing the famous Promenade des anglais, a pedestrian area in the Southern French city of Nice that was sadly the place of a terror attack in 2016. As you can see, the Promenade is today fully protected with barriers that keep out unwanted vehicles.

I find it fascinating: the medieval villages and cities erected walls to keep bad things at bay – today, centuries later, we do the same!  And centuries from now?  Well, the Enterprise does have its shields!

L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue – More antiques

Continuing the series, the sleepy French Provence village of L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is host to the largest antique market in France, every Sunday starting at 5 AM.  Here’s a snap from the market:

Doesn’t look like a lot of people? At this time, no. It was 7 AM on Sunday, December 26th. But . . . about an hour later the market was absolutely full, and even the food vendors were selling pizza and sausages.

GDP Map

Recently I posted what I thought was quite a nice map of world languages, here.

Here is a very similar graph, but this time of Gross Domestic Product:


 

I am not a Grossdomesticproductician, but I do think a graph of this nature could be confusing. It compares GDP that has been converted to a single currency, but it strikes me that looking at it in its natural setting of its own buying power could be more insightful.

 

Nice facade

Well, actually what I mean is Facade in Nice, although to be honest, it is anyway a very nice facade, whether in Nice or somewhere else:

You need to have good peepers, but those who have them will immediately spot there are no balconies of any kind on this building – everything you see here is just painted onto the surface.

Blazing Cavaillon

OK, more appropriately the name’s Blaze, Castil Blaze, in Cavaillon:

 

Oh, the stories of Monsieur Blaze that I could regale you with!  Oh, the glasses of pastis that have been lifted in a toast to Monsieur Blaze!  Oh, the tears of laughter that have been spilt over the stories about Monsieur Blaze!

Well, I am sure they all exist. And I am sure there is a good reason the inhabitants of the French Provence village of Cavaillon have chosen to erect a massive statue in his honor. But . . . I have no idea why. According to Wikipedia he was essentially a music critic.