What have we done so far this week? Do we have to do a lot here? Nice is compact, which means we can walk wherever we need to go. The Mediterranean is a few blocks away, as are beautiful hills. We have spent our mornings strolling along the Promenade des Anglais and marveling at how very lucky we are. Then we say things like, “I could see us renting a place here for 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 months. Aaaaah.”

We truly do miss our family and friends, but we figure if we offer a place in Nice someone might visit, oui?

We have also been a little obsessed with our step counts. Although Steven and I pretty much walk everywhere together, it seems we are walking different distances. I get that we have different gaits and, therefore, somewhat different step counts, but why is our mileage off? We are thinking it depends on which pocket our phones are in when we walk, but if you have a better idea, let us know. (little does she know that I lie to her when she asks me about my numbers…;-))

A couple days ago I walked up one of the hills to a gorgeous viewpoint. All the viewpoints are gorgeous, BTW. I wandered amid the ruins (and the snack bar), took in the view and then tried to head over to the Jewish Cemetery and Holocaust Memorial. The cemetery was closed, but I did get to see the many many names carved into a marble wall. Sadly, I think we need to remember this now as the world gets more nationalistic and tribal.

My favorite store, the Monoprix (AKA the French Target) (gives new meaning to the C’est Target saying), is nearby, but even closer is the farmer’s market. We are even becoming semi-capable of conducting a food-purchase conversation in French (for me – emphasis on semi), but what has really made me feel French is the realization of a dream I have had since we first got to Paris: I bought a breton! OK, I bought two bretons and I am soooo excited. OK, it’s likely that no French people wear bretons but I don’t care.

We have Abi here, which has been great (as her belle mere, I have to say that but it’s true). We’ve mostly been cooking, but to keep in the spirit of no French food in France, we did go out for Thai at Le Banthai in Vielle Ville (old town). The menu was limited, but the food was delicious.

I also got the opportunity to meet a coworker who happens to live here. That was great fun. One of the weird things about remote and distance work is that I have never met anyone I work with except one person I knew before. Mostly I like not having to deal with office politics and gossip, but I guess I do miss having colleagues to go get a coffee with every now and then. My colleague and now friend apologized for the weather because a couple of gentle raindrops fell from the sky when we met. I’ll take that any day, but I know from having lived in California that it’s very easy to get weather spoiled.

We’ve gone from the frenetic excitement of Istanbul to the gentle waves of Nice. I can’t say we thought it through, but the contrast between the two has worked out very well.