All of which may  appear to give one more peace of mind.

But in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than having an ever changing horizon, for each day to hav a new and different sun.

Dont hesitate dont allow yourself to make excuses just get out and do it. Just get out and do it.

C.J. McCandless

Durante a semana fizemos passamos por La Turbie (cidadezinha medieval no alto dos montes ao norte do principado de Monaco), até Menton na fronteira com a Itália, voltando pela costa passando por Monaco/Monte-Carlo, Beaulieu-sur-mer, Cap d’Ail, Villefranche-sur-mer.

Fogos de artifício a cada semana na praia em Juan-les-pins

Cabo de Antibes, fim de tarde

Na trilha pelo cabo de Antibes, passando pelas mansões, água azul-turqueza

Ruela em La Turbie

Casas na antiga estrada romana Via Julieta

Jardim de outra casa em La Turbie

Monaco/Monte-Carlo visto de Roquebrune

A costa em Theoule-sur-mer

Ruelas na vila de St Valler de Thiey a caminho do Canion do Verdon

Medieval streets in St Valler de Thiey

O Canion do Verdon, o rio, e as estradas na beira do precipício

Miradouro do Canion do Verdon a quase 1000m de queda, se ve a estrada no outro lado

O rio Verdon desemboca no lago St Croix, seus muitos barquinhos e a ponte onde se passa para o outro lado do Canion

Já na descida, a vista do Lago bem pertinho

Once a french told me that their cheese was better than the italian and the swiss one. Hmm.

Then there’s also the fact that they find themselves experts in all foreign affairs involving Africa. Like they could easily solve the problems in the whole continent (contrary to the reality that to this day most French interventions in Africa were to exploit and deplete resources used in their unsustainable life styles back in France).

And so that was an opportunity to take some cool photos!

Once i saw a video (or read an article, cant remember) where this american scholar ranted about the fact that the english language (which has always been a simple language and that’s why it’ the ‘global’ language) was becoming dumber and dumber, whith an average american knowing in average only 300 words.
Well if you’re reading this, and if you’re not a native, you’ll know that english has innumerable wildcard verbs (take, do, make, have). French has those too.

The problem with french is, unlike english, you can’t get around with a small vocabulary. Especially because apart from the text-book french you really need to learn street-french and slang (which are different).

Then you need to learn the small nuances of tone: putain is a word that can mean an extremely harsh insult, but may also be used as a mere ‘outch’. All that range. Literally though, it means whore.

At least the hotel where most of the starts stay looks indeed very beautiful. Click to enlarge.

The Grand Hotel

oh the cinema...

A little shop

I came last weekend to meet a friend i made in Finland last year. She’s originally from here so she and a friend of hers took me on a walk on the Promenade by the sea, through the old town with its narrow colourfull streets, past the port, and up the hills where Nietzsche took his morning walks. Passing the Cap de Nice you’ll have the amazing view below (i tried to shoot a panoramic with my phone).

I’ll keep posting as I go around…

Wanna buy a mobile subscription? Sure:
in Finland: bring a passport and a bank statement. It opens on the same day.
In France: bring a passport, a bank statement, a bank id declaration RIB, proof of address. How to get a proof of address? Either a electricity bill or a rental bill. How to buy electrycity or rent a place? Oh you just need your bank statement! But wait: in order to have a bank account you need a proof of address. Hmm. Yeah you’re stuck. Anyway if you manage to get it, takes at least 2 weeks for everything to be fully functional.
Get a prepaid.

So there’s the story of the visa too. As a non EU citizen, i need one for work. So my employer applied for one in my behalf, and so the try and make the process smother I used a French address in the forms, since I’m already living in Paris. No good. The French gvmt politely replied ‘how can you explain your residence in Paris while you dont have a residence permit?’
i mean, they could have noticed my finnish residence permit on my passport copies.
Anyway, had to start all over again. Oh and i had to apply from their embassy in helsinki, one return ticket please!
Problem is when the visa was ready they sent it to helsinki as well, so here i go again flying back for a 15min procedure. Grrrrr.

Better get used to this.

Pois bem, durante esses 2 meses em que estive em Paris, li varios guias turisticos, fiz muitos passeios, e conheci varios cantos e bairros. Eh uma metropole que nao para mesmo, sempre tem dezenas de coisas pra fazer la. E tambem eh muito bonito. MAS, nao gostei nada nada nada para viver la. Isso porque o planejamento e os sistemas de Paris sao muito ruins. Eh dificil explicar, e nao sei se alguem vai comprar minha ideia mas…

Por exemplo os sistemas de transporte sao muito ‘bons’: redundantes, disponiveis, escalaveis. Mas sao tambem muito caros e lentos. Paris eh enorme, pra atravessala pode levar 2h, entao preciso mesmo um sistema otimizado.

Os problemas de tamanho e custos sao outra coisa que proibem muita gente de realmente aproveitar a cidade – com o aluguel de metro quadrado chegando a ate 70€ em areas mais proximas ao centro, apartamentos de 65m custam 5000€ ao mes. Mesmo que vc more no centro ainda tem o fato de que as coisas estao sempre espalhadas, entao nao ha quase vantagem em morar no centro a nao ser que o trabalho seja perto. Aqui vem o outro ponto: eh impossivel viver la sem depender do metro. E por isso, qualquer viagemzinha leva meia hora. Quer ir no cinema sabado a noite? Vai 1h de metro. Teatro? 1h. E por ai vai. Entao la se perde mto tempo comutando, e se vc vive 3 anos em paris, gastando em media 1.5h por dia no metro, vai totalizar mais de 1100 horas, uns 45 dias.

Outra coisa que nao curti foi que quase nao ha espacos verdes. Apesar de ser bem arborizada, os parques sao pequenos, e nao ha florestas em paris ou nos arredores imediatos. Como dizia o Mossmann, eh predio-asfalto-predio. E faz falta pex pra fazr jogging ou simplesmente ir respirar um ar fresco…

Bem. A partir de Janeiro comecei num trabalho no sul da Franca, na area da grande Nice, na chama ‘costa azul’. Sera assunto prum outro post! T+