Mo' Maureen

When our pal Maureen came to visit a few weeks ago, we all took an overnight trip to Grasse, then Vince and Maureen did a lot of exploring around Nice and along the Cote d'Azur while I kept things running at the European HQ of alecwagner.com.

But I especially enjoyed the day Maureen and I spent lallygagging around Nice with Honey. I busted out my finest Nicoise sailor garb for the occasion.


Sweet Treats
There's a candy shop on the rue de France that Maureen had seen earlier during her visit. We headed back to have a Willy-Wonka-worthy shopping spree. The shop doesn't sell Everlasting Gobstoppers, but they do offer miniature croissants, pain au chocolat and other baked goods rendered in marzipan. You can see them in the picture below. And below that, Maureen searches for her golden ticket (and some sweet treats to take home).


We meandered down to the Promenade des Anglais for a seaside stroll. And to pose and take pictures of each other.


Hunger, of course, set in quickly. Luckily, it was lunchtime and there are oodles of places to eat near the sea. We picked Lido Plage, as the view seemed especially inviting.

Maureen enjoyed the seafood salad.

I gobbled up the spaghetti carbonara, made the French way: lotsa cream, lardons (super-fatty bacon) topped with a raw egg yolk. It was really rich, and reeeeeally good. Urp!

Maureen dipped her feet in the water. With those rolled up pants, she's really working that beachcomber look.

We wrapped up a perfect afternoon in Old Nice at Fenocchio, where they have amazing flavors of ice cream (violet, rice pudding, olive, avacado). I had a killer combo of ginger ice cream with vanilla-pink-peppercorn. It was sweet and spicy. Maureen had caramel with browned butter. Honey was mad for it.


It was a day of pure bliss (fueled by the sea breeze, sunshine, sugar and dairy fat). Heaven!

A Visit from Maureen

Shortly after we arrived in Nice, our dear friend and neighbor Maureen came to see us. We'd planned to take a trip to Venice, but train schedules (and rail strikes) nixed that idea. Instead, we opted for a trip to Grasse, France.
We schlepped our bags to the train (the line to Grasse was still running), and spent a few days in France's (maybe the world's) perfume capital. Once we got to Grasse, lunch was in order.

Hungry travelers, waiting for sustenance.


Grasse is quite lovely and green.


We couldn't resist posing like tourists. Nice camerawork, Maureen!

Upholstery by Claude Rains.

Look closely, and you can see me in the windowpane. Artsy picture. Here's another:

Next time: More fun with Maureen (spoiler alert: seaside vittles and a wacky Willy Wonka adventure!). Stay tuned!

Home Sweet Home

OK. I’ve been a little lazy. On this jaunt across the pond, I’ve been lucky enough to have quite a lot of work. The paid kind (my favorite!).

But all work and no play makes Alec a dull boy. I have been neglecting my duties as a cheap and cheerful sometimes-expat, so I must submit a full report of where I’m living/working for the next five months or so. I know I wrote about it a lot, but it seemed a few pictures were in order.

As I mentioned last time, our apartment is quite deluxe. Because I travel with my interior decorator/home stager/design consultant (and head chef, best friend, canine co-parent, husband and love of my life -- very convenient, all that in one fella), the place is essentially as we found it, but more "us." Oh, no major purchases were made and no Photoshopping has been done to the following images – but Vince has moved a few things around to suit us.

A quick tour:

First Impressions: When you walk in, you are immediately tempted with the inviting terrace.

A Gauche: Nothing gauche about the comfy living room (but it is on the left).

Petit Cuisine: Vince somehow makes lovely meals in the wee kitchen. And for the first time living abroad, we have a dishwasher (and his name is not Alec). But we still miss our garbage disposal. Who wouldn't?

Dinner for Two: As the weather cools, we are dining in this cozy corner of the kitchen. Luckily, it's is still warm enough for occasional lunches on the terrace ; ) And there's a sweet little sandpiper (?) to remind us we are just steps from the sea. Love that kooky bird.

Did Someone Say 'Terrace'?: Oh it is huge and lovely. In Nice, it's all about outdoor living (weather permitting). It has table and chairs for four, two sun-loungers, two extra chairs and a cocktail table.

Beverly Hillbillies: And, the terrace has plenty of room to dry laundry (we have a washer, so we can avoid arduous trips to the Mediterranean Sea to beat our clothes on rocks).

And So to Bed: The bedroom is off the terrace. Separate, private, serene, with lots of sun. Both the day bed and sofa in the living fold out for sleeping too, so why not drop by and stay a spell?

The Loo: Unlike the Brady Bunch house, we have a full bathroom.

What a Commute!: Oh yeah, all that work I'm doing? It happens right here, at the European branch office of alecwagner.com. Have laptops, will travel.

Adieu!: Honey says "Drop by anytime!"

Deluxe Digs

We contacted our trusty leasing agent, Anne-Laure, last year and discovered the cheap and cheerful apartment we’d rented in the past was rented for 2010. But she found us something better, bigger and within our budget. All three Bs!

It seems as though 8 boulevard Victor Hugo is considered ‘une residence de bon standing,’ which is French real estate parlance that roughly translates to 'a better address.’ The building even has a name, Le Metropole.

And our mailbox and buzzer have a name: Mine! Wow. I’ve arrived!

The apartment came with an unexpected bonus: the owner. Madame Manteau was at the apartment with Anne-Laure to greet-and-meet us when we arrived. Madame had gone to great lengths to ensure that everything was in order for our stay. We’ve rented furnished apartments a number of times, but none have been as well-stocked (or as fancy) as this one.

Christine took us out for a lovely lunch on the rooftop of Splendid Hotel & Spa. Good food, great views, and a dear new friend make for a perfect afternoon.

Anyhow, Madame (or Christine, as she keeps insisting I refer to her) not only made us feel welcome, but she has quickly become a friend. In the following days, she showed us some secret spots in Nice we’d never have discovered on our own. She pointed out the good restaurants in the neighborhood, the nicer avenues to stroll, smart cocktail lounges, fancy hotel swimming pools you can sneak into. She even played tour guide for Vince one afternoon (I stayed home to work), showing him around Beaulieu sur Mer and St. Jean/Cap-Ferrat.

Speaking of work, Christine really saved my bacon. Anne-Laure had arranged a mobile broadband Internet connection for my stay. It’s that little USB stick you plug into your computer to get online. That little stick quickly became a big headache. My Internet connection would flake out, switch networks, work again for awhile, then sometimes not at all.

I poked around online (as best I could) and discovered that, as a technology, mobile broadband isn’t quite ready for primetime. It made me miss the days of dial-up! Christine whisked me to a telecom provider, presented some paperwork, and signed me up for a landline with DSL and a Wi-Fi box.

And I’m back online thanks to her help. Merci, Madame…Christine!

I'll post some pictures of our glam digs in my next installment. Stay tuned...

Prepare for Landing

Vince, Honey and I landed in Nice two weeks ago, so it is high time I started blogging again. What’s the point of having a blog about being a part-time ex-pat unless you post about your adventures from time to time?

This year, we’ve moved from being part-time ex-pats to half-time. We’re spending slightly more than six months in Nice. I suppose we’re now officially bi-coastal, even though the coasts are in two different countries. And continents. We’d always planned on traveling for three months at a time twice per year, but we got to talking during our stay in France last summer and well, you can fill in the blanks and do the math.

We’ve been ramping up for this chapter in our lives for the better part of a year. If I were a better blogger, I’d have posted updates about all the planning, plotting and paperwork involved in a long-term sojourn. Oh, the paperwork: proof of permanent residence, visa applications, mug shots (precisely 35x45mm s’il vous plait), letters of intent for the French consulate, proof of insurance, proof of income, pay stubs, bank statements dating back three months, rental agreements, health certificates, proof of current rabies vaccination. And various numbers of photocopies of each. Somewhere, someone is sorting through all of that documentation, I suppose, and we’ve killed a large tree somewhere in the Brazil rainforest.

At least it has been documented that Vince and I don’t have rabies, and Honey has money in her savings account. Arf!

Anyhow, we made it. We’re feeling settled in and sorted out. More on the trip, the apartment and other little whatnots of life in the days to come. It’s wonderful to be back (in Nice and online). As a preview, the photos above/below are daytime/sunset from our terrace. Holy cow!

AZ You Like It

My dad and stepmom have been spending the harshest months of winter in Scottsdale for the past couple of seasons. A smart move for folks who live in Montana the rest of the year — and a nice warm place for me to visit during that annual period when rain continues to interrupt the change of seasons in SF. And my sister Amy joined us for the fun!

There's a lot of lovely flora and fauna in AZ. When I was in Scottsdale last weekend, I snapped some great pics of what I saw:





A hummingbird had built a nest outside the front door of the home Dad and Gwen rented, and I just couldn't snap enough pictures of her and her nest — hummingbirds are simply my favorite birds:




We had such fun. We dressed up and went to concerts, had lunch, explored, shopped, took walks, saw the sights — and had a ball.