It’s probably time for a generic photo dump. I mean, in the olden days, there was a standard sitcom joke about people inviting you over and then making you sit through a slideshow of their vacation snapshots. Now we use Instagram for that. And places like this.
You are free to click away. This is the B-team of my pix, anyway.
Our Airbnb here in Nice is next door to the cathedral. Excuse me: Cathédrale et Sainte-Réparate de Nice. Sunday was the feast of the patron saint, who has quite the life story, if you’d like to click through. Now, my Catholic upbringing was American and suburban, and didn’t include elaborate celebrations of patron saints; everything I know about them I got from watching “The Godfather, Part 2.” And I still don’t know much about them, honestly. Are they Italian? Not sure. We are very close to Italy here, and there are many Italian names on the tablet listing the WWI dead on the facade of the cathedral, so maybe this tradition is entirely national, who knows.
Anyway, yesterday it was obvious something big was up, all of which we watched from our fifth-floor terrace. A near-truckload of flowers was delivered the previous day (all squished into a small Renault two-door, and what Americans could learn from Europeans about packing a cargo space could fill a book). Musicians rolled in large instruments. Early arrivals for the 11 a.m. Mass were wanded by security. The elderly Monsignor was delivered to the door. And so on.
Then, at eight minutes before 11, we could hear the horns and drums, and from the other side of the square, costumed dancers led a full-on parade to the front door. Following them were robed and caped individuals who I’m sure represented various religious orders, and then, yay! A statue of Saint Reparate standing on a litter in a rolling boat filled with flowers, pushed by a number of priests, who stopped at the cathedral door and transferred her litter to their shoulders, to go the rest of the way into the church.
I shot a short movie, and I hope it renders; if not, maybe J.C. can tinker.
(I wonder if the dancers were paid professionals; afterward, many didn’t go into the church for Mass, but stood around on the square checking their phones.)
Anyway, it was stirring.
Miscellaneous photos:
We liked the Chagall museum, although the garden restaurant outside was awful.
Window-shopping, which is the only way I can appreciate Chanel:
I haven’t seen a Benetton store in the U.S. in decades, but it still exists here, and remains the McDonald’s of sweaters:
Yesterday we took the train to Monaco, just to say we did. It was pretty bleh, and had that look that tax havens all over the world get, full of bored-looking rich people seeking to stimulate their jaded souls with ever-greater thrills, which is to say the yachts in the basin were huge and there were cops everywhere, all in a country the size of a golf course. One pulled his motorcycle to the curb as we emerged from the train station, to inform us that in the principality, masks are required to be worn inside and out. OK, dude.
More to my liking was Villefranche sur mer, a village just outside of town, where we stopped on our way back for a couple of Campari spritzes. Hard-core Rolling Stones fans may recall it as the site of Nellcote, a villa Keith Richards rented for a time and generally acknowledged as the birthplace of “Exile on Main Street.” We didn’t see it. It’s owned by a rich Russian now, and the gates are kept closed all the time. The TripAdvisor reviews say stuff like “if you’re brave enough to swim out, you can see it from the water,” but I’m not that dedicated. Anyway, their yacht basin was full of pretty middle-class sailboats, and we approved:
And that brings us up to date and the Derringers off to another flea market.
ROGirl said on October 11, 2021 at 7:12 am
Nice was originally Italian and changed hands numerous times, annexed by France in 1860. The French revolution unleashed a lot of tsuris.
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Alan Stamm said on October 11, 2021 at 7:51 am
Thanks for this morning’s 25 seconds of bells, blooms ‘n clergy, a cool value-added Airbnb dividend. Long way from Crosspointe Christian Church, n’est pas?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 11, 2021 at 8:13 am
Catholic churches around the world (and most Anglican/Episcopal, plus some Lutherans) make some special note of their patron saint, including for instance Holy Cross Day at Holy Cross parish is a little extra, let alone St. Andrew or St. Zenobia’s feast days — it becomes like a birthday of the church (which many Protestant churches have a party for, the actual date of founding or such). But no one does street processions quite like the Spanish or Italian Catholic culture; if the French generally do it, I wasn’t aware. Before the Reformation, English Catholics had a pretty vibrant tradition of patronal processions, but Henry VIII & Cromwell pretty much ground that down into dust. And it can be a patron of a community, not just a community parish, who gets the street festival treatment, so the Neapolitan immigrants who populated New York’s Little Italy honored their patron back home, a saintly bishop of Naples known as San Gennaro, so the Feast of San Gennaro of Naples is what Mulberry Street is best known for each fall.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 11, 2021 at 9:16 am
It just now occurs to me that I got to watch a Native American adaptation of a patronal procession five or six years in the company of a birthday celebrator here today; it was at Ohkay Owingeh, sometimes known as San Juan Pueblo, and their mission church is San Juan Bautista, so around June 24th, the feast of John the Baptist, there are a series of dances and processions . . . and I thank Deborah for tipping me off to the opportunity when we were in northern New Mexico around that date one year. Happy birthday to you!
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Dorothy said on October 11, 2021 at 9:21 am
Your pictures are terrific. It sure looks like you and Alan are really making great memories on this trip.
Happy birthday to Deborah!
We finally got concrete at our new house. The basement, the garage floor and the front porch. It’s been framed and roofed and the cement should have been done before those steps, but it was yet another flaw in the building process. I’d be okay with moving in January rather than December. Who wants to move the week before Christmas?! Eight years ago we moved in the Monday of Thanksgiving week and that was okay, but just a little weird.
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diane said on October 11, 2021 at 9:24 am
Is there a link to click to see more of Nancy’s fabulous photos? Or I am misreading the post?
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jcburns said on October 11, 2021 at 10:08 am
I think Nancy posted more pics at https://www.instagram.com/nderringer/.
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Julie Robinson said on October 11, 2021 at 11:20 am
Happy Birthday to Deborah!
Dorothy, when you say another flaw in the building process, I can SO relate. Hope it’s the last but I bet it won’t be. Have you put your current house on the market yet? We were doing that two years ago and I feel like the whirlwind hasn’t quite ended yet.
Speaking of flaws in processes, if you ever have trouble with AirBnb, don’t expect them to bend over backwards to help. We sent a message to our host a week after the hurricane wishing him well and asking if the house was intact. No response, so we followed it a week later, then contacted them. They said they would get in touch with him, but that our only redress was to wait until 72 hours before check-in time, then they would give him 12 hours to respond, and only then would we be refunded our money.
This was much less than satisfactory so we made a hotel reservation that we could cancel if necessary. Saturday we tried again and the story changed; we had to give him another 24 hours before a refund. The woman told us that was the policy despite what we had in writing.
Anyway, long long long story shorter, the house is uninhabitable and the host has or did have Covid with severe symptoms. His wife said they forgot there were any listings and they had to have help finding his password to get into the system.
So, lessons learned; when they say they are contacting the host, they are not calling them, only sending a message through their proprietary system. Also, they will tell you whatever they feel like to avoid refunding your money. Our daughter has used them 20 or 30 times but this has soured her for the future.
Now, if we can just find a place to get a Covid test in time. It has to be within 72 hours of the wedding on Friday night, so taken in New Orleans. Mostly everyone seems to offer the multi-day response or give very squishy answers as to when you will get the results. Bride and groom, who work in health care, have simply said tests are available all over town. Thank you, thank you very much.
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Pam said on October 11, 2021 at 11:55 am
A few quick things, 1. I can very much see Kate in that Chanel outfit, please buy it for her, including the silver handbag. 2. Try to get a holy card from that church. and 3. Most of the people at the church were probably tourists. Glad you’re having a good time.
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Deborah said on October 11, 2021 at 1:05 pm
Thanks for the bday wishes. This is number 71.
We’re currently waiting the required 15 minutes after our booster shots at Walgreens. You all were correct my husband was able to get his earlier with me.
We went to the American Writers Museum before we came here. I recommend it, as an exhibit designer I can say it’s very well done. Lots of interactive stuff.
We happened to be in Florence on Palm Sunday and they had a spectacular tradition event at the Duomo. It was crazy beautiful and moving.
Now on to Eataly where we’re buying a good bottle of wine and fixing for my bday dinner that my husband is making.
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Scout said on October 11, 2021 at 1:43 pm
Happy Birthday, Deborah! It sounds like you have a wonderful day planned.
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basset said on October 11, 2021 at 1:48 pm
Came in at the end yesterday so I’m gonna throw that Civil War video out there again;
https://youtu.be/5ysshzgQ8kc
The church video was really interesting, like to see that in person someday.
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LAMary said on October 11, 2021 at 3:25 pm
Julie, just to be even more helpful I’ll add that you can get tested and get results in 24 hours or less here. So fly to LA, get tested, hop on the plane to N.O. and you’ll get a text with your results when you land.
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Julie Robinson said on October 11, 2021 at 4:37 pm
Why, thank you, Mary. Spoken through clenched teeth like the royals.
At least I’ve got the gift taken care of–through their wedding site you could order and have it shipped directly to their home. Since they only put their registry up this week we were running out of shopping options. No doubt it cost too much and the wedding people got a cut, but at this point I’m just trying to git ‘er done.
I think I’m at curmudgeon stage when it comes to weddings. And I have five days of caring for four animals and my mother. Animals who make me ill, so yes I do resent cleaning their litter pans and nasty food dishes and taking the dog out and cleaning up when she goes inside the house. Daughter ordered diapers for the dog. Sorry, now I have to change doggie diapers?
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Dorothy said on October 11, 2021 at 4:39 pm
Julie I have NO idea if all libraries are currently offering this, or just here in Dayton. But someone among my acquaintances shared recently that libraries around here are giving out a 2-pack of Covid tests for free. Normally they run about $50 at a pharmacy. Making a phone call or Googling this ‘library + Covid tests near me’ might prove fruitful. I think I heard that if you get a negative result on the first test, there are directions of when to do a second test just to make sure.
We have rented thru Air BnB several times and most of the time they’ve worked out just fine. Also, when we paid our down payment we were given the address of the rental and a phone number to reach the person who was renting it to us. Or maybe we got that info when the rental was paid in full – either way, I’m CONFIDENT we were always given that data so we were able to add it to an itinerary. (I’m old school – I still type up a WORD doc with all the confirmation numbers, addresses, etc. in one place instead of relying on just emails). I did that for our 2 week trip in Ireland and Scotland in 2019 and it worked out great. Kept a paper copy on me at all times. Just in case of technology failure and no wi-fi. I’m sharing this because I would have expected that when you paid for that rental, you should have been given a phone number to reach that guy, and maybe avoided the delay in reaching him.
I think the first time I rented a VRBO I didn’t read details of the accommodations carefully and we arrived at a place that had no soap for the shower or even at the kitchen sink. That taught me to read everything after that. (I don’t usually use shower gel – at home I buy bar soap and have liquid at our kitchen and bath sinks.) The place we rented in San Diego almost went overboard in providing stuff. It was quite generous and we felt downright spoiled, it was so well stocked. The bestest best thing was after getting up at 3:30 AM on our departure day, missing our connection in Detroit and having to sit in that airport for 8 hours until we could leave for SD, then arriving at 7:45 PST, we were too exhausted to go out for food. (No real meal was offered on the plane). We wanted to kiss our ‘landlords’ who had a charcuterie plate in the fridge for us, wine, soda, bottled water, ice cream in the freezer – we filled our bellies and collapsed in exhaustion at 9 PM.
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Dorothy said on October 11, 2021 at 7:25 pm
I forgot to say, Julie, that no, we have not listed our house yet. Virtually every house in our subdivision that has gone up for sale in the last 4-6 months has sold within 48 hours of being listed. So we’re probably going to wait until mid-November to list it. And we’ll have a paragraph in the agreement regarding the need to close just before our new house closes.
Has anyone else here watched the Sopranos pre-quel, The Many Saints of Newark? We did and I’m curious to hear other opinions. I’ll keep my comments to myself for now until I hear what you all have to say.
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LAMary said on October 11, 2021 at 7:51 pm
CA is a friendly state, Dorothy. We get a bad rap, but we’re pretty generous and welcoming. Also not airheads. Two Nobel laureates from CA today. One from a public university.
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Julie Robinson said on October 11, 2021 at 8:51 pm
Progress has been made. They are taking the dog, who is actually a good traveler and will be far happier with her mommy. She goes into depression when away from her and then absolutely refuses to go potty outside. And rapid self-tests have been found and purchased though they weren’t cheap.
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Dexter Friend said on October 12, 2021 at 3:45 am
“The Many Saints of Newark” was just what I expected, an entertaining prequel. But oh, did my fellow film lovers trash it. Like I say, The Godfather part 2 was not The Godfather. What did people expect? “Cry Macho”, the new Clint Eastwood movie, is a winner. It’s streaming now. nmd I am just about caught up with the hilarious “Ted Lasso” on Apple+.
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Deborah said on October 12, 2021 at 2:31 pm
I’m feeling slightly off today, a bit of a headache and tired. Maybe it’s because of my booster shot yesterday, or maybe because I binge watched a depressing Netflix series, “Maid”. Also I went out to do an errand and when I walked past the children’s hospital a couple of blocks from here I saw a funeral home vehicle pull out of the service area. How sad to think they probably had picked up a child’s body. You would think those vehicles would be unmarked.
I’m making cream of potato/leek soup today, it’s that kind of day in Chicago.
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