A cat in Cannes

Saint-Paul de Vence, the village time ignored

Flea — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:29:51 +0000

This weekend I felt I needed a day on my own - a cat needs his personal space to lick his paws, scratch his ears and, most importantly, sleep. So, I sent the courtiers out to entertain themselves and they decided to visit a beautiful “perched village” near Nice on the French Riviera.

Courtier Adrian has rediscovered his obsession with his camera so I thought I’d introduce the first guest post to the blog and let him describe their experience the best way he knows how - with a few pictures. So without further delay, please put your paws together for Courtier Adrian…

Hi all. It’s a privilege to be invited to contribute a guest post to the blog. Below are some of my pictures and observations of this beautiful historical village in Provence. It’s a pleasure to be able to share them with you but it’d be much better if I could take you there in person!

This is the view of Saint-Paul from the public parking area. It isn’t quite as far from the parking area as it appears here - that’s just the effect of the wide angle lens. The village is perched on the top of a hill and is completely surrounded by ramparts built during the Renaissance period. The walls were built to defend against relentless attacks by Charles Quint but one might be forgiven for thinking they were built to keep out time.

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Two things that haven’t happened in a long time.

Flea — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:10:27 +0000

Adrian has done himself proud.

Actually, that’s a third thing that hasn’t happened in a long time.

This morning he went to the hairdresser and got himself a haircut. That’s the first thing that hasn’t happened in a long time.

I went along to hold his hand but, really, I didn’t need to. They didn’t speak any English but he got along just fine. And, on top of that, the nice young lady who cut his hair even complimented his command of the language! I think she was just being nice because he asked for a blue mohican and you can see in the picture that that isn’t quite what he got. Anyway, he’s happy and it’s put a twinkle in his eye.

Here are a few of the useful words and phrases he used to get this marvelous cut - feel free to correct them or offer other tips in the comments:
(le) coupe de cheveux - a haircut
un peu plus court sur le derrière et sur les côtés - a bit shorter on the back and sides
c’est parfait! - it’s perfect!

Edit: A French speaker has pointed out that, in fact, Adrian’s request for shorter hair on the back could be misinterpreted as a request shorter hair on his rear end. That would explain the crap haircut! She suggested he may be better off saying something like “un peu plus court derrière et côtés” but our conversation was cut short before we could clarify. I’ll check up on this and come back to you.

Les blattes de la mer

The second thing that hasn’t happened in a long time is this…

Yes, we’re talking un-peeled whole prawns cooked in butter with copious amounts of garlic and lemon! Now, I’d never actually tried this before last night but Adrian and Anabela tell me that the last time they had this was back in Zimbabwe where, because of the high cost of prawns, it is regarded as a bit of a delicacy. Here, on the French Riviera, the packet of around 30 prawns cost them 7 Euro!

Incidentally, if you’re wondering why the picture above just shows the discarded prawn shells and not the lovely looking prawns ready to eat, it’s because Adrian took the photo and he his hoping to lead a revolution in food photography with it. You see, he doesn’t believe a beautiful photograph of food tells you anything about its taste. Rather, he thinks that a photograph of the remains of a meal, such as this one, tells you a lot about how much, or little, it was enjoyed. Go figure.

As you might imagine, I clocked the smell as they were cooking so wandered through to the lounge and put on my cutest “please can I have some” face. It wasn’t long before Anabela handed me some nicely peeled and chopped up prawns - she’s such a pushover. They were delicious but I must say that I hope they buy bigger ones next time as the wait between prawns while they were peeling them was just ridiculous!

Finally, as with anything Adrian and Anabela do, it’s not worth doing unless they can have a bicker about it. Adrian seems to be under the misguided - and frankly, dangerous - opinion that pink prawns have been pre-cooked and that all prawns are gray before they’re cooked. Anabela thinks you get pink prawns and gray prawns.

If you know the answer, kindly let me know by leaving a comment so that I can shut the two of them up!

Black cat, white lie.

Flea — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:06:09 +0000

I’m afraid I’ve told you a small fib.

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Bonjour.

Flea — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:10:17 +0000

For a first post, this is a little off topic but I’m not going to shed any tears over spilt milk. The cat below and I have a meeting of minds on at least one opinion. Humans are truly freaky - especially some of those I’ve seen walking past our balcony here in Cannes. As for their legions of yapping dogs - coifing and fluffing is quite clearly a national sport here.

My next post will be a short account of my eventful journey from London to Cannes with my courtiers and our experiences so far. In a matter of weeks I’ve experienced extremes of terror, boredom, disgust, shock and mirth. And that’s just listening to the two of them attempting to speak French.

You really don’t want to miss it.

moar funny pictures