A Dab Here and An Accent There

Me and the girls at art class

Just past the halfway mark and on the downward slope of our 10 months abroad, the days seem to come and go unnoticed. (This post was written about 4 weeks ago)  Not quite sure where 6 plus months have gone but Paul Simon’s classic “Slip Slidin Away” comes to mind.  There is much that we have done.  Yet with so much more we want to do and see, we are ever so mindful of time marching by at an accelerating pace.  In the fall when routines and acquaintances were not yet established, there were days that seemed to drag on, moments when I scratched my head looking for ways beyond cycling to keep busy.

Pierre adding a dab here and an accent there

Nancy and I encouraged and in some ways pushed (ok maybe insisted) that the kids take up activities that they might not otherwise have tried back home.  Simona earnestly took up guitar and it’s been a real treat watching her come home all excited about some new artist or tune she was introduced to at class.  Wide-eyed and with a big grin on her face she came home after one class asking Nancy and I if we’d ever heard of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell as if it was some new tune that her out of touch parents couldn’t possibly have heard of.

Getting the lavender just right!!

Maddy on the other hand gave pottery classes a go before deciding it wasn’t quite her speed and is now enjoying weekly theatre and art classes.  Nancy started with one art class in September and is now fully immersed in two art classes per week and a sculpting class and wonders how she ever had time for dentistry.


As for me, after Simona broke her arm before Christmas, she had a few painting classes which were paid for that she couldn’t use so I decided to jump in and try my hand at painting.  As anyone who knows me is aware, I haven’t a creative bone in my body.  I literally struggle with drawing a straight line with a ruler.  I’m quite convinced that when my brain was developing the creative ingredients were omitted.  Nancy’s convinced that all the ingredients were somehow left out.  I can always count on my wife!!

Quite the bouquet!!

After 7 weeks of classes and one tableau under my belt, I’m quite enjoying my 2 hour weekly sessions.  Walking through an antique market I snapped a photo with my cell phone of a painting of a bouquet of flowers which I decided I’d take a stab at replicating.   While I wish I could take full credit for the finished product, I must confess that Pierre the eccentric instructor provided a dab here and an accent there.  Some shaping and definition to make the vase and table stand out and after 4 weeks I had my very own Monet I could be proud of. 

I’m on my way to finishing my second tableau, a typical paysage of a French lavender field, and am fully absorbed with the frustrations of ensuring my masterpiece captures the right colours, shadows, lighting and texture.  I could only laugh embarrassingly when I looked at the green and brown blob on my canvass which I had hoped would have some semblance of an olive tree.  ‘Pas grave, pas grave’ Pierre insists, as he takes my brush, sits in my chair and adds different hues of blue, silver and green to transform my ‘olive tree’ into an olive tree.  I will never look at an olive tree quite in the same way again.

Voila!!  My own Roc'noir

 And this in part is what Nancy and I had hoped these months abroad might offer - an opportunity for all of us to get out of our comfort zone and daily routines to try and explore new activities. 

Sal 

Carnival

It seems that as soon as the city was stripped of it's Christmas decor, preparations for carnival were underway. Place Massena and Promenade des Anglais were transformed into outdoor stadiums with seats rising along the perimeter in preparation for the 2 week celebration. This year's theme was Carnaval de Roi de la Mediterranee.

The opening night kick off was a lively celebration featuring giant, helium filled balloons, music and a Disney like parade of floats throughout the main square. Spectators came in costumes armed with silly string and confetti to add to the fun. One of the highlights of carnival is la Bataille des Fleurs, a parade of floats decorated in bright yellow mimosas and many other beautiful flowers.

Huge fresh flower floats glided across the Promenade des Anglais, as the flowers were plucked and thrown into the crowds of people. By the end of the parade, the floats were completely devoid of flowers and everyone in the crowd seemed to have received their own bouquet to take home. 

Lemon & Orange float in Menton

The town of Menton, 30 minutes away celebrates carnival with la fête des citrons which celebrates the abundant lemons and oranges that grow in this area. This year's theme was ‘les Grandes Civilisations’ and it was amazing to see how local artists were able to create magnificent floats depicting symbols of Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Chinese civilizations using oranges and lemons. 

As Simona described in a previous post, we were lucky enough to spend two days in Venice during carnival this year. The costumes were numerous and very elaborate and it definitely inspired the girls and I and to take part in the disguise of carnival. In fact it seemed like we couldn't pass by a shop that wasn't selling a costume. The kids enjoyed taking their time to find their perfect mask and posing for pictures with various disguised characters.

The burning of the Roi

Mardi Gras marks the end of carnival and traditionally the closing of carnival here in Nice is marked by the "incineration" du Roi. We were treated to an evening of songs and festivities in Place Massena, followed by a walk down to the beach to watch the burning of the king of carnaval. As the crowds gathered on the shores of the rocky beach we watched as a giant cardboard king out on a boat was set ablaze and crumbled into the ocean. This was followed by the most spectacular firework show we had ever seen. A forty five minute light show that seemed to never end, leaving us in awe. 

Roi of Carnival of Nice

With carnival now over, we eagerly await as the city prepares itself for Easter. 


Nancy

Zapped with silly string

Brilliance of the mimosa 

A stroll along the Promenade

A Visit from Julia

Waiting at the airport

I am very excited today, because my best friend Julia Quarin and her family are coming to visit us. Julia and I have been great friends ever since we were born - she was born only eight days before me.  I want to show Julia my favorite parts of Nice including the Negresco,  the Promenade des Anglais, my school, and Place Massena.    

Welcome to Nice Julia!!

I am especially excited because she is going to sleep over at our apartment. Last night I said to my dad "I can't sleep it feels like Christmas". Unfortunately it will be rainy and windy for much of the week. Today dad and I are going to pick them up at the airport.  Simona and I made a sign that says "Welcome To Nice Quarins". Tomorrow we are going to walk around the city (if it doesn't rain).


I'am excited to see her because she is my best friend and throughout these six months we haven't had any visitors. I hope she will like Nice. The Quarins probably came here looking for sun because we are on the Cote d'Azur of France so hopefully the sun will shine. 
Madeleine 

Julia's brother Luca and his great smile

Carnival in Venice

After a week of skiing, we headed to Venice to enjoy carnival.  We had originally planned on staying for three days, but decided we had enough after two days.  Venice is not like any other city in the world, because instead of roads there are canals.  Instead of buses or street cars used for public transportation Venetians use boats and it was interesting to watch them getting around their city in this way.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting Murano an island located ten minutes by boat from the main island of Venice.  Murano is known around the world for it's glass blowing.  We were able to enjoy a glass blowing demonstration.  After the glass is taken out of the oven the glass blowers have less than one minute to design the figure before the glass cools off and it becomes to difficult to shape.  We saw them making a Ferrari horse and a vase. There are two types of glass, solid glass and blown glass. The Ferrari horse was solid glass because there was no air inside, and the horse didn't need to be blown. The vase however was blown glass because the hollow part inside needed to be blown. 

We couldn't leave Venice without taking a gonolda ride through the canals.  Even though the high was only five degrees, we managed to take one just before we left Monday morning. We learned from the Gondolier that Venice is made up of 120 individual pieces of land, or islands, connected by 400 bridges. He took us on the Grande Canal, the long central canal that forms a big "S" through the center of Venice.  We went under the Ponte Rialto, the biggest bridge in Venice that was built 420 years ago. The bridge was crowded with lots of tourists taking pictures of the Grande Canal that flows below it.

The Venetian Carnival began as a time for celebrating and interacting among the social classes. Masks were worn to hide any form of identity between the classes.  During the 1970s, the Italian government decided to reintroduce carnival as a way to celebrate the city's history and culture.  Traditionally, people were allowed to wear masks between the festival of Santo Stefano until the end of carnival on Shrove Tuesday.  Surprisingly, there were not many carnival events and we spent our two days walking around Venice, stopping to look at the lovely masks in the windows of stores or posing for pictures with people that were all dressed up and disguised.  Maddy and I felt left out because we didn't have any costumes but mom promised we would get a mask. And sure enough, we did.

The most well known masks worn throughout Carnival are the Bauta, the Moretta and the Volto. The Volto was the most common mask worn in Venice for many years. The Moretta is made of black velvet and is oval in shape and was traditionally worn by women visiting convents. The Bauta is a mask that covers the whole face with a chin line, no mouth, and lots of gilding.  However, some Bautas cover only the upper part of the face from the forehead down to the nose and upper cheeks. These types of Bautas were made so that the wearer could talk and eat easier. Mom, Maddy and I all got a Bauta because we wanted something that was just covering our upper face. The full mask was to heavy and I could hardly breathe when I tried it on.

Having studied Romeo and Juliette in grade two, Maddy really wanted to go see Juliette's balcony in Verona, so on the way home from Venice we stopped in Verona to have a look. To me, it just looked like any other ordinary balcony, but if it made Maddy happy than I guess it was worth it. Maddy and I went in the house and stood on the balcony. Then we got back in the car and made our way back to Nice.


Simona

From Ski Gondolas to Venetian Gondolas

We left the slopes this morning, trading our Tyrolean mountain gondolas for Venetian gondolas and enjoy the city’s famed carnival. In hindsight we should have taken the more circuitous and longer highway route avoiding the up and down winding road through the mountains, as picturesque as it was.  The car was well stocked with plastic bags and paper towels as it was only a matter of time before we would have to make a pit stop so Madeleine could clear her stomach and overcome her nausea on the side of the road.  Gravol or no gravol, poor kid doesn't seem to fare well on these road trips but she's quite the trooper, never complaining. 

While the girls were very excited to get to Venice we all regretted having to leave Val Gardena so soon.   With the exception of a bit of cloud one day and cold windy weather another the weather co-operated and Hotel Pralong far exceeded our expectations for a 3 star hotel. The food was excellent and the service was even better.  While we’ve generally taken the more economical route of preparing our own meals on these trips, it was a real treat not having to prepare meals after long days on the slopes.  Located in the village of Selva, Val Gardena, 150 meters from one of the main chair lifts, accessing the Sellaronda ski trail was quick and easy without having to touch the car all week.

Before arriving in Val Gardena we had all agreed that 5 consecutive days of skiing would be more than enough and after 2 full days of skiing I thought I wouldn’t make it past day 4.  As the week wore on however, the girls and I and to a lesser extent Nancy wished we had bought lift tickets and rented skis for the Friday as well.  By that time however, we had our minds set on an unplanned, quick visit to Innsbruck, Austria for the day.  A short 90 minute drive across the border, we spent a few hours walking, as always, aimlessly through the old town and taking in the Tyrolean architecture before heading to Bolzano, Italy to do the same before returning back to Val Gardena. 

We all agreed that our week of skiing ranks up there as one of the best parts of our year away - so far!

Sal

Che Meraviglia!!

I love that expression. Often used by Italians to express delight or marvel. It's the reaction we often get when we tell Italians we are from Canada. Wow Canada, 'e il mio sogno', its my dream to go there they tell us as their eyes and faces light up in delight. We just spent a week skiing in the Dolomites and I can't think of a better expression - che meraviglia! We've always heard such wonderful things about the Dolomites and certainly the reviews on websites we researched describing these range of mountains use such adjectives and superlatives that our expectations were ratcheted up to the extreme. With such expectations, I feared disappointment. 

Simona hot-doggin it!

Rugged, dramatic, imposing, frightening, jaw-dropping, mesmerizing and on and on I could go. Not as high as the French or Swiss Alps, the Dolomites are nonetheless breathtaking in their beauty and grandeur. As a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site its peaks are included in UNESCO's list of the most beautiful mountains in the world. As Nancy noted it is impossible to capture in pictures let alone words how vast and strikingly stunning this area is. For the avid, expert skier, more challenging skiing (a greater number of steeper tougher blacks) can be had in France and Switzerland but from what we experienced it is hard to imagine a setting more picture perfect. 

Having snowed quite a bit the week before, we got lucky with fabulous ski conditions. With the exception of some cloud cover for half a day Tuesday and one cold and windy day Wednesday the skies were as blue as I've ever seen them and a healthy application of sunscreen was a must throughout the week. There were times where the sun literally seemed to shine down upon the granite peaks like a huge flood light. It had a surreal feel to it as though the jagged peaks were man-made, paper-mâché almost. 

Turn off the lights!

The Dolomites are comprised of 1200 km of runs and 12 ski areas of which Val Gardena is one. We stayed in the village of Selva, Val Gardena from which it is literally possible to never have to ski the same run twice in one week.  I did a fair bit of skiing on my own the first 3 days as Nancy and the girls took lessons.  The first day I skied clockwise (the orange route) around the Sellaronda, a 42 km route which takes between 4 and 6 hours depending upon lift lines and makes its way around the stunning Sella Group peaks linking 4 ski areas in the Dolomites. On Wednesday Simona, Maddy and I joined two Dutch families staying at our hotel for an all day outing to Monte Lagazuoi, the site of numerous battles between the Italians and Austrians during World War I.  There remains a series of interconnected caves and tunnels that were built and used during the war that one can walk through and visit while hiking in the summer.

Having completed 4 days of lessons, Nancy joined the girls and I on Thursday and we tackled the Sellaronda but this time doing the counter-clockwise green run.  It was an exercise in patience for the girls and I waiting for mom every 400-500 meters (literally) but to Nancy’s credit, she completed the outing as overcome with fear as she was. 

Interestingly, we discovered that there is a small community of about 30,000 people in this mountainous part of Northern Italy that speak a language called Ladin (or Ladino as the Italians refer to it).   Not a mere dialect, it is officially recognized in Italy with some official rights in the Trentino-Alto Adige region.   Try as we did, we were not able to understand it when locals spoke it among themselves. 

Sal

World Cup Skiing

Just missed the podium!!

We just returned home from our ski trip to the Dolomites.  Before leaving I said to my mom, "I'll stay on the blue and green runs with you". Well I surprised myself because I was literally skiing the whole time with dad and Simona on red runs, but the first day of skiing I made it clear to him I was NOT going on black runs.  Now this is where I surprised myself even more.  On our last day of skiing dad and I went on the 2011 world cup run known as Saslong which is a black run.  My favorite part about that run was the big billboard at the bottom of the hill which had the names of the top 3 skiers for this years race.  Well if you can believe it, a Canadian Erik Guay came in third place for the mens Super-G  race.  Once I saw the billboard I was especially proud to be Canadian.

This pic speaks for itself.....

Throughout the week we met families from all over the world including families from England, Holland, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Sweden.  I could go on and on but my point is when we told people we were Canadian their eyes lit up.  Mom told us that when she told a lady in her ski class we were Canadian the lady said, " Oh it's my dream to go to Canada, you never hear anything bad about it".

Our Dutch friends

Wednesday was our second last day of skiing so we decided to leave mom in ski school and go to a particular part of the Dolomites where you get pulled by horses for about 2 kilometers on some flat land.  We met 2 families from Holland staying in our hotel who were also going to the horses so we all went together.  All I can say is that it was freezing like you can't even imagine, minus 12C.  Going up on the chair lift I was literally crying of how windy and cold it was.  The other bad thing about going to the horses was that there was a lot of pole pushing and a lot of long line ups........ or as the English say 'there were a lot of long queues'.  The horses were ok but it was definitely not my favorite part.

I loved the hotel we stayed at.  The dinner was so good every single night. We had steak, salmon, meat skewers, rabbit with polenta and mushrooms, cordon bleu, everything you could ever imagine.  It was so delicious, and the dessert was even better!!  Some nights the main course was served covered by a cloche which made it really fancy and Thursday night we ate by candle light.  I wish we could go back. 

Madeleine

Torino - The City of Arches

Count down to 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy

Home to the Agnelli clan, owners of Fiat and big bad Juventus, I had always envisioned Torino to be a grey, dull industrial city and never really had any great urge to visit.  Yet on this particular day Torino was anything but.  Charming, elegant and energetic it was washed over in sunshine and its signature baroque architecture was on full display as we walked aimlessly through the city center. 

With time becoming such a precious commodity and so many other attractive places to visit in Europe, like many tourists we were quite prepared to overlook the city.  However, since arriving in France, more than a few people have encouraged us to visit Torino and given how close we were we figured we might be able to knock it off in a day.  As well, after learning that the Italian nation was born in Torino150 years ago and it being Italy’s first capital, a visit could not be avoided.  In 1865, the capital moved to Florence for a brief period before Rome became Italy's permanent capital in 1870.  Who knew!!

Enjoying some sun

Via Po is one of those extravagant streets lined on either side with ‘portici’ (arches) so typical of the city.  Connecting two of Torino’s main squares, Piazza Castello and Piazza Vittorio Veneto, we walked down toward the Po River along one side of Via Po and back up the other under the portici stopping at the historic Caffe Fiorio for some delicious chocolato caldo and gelato which the café is famous for.

Often referred to as the city of arches, Torino is another fine example of a European city designed and architected with the pedestrian in mind.  Palazzo Reale, Grande Madre, Mole Antonelliana, San Lorenzo Church and Grande Madre are a few of the stunning examples of the city’s elegant past.   

Torino's Egyptian
Museum

Established in 1780, Caffe Fiorio was frequented by intellects, politicians and aristocrats of the time and some suggest it is where Cavour and Garibaldi plotted Italy’s political future.  It was also one of Mark Twain’s favourite places to stop in for hot chocolate and ice cream.   On this beautiful sun-filled day, it seemed like every person in Torino was out sitting in cafes and squares or simply walking without a care in the world and enjoying the splendour that the city has to offer.    As for knocking it off in a day?  Wishful thinking, we’re hoping to find time to go back for another visit.

Sal