Wandering The Cote d'Azur Again

On a beautiful day we took the walk from Nice to Villefranche and back.  Nice is ridiculously gorgeous from Mt. Boron:

And from the Villefranche side, looking back at Mt. Boron, old Ft. Alban's still there:

We'd already been over to Monaco once, to see the gang of circus animals that were assembled for the 39th International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo.  They had three cages full of beautiful birds this year (macaws, parrots, cockatoos) and quite a collection of lions.  Due to a minor camera malfunction, we have only this to offer:

At least the camera started working again, unlike the phone.  A few days later, we were off to Monaco again to greet the World Rally Championship finishers.  Most of the action took place up in the hills this year, with the actual end of the final rally stage at La Turbie (that's why all the cars were clean when they got to Monaco).  We were hoping to see former Formula1 driver Robert Kubica, who was driving a Ford, but he crashed out at the very end of the last stage and was nowhere to be seen.  Guess we can understand why.

But!  We got quite close to the action.  Here's the scene as the drivers await time to check into their service areas at the port:

 
Henning Solberg is a permanent fixture in WRC.  He always finds a ride, he always does well, and everyone knows him.  As always, he was holding court while waiting to check in:

 Seven-time champion Sebastian Loeb (French) and his Monegasque co-driver, Daniel Elena, are actually "retired" from WRC, but they keep returning for Monaco.  As Gordon points out, this race is about Loeb.  The team finished down in the pack though, due to a minor miscalculation that involved a rock.  Here's Mr. Elena, out of the car and obviously done for the day:

 Always a popular driver with plenty to say, Jari Matti Latvala finished in the top three in a VW:

...and held a press conference.

 And the winner was, in another Volkswagen, Sebastian Ogier, often considered to be the reason Loeb retired.  Couldn't stand the competition from the other Sebastian.  Here he is in the press scrum:

 A note on a completely different subject.  While spending our time in Monaco back in 2004 and 2005, we watched this floating dock being built in what was then the "new avant port".  It was an adventure in marine construction land.  We thought it was really neat to walk on that dock over the past few years, knowing everything about what's underneath.  But holy smokes look at it now...it's the site of the new Yacht Club of Monaco.  What a difference from the construction site we hung out at for so long!

On a Lighter Note

Nice has been under construction in one place or another for as long as we've been going there.  For several years, it was the Tram Line 1, which is now complete.  Next, it was the new park just north of the Promenade (with the new car park underneath) running from the Theatre all the way to the main square.  Now, it's Tram Line 2, which will run from the airport to the port.  Dig, dig, dig.

Speaking of the Promenade:

See Gordon back there?  OK, so, the new park is finished and people seem to be enjoying it to the max.  One beautiful feature is the fountain/reflecting pool.  We'll just let it speak for itself:

Je Suis Charlie

Our first week in Nice was marked by the murders, in Paris, of staff members at Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) magazine, as well as hostages taken at a kosher supermarket in the suburbs.  The murders were the work of Islamic terrorists and were supposedly in retaliation for Charlie Hebdo's portrayals of Mohammed.  Islamic terrorists do not believe in free speech.  The French people do.

By the weekend, demonstrations and memorial marches were taking place all over France.  The theme:  Je Suis Charlie (I am Charlie).

These signs were carried in the marches and posted all over town:

We did manage to mix in with one of the demonstrations one day, but only because we didn't know it was happening and were kind of swimming upstream through the end of it.  Currently, we do feel quite safe here at the apartment:  there's a synagogue around the corner and earlier this week, there were six police cars there, protecting it.  It appeared that the police had the folks at the synagogue outnumbered.

There are over 170 "Sensitive Urban Areas", better known as "no go" zones, in France.  A "no go" zone means that if one calls the police from there, they don't go. The area is run and policed by Islamic law.  There are several of these areas around Nice.  In spite of this, the Muslims around here seem to be laying a bit low.

Charlie Hebdo was back on the newsstand this week, operating out of borrowed offices and running on donations.  Across Europe, the January 14 edition sold out in mere moments.  Charlie pulled no punches.  They put Mohammed on the cover.  And in case one didn't think it was Mohammed, they made it perfectly clear via every news source possible that it was.  Here's the cover:

The three gunmen are dead.  The girlfriend of one of them fled to Syria before the murders.  They'll find her eventually.