south of france mostly

First things first, well actually, it's last things first because I will let you know that today, July 29 I'm in Southern France, having a coffee in the town of Vence which is about 20 northwest of Nice, so I'm pretty close to the Côte d'Azur. I am camping in the nearby town of Gaude, on private land found through the site/app, Campspace. It connects you with people who rent space on their land for campercars, trailers, tents, etc. You pay Campspace, they take their cut and the rest goes to the landowners. This is the third time I've used them in the last couple of weeks so it's proven to be a pretty useful site, usually much cheaper than camping at a traditional camprground.

Before now, before here, I was in Menton with Gi where we were... "Reunited, and it feels so Good"...Peaches & Herb, soft rock song from the 70's in case you're wondering...we met at her friend Marina's house, well her family's house to be exact, and since the family is selling it, Marina decided to have friends and family over for a week or so of gatherings and festivities. I felt very fortunate to be invited and met some really fun and cool people - no surprise because Marina is cool, lots of fun and very outgoing - part of Gi's little gang of film and tv industry peeps she's become close to over the years. It was a jam packed house so Gi and I camped on the lot. Lots of fun was had over the few days we were there but two highlights were the outings to Italy to visit Rocchetta Nervina, a beautiful wee villlage about 25 km away from Menton with the layered pools of cool water and small waterfalls about a 10 minute hike from town, and the amazing village of Rocquebrune, about a 45 minute walk from Marina's place. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

OK, that's it for this morning except...

Born in '63 and just turned 63, that's kinda cool, except for the being 63 part, but let me say...oh never mind - I'm abondoning early to spare you, dear reader, any clumsy and likely painful attempt to mimick, Angel Down, a riveting read so far (I'm about half way through) that revolves around a WW I draft dodger and con man named Cyril Bagger (although that is selling him way short), who, in the midst of a particulary horror filled day of battle, encounters an angel. The author, Daniel Kraus, wrote the book in one long, never-ending sentence. It's an interesting style and so far I have no issues with it. It definitely adds to the propulsive nature of the narrative, and it did win the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for fiction so there's that...Read more