While the Riviera is generally known for its sun and warmth, this winter has been exceptionally wet and dark. We went nearly two months without seeing blue skies or dry ground. This week it’s gotten better, and today was chilly but clear. While walking to a store this morning, I passed our Notre Dame, which was recently renovated for Nice’s 150th anniversary as part of France. There was a protest in front of it, not sure what for, but with my cameraphone’s blocky colors, it made for an interesting play of contrasts with the sun, sky, cream church, bronze-windowed shop building and black-winter-coat crowd.

The fact that I have French citizenship has finally been sinking in these past two weeks. No more yearly visits to the prefecture to renew residence; no more need to declare changes of address with them; no more running every decision through the filter of “as a non-EU citizen, do I have the right to do this, will it be more complicated, will it cause any problems”; and, I finally have the right to vote in national elections. I registered just in the nick of the time — there are only élections cantonales this year, but at least that way it’s done and I’ll be able to vote in les présidentielles de 2012. Kind of a funny coincidence in 2012, since the US presidential elections will also be held (I plan to vote in those too). French presidential elections are currently every 5 years, previously every 7, whereas US presidents are elected every 4, so it’s not common that they overlap. On the whole, I feel much more empowered and free — no longer having to worry about my non-EU-citizen status is more of a relief than I had expected.

I spent a nice but chilly three and a half days in Paris, and had the chance to take some photos while exploring the city in the evenings. I didn’t have any room to pack my tripod, so some of the night shots don’t have stunning clarity, but they did turn out surprisingly well. Along with this archetypal photo of the Seine taken from a bridge that connects the 4th quarter to the Île de la Cité, my other favorites are Notre Dame against a twilight sky, the terrifically Gothic St. Jacques tower complete with spooky branches in the foreground, and Pont Alexandre III with Eiffel dressed in Christmas lights and her rotating beacon. They and other photos can be found in my photoset for the Paris trip.

The TGV rides to and from Paris were neat, as always. Timewise, it’s rather comparable to taking a plane: flight time is about an hour and a half, then you need to add an hour for check-in, plus another two or so hours for travel to and from the departure and arrival airports, as well as waiting to gather your luggage, which makes it about 4 or 5 hours in all. The TGV takes just over 5 hours, and train stations are in the city centers — no special travel or parking necessary! I prefer the train because it’s so much less tiring. It was a relief not to have to deal with luggage or security restrictions, and to be able to get up and walk around whenever I wanted. You also get beautiful views from the large windows.

I filmed two short videos with my mobile phone, the first on Monday as we travelled through Provence between Toulon and Aix-en-Provence, and the other just after we’d left Paris on Thursday afternoon — there had been a dusting of snow over the French countryside.

I haven’t written in a little while, but it’s not actually because I’m on strike! Though I did participate in today’s protests in Nice, against proposed retirement changes and, more generally, against Sarkozy’s government, which is increasingly unpopular for several reasons. I wasn’t technically on strike, since I used one of my vacation days (my current employer is quite all right, nothing against them in particular), but did want to lend my voice to those who disagree with so much of what Sarkozy and his government have done. Nice is implicated more than many places, since two of Sarkozy’s right-hand men are Estrosi and Ciotti. Estrosi is France’s Minister of Industry, as well as Nice’s mayor; Ciotti represents the Alpes-Maritimes département in France’s National Assembly, and is president of the Alpes-Maritimes General Council. I took photos while at the protests, and created a photo reportage.

As for this photo in particular, I chose it for this post due to its unique Niçois character. The man’s shirt says: “Work well at Hersant and they’ll repay you with shit” in Niçois. It’s based on a relatively common saying, one that’s usually used to refer to a single person: “Be nice to X and they’ll repay you by shitting [on you]“. I adapted the translation for the company slightly; it’s a play on meanings and is supposed to be interpreted on different levels. Hersant, or GHM, Groupe Hersant Média, owns Nice-Matin newspapers.

A few weeks ago I took my camera to Boulevard Garnier, an east-west street north of Nice’s city center. I walk it occasionally to go to the Libération open-air market, and had noticed some beautiful mosaics on apartment entries. The one shown above is a closeup of this mosaic, leading to beautiful wooden doors. It was done by the mosaic cutter and setter Zanussi, as well as this scrolling vine mosaic just down the street.

There’s a more modest art deco mosaic in my building’s entrance, and back on Boulevard Garnier, this “Provence” mosaic, done in a very different style:

On this day in 1860, the French flag replaced the duchy of Savoy flag for the first time in Nice. Today that event was celebrated with parachutists and a performance by the Patrouille de France, one of the world’s oldest aerobatic demonstration teams, formed in 1931. I grew up watching air shows at our local airport, and once saw the Blue Angels perform, so I was very much looking forward to today’s festivities. My expectations were far exceeded — the Patrouille de France, led by Virginie Guyot, the first woman ever (in the world) to lead an aerobatic demonstration team, was breathtaking, especially over the background of a particularly beautiful Mediterranean.

Despite there being quite the crowd, I was able to find a spot near the beach and Place Albert 1er, which was where the performances were set to take place. First, a group of 35 parachutists dropped into a formation supposed to be “150″, though we spectators had a hard time making it out in the blazing sun. They landed not far from where I was. Then it was time for the Patrouille de France’s performance.

They took off from Nice’s airport, their smoke trails on, and impressed us all with their first crowd fly-by. I ended up taking loads of photos, which you can browse in this set. My favorite is above, and the following are pretty nice too:
o Smoke trails over the Baie des Anges, showing the beautiful blues the Mediterranean decided to wear today. She doesn’t often look like this!
o Landing approach simulation also shows the gorgeous blues in the sea, and one of the Patrouille de France’s Alpha Jets flying with its landing gear down.
o Concorde formation!
o Threading the needle, although the literal translation of the description given by the announcer would be “flying through the center of a triangle”.
o This formation was neat as well, since the planes were constantly changing position.
o A star for the final formation.

Today’s festivities began with the removal of the bell cast yesterday night. While we waited for Estrosi, mayor of Nice (and also minister of industry), the clamps were removed from the mold, and we watched flags being thrown over a background of drum and fife music. Once Estrosi arrived, the mold removal could begin. The manager of Paccard explained that to help the bell dislodge from its mold, the casing needed to be hammered. He presented the hammer to Estrosi for “a first few strikes,” but once Estrosi had started, he kept going, despite polite requests from Paccard workers to let them take over. After a few minutes of hammering, the bell was finially dislodged and it came out of its mold. It was covered in residue, which Paccard workers began to remove. Estrosi posed for another photo, then workers sandblasted and polished the bell.The finished bell will resemble its two sisters, also cast for the 150th anniversary of Nice joining France.

While the bell was being sandblasted and polished, a large group of chefs were cooking for all who dared approach. It was less chaotic than I had expected, but there was still plenty of jostling as people tried their best to get at the free food on offer. I managed to get three dishes: a socca salad, then “Niçois sushi”, and finally a mango sorbet with chopped strawberries and basil, with a strawberry coulis. One of the many other dishes prepared was stockfish, which, of course, originates from Norway. How did it become a specialty in Nice? Norwegian sailors would bring stockfish to Nice and exchange it for olive oil, quite simply! After most of the food had been given out, techno was put on the speakers and our chefs danced onstage.

Tomorrow, the bell that was finished today will be formally presented to the City of Nice and blessed by a church representative, since it’s for Notre Dame. (“Notre Dame” simply means “our lady”, so there are several churches and cathedrals named Notre Dame throughout France.)

To start the festivities surrounding the 150th anniversary of Nice joining France, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” was performed, followed by a traditional church bell casting. The bell shall be for Nice’s Notre Dame church, and was cast by the Fonderie Paccard. Paccard is from Sévrier, on the Lac d’Annecy in Savoy, the duchy of which Nice had been a member. Their bells were, and still are, so well-known that before Savoy joined France, Paccard exported bells to France, as well as to many other countries, including the USA.

The oven was turned on at 5 this morning, with a 78% copper and 12% tin mix (to make bronze), with some phosphorous added while we watched the casting this evening at 10. The finished bell will weigh 225 kilos and ring a C#, or “do dièse” since they refer to musical notes using solfege in French, and have a fixed “do”. The head of Paccard mentioned that the largest bell they ever made weighed 33 metric tonnes, and can be found in an American church. After adding the phosphorous and waiting a few minutes, the caster took the temperature of the heated alloy: 1100 degrees Celsius (or about 2012 degrees Fahrenheit), “perfect for a bell this size,” said the manager. Then a sample was taken and cooled. The first one didn’t look, feel or sound right, giving a tinny, weak buzz when tapped, so a second sample was taken a few minutes later. We could all hear the difference when the manager tapped on it: this sample rang a clear note. Then the caster began to pour the molten alloy into the mold below, which only lasted a few seconds, but was quite the sight to behold! Once it was over, the manager invited us to return tomorrow for the bell’s removal and polishing tomorrow at noon. I’m looking forward to hearing what this bell sounds like.

300-odd years ago, Nice was not part of France, but part of the Duchy of Savoy, and later the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. Duchy of Savoy territories were the last to join France, their annexation in the 1860 Treaty of Turin ratified by a hotly-contested vote that is still the subject of debate today. Calls for secession from France continue, by authors such as Alain Roullier and groups like Liberà Nissa and the harder-right Nissa Rebela, which I photographed for a “politically incorrect” topic in a recent competition here. (The winner was a photograph of someone using a French flag as toilet paper, to put it politely. When that caused an uproar, the winner was stripped of their prize, which was then given to a photograph of a pregnant woman holding a burning cigarette in front of her stomach. All I can say is that if those were the types of photos they were looking for, I’m glad I didn’t win.)

Amidst this debate, celebrations for Nice’s 150th year as part of France are set for this weekend, beginning Friday evening with a traditional bell-casting for the Notre Dame church here. Festivities will end with a flyover by the Patrouille de France on Monday, the day the French flag was raised over the Palais des Ducs de Savoie, today known as the Palais de la Préfecture in Vieux Nice (Old Nice). I’m going to try to make it to all the events and hope to blog them every day from this Friday to next Monday.

Spring has finally begun here, with the arrival of cherry and wisteria blossoms. I took photos of the pink and purple flowers near my home just an hour ago.

In photo-related news, recently a picture I took of the reimbursement statements we get for health care here was linked in a Wired article, which was soon after taken up by The Guardian, in a writeup aptly titled “Stories of healthcare heartbreak hidden away on Flickr”. As a reminder, my photo was part of a post I wrote here on French health care basics.

Today the Fnac, which is a French chain of stores that sell multimedia, books and music, held a “photo marathon” in Nice. I signed up a few weeks ago, thinking it would be nice to get some challenging ideas, plus registration was free. The day started at 9am, and we were given three themes on which to shoot photos, one every two hours. There were three hundred of us in all, and we had to turn in two photos per team (I was a one-person team, most were two-person) after the two hours. The prizes were some Canon cameras; I forget which since I didn’t participate with winning in mind (plus I’ve always preferred Nikon). All participants got a free cinema ticket, which is nice with movies so expensive to see nowadays. The themes were “le reflet dans tous ses états” (“reflection every which way”), “de haut en bas, de bas en haut” (“from top to bottom, from bottom to top,” which I translated to keep puns on “haut”, up, and “bas”, down, also being able to mean items of clothing), and “politiquement incorrect”. I was a little disappointed that they were so generic, since I’d been hoping for topics specific to Nice, but it was fun nonetheless.

The photo above is not one submitted to the contest, but is similar to one that I used for a theme. I took other non-theme-related photos as well, since it was a beautiful day today. At the Villa Arson, which is a museum on a hill in the north of Nice, there were two huge, ancient olive trees; I photographed one of them. Olive trees can live for more than a thousand years, and considering the size of that one’s trunk, it’s likely to be at least a few hundred years old. A bit younger and livelier, a friendly kitty let me photograph her/him after I introduced myself. After leaving the Villa Arson, I noticed two neat homes nearby.