Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

up the road:

winter wheat:

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

Here is my complex from across the river, this ongoing construction is the reason why my car is always dusty.

The river goes from the town centre out to the Bay.  My walk takes me into town, up river. A few minutes walk away and you can see the Millennium stadium.  Town is always packed on match days so I stay in my apartment usually because to get almost anywhere, I have to go through the crowds!

Along the river one side are many industrial units, including the brewery.

On the other side of the river there are rows of terraced houses, nice big ones.

Then into town and across a bridge, we are opposite the stadium.


I cross over another bridge and then to the right is the castle and town centre, to my left is another area of town and 5 minutes away, my office. Ahead of me is Bute Park.

Here is the pedestrianised shopping street in town and the main roads past the castle, at night.

The building in the background is the tallest building in Wales (at the moment) and is where I used to work.
This is where this photo of town was taken from.

You can see the stadium but also next to it in that triangle is Cardiff Arms Park, our football grounds.

And here is the view from my office at rush hour. It is why I avoid driving in.

It's a great journey to work I think. Sets up the day!

From my local farmer's market last Saturday. It was the last market day of the year.

Followed by the abandoned railway bridge over the river as I go into town.

and finishing off with the highstreet of my local town, at the end of the rushhour.(compare that to InWales rush hour photo, Bliss) The building on the right hand side with the clock tower, is the town hall and magistrates court. Dylan Thomas was once brought up there on Firearms charges, after an argument. He was found not guilty.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Chez Pradel:

There's a huge market every Wednesday and Saturday that runs for 3 or 4 blocks outside my door on Rue Ordener.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

Satellite dish farms have been planted on all the rooftops... they remind me of big plastic sunflowers.

And rooftops have lives of their own, and people who live on them.  Here's a neighbor, reading (probably the Qur'an).

And this one is not actually something I look at every day, but I think it's kind of a cool picture.  It's the breezeway in my building.

Xmas lights Nice Etoile shopping centre - the new tramway starts Sat. ! At Last !

Music of the lights :-)

Trad xmas lights and the light sculptures by Jaume Plensa in Place Massena, part of the tramway development project

They're supposed to make you think about thinking, or what the sculptor was thinking ... or something :-)

Or you can go to a nearby Indian restaurant and think about the menu.

10 mins bus ride - Villfranche - where I and another Eurotribber had lunch the other day - outside in the sun.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

a view down the valley towards citta di castello

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

lots of tree-neighbours!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

Both are the Port de plaisance, Paris Arsenal, near Place de la Bastille.

Best cheap lunch in Paris- 4 euros for a grec. Off Boulevard St. Michel

What Marcelle calls "Our faithful Boulangerie.

Regular patrons at our faithful pub. Motley lot---no?
Actually, anyone familiar with the art scene around the Marais will know the gentleman on the right, the lady on the left is deceased, so this picture will no longer aid the cops to find her, and the gentleman in the center I do not know.

The boucherie on Ile St Louis. All the round plaques in the window are awards for the quality and presentation of his products- earned at a competition, like a state fair in the US, that I don't entirely understand.

"Rioting student hooligans", according to Le Figaro. I call these evil-dooers  "Sausagistes"- hungry grevistes eating free sausage at Quai de la Rapee, across from the port Paris Arsenal, during the CPE strike.

Children's carnival at Bassin de la Villette- Jerome will remember this, perhaps. Littlest Sax player. Probably an illegal image- underage sax.
He played well.

On the way to school, at the end of Ile St Louis. My neighborhood  is incredibly rich in culture and people, and I am grateful to fate and my family for making this dream real.

"Daddy, I know what I wanna be when I'm big!"
What's that, my dear?

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

This is presently my "backyard" - Melville Koppies, part botanical garden, part public space and hobo hangout. View towards the east.

That's my contribution, I'm afraid.

chimney sky:

inside:

looking out in warmer weather:

looking out today:

This is a first attempt. It's a little ragged compared to the results the professionals get, but not too bad overall.

Almost the same view, on other days:

The view from above:

My building

(btw, you can find a picture of every single in Paris on pagesblanches.fr: just insert the address, and if you select "plan" (map), you can then get access to a picture of the building - and of what's across from it)

This is what's straight across from home:

And my sidewalk on a quiet Saturday morning:

And, of course, the ubiquitous Velib stations, this one just round the corner:

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Lots of the work has been finished, most pavements have been re-laid, but there is still stuff to finish:

The building on the right is supposed to become a new mediatheque - in 2008. I'll believe it when I see it.

Now there's now space to walk past pavement cafes in comfort - this one is not satisfied with being on the Cote D'Azur.

Now, having done our bit for cutting CO2, in January all the smokers (and there are so many of them in France) will have to keep THEIR pollution outside:

 Avenue Jean Moulin is more like an avenue again, while Avenue Malausenna is mercifully free from cars.

Unfortunately lots of the traffic has been shunted into our little street which runs parallel. This is a quiet time - during rush-hour it's jammed with tooting cars, buses and lorries. Still, it's called Rue Diderot - one just has to be philosophical.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

I live in the historical core of a smaller city not far from the capital Budapest. It was established as a bishopric seat almost 1000 years ago, but was destroyed in war several times, the now visible surface is (starts with) Baroque. Most of the houses are single-floor, and L-shaped, with a small internal courtyard. Here is a street nearby, with the Dome (the bishop's cathedral) visible:

The ugly electric pylon and the state of the road are also part of the cityscape. My city feels itself shunned by tourists and for-tourism investment compared to Szentendre on the other side of the Danube. You also see many cars but no people. Also see this pedestrian side street:

...and look at this garden wall alongside another walkway:

Indeed this town is rather silent. I don't mind that at all. But young people, especially those inhabiting a students' hostel (ugly five-floor concrete tower) nearby, seem bored and lacking ideas of what to waste their time on. A late-open grocery store nearby seems to make most of its money from selling alcohol on Friday nights, and a lot of customers seem to be minors... who then sitz down on the edge of a square or the pavement on a side street, and just drink themselves full, talking silently. So dismal.

But let's walk on. Where the road leading down from the Greek Church meets on the street heading for the ferry station (with another ugly bent electric cable pylon):

...which leads me to what rules the city -- the Danube. The city was built on high ground for a reason:

This is the same stairway as visible on my second snowfall photo, but this time with flood. The 'normal' rivershore is the third line of (lower) trees in the distance (and 2-3 metres deeper). Here is the Blue Danube in normal weather, looking upriver and Northeast at the exit of the Danube Bend (where the Danube cuts through a mountain range):

At night, when there is fog over the river, and I walk the dog on the real shore below the high dam-wall with the river promenade on top, lights are other-worldy -- looking from beyond the border of Darkness and Light:

This diary-length contribution was insprired by In Wales's parallel diary.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}