Read Me First!
Bienvenue sur mon blog
or "Welcome to my blog" in French (According to Google Translate)
This is my sixth blog in a continuing series of vacation blogs from around the world. Every year Susie (my wife) and I pick a town, rent an apartment for a month (thank-you VRBO.com), we have no car and live like the natives. We usually cook all our breakfasts and about 16.7% of our dinners in the apartment (lunches are always "on the road")
Flashback... in 2009, after 30 years in the business world, I decided it was time for a career change, quit the business world and became a full-time Assistant Professor of Marketing at Carthage College LINKY. I told Susie that we should take advantage of the situation since I have the summers off (Late May-Early September). This June we were planning on going to Kathmandu, Nepal, but they had a massive earthquake last year and still have not fully recovered. So maybe next year. Here is a reference (double bonus points... Bob Seger (come on, I know that some of you have the song in your head :-) ) AND some scenes from the city)
OK.... back to reality :-)
In the past, we have stayed in Barcelona, Nice(twice before) Iceland, and Rome. If you are interested in reading my previous vacation blogs, here are the links:
Flashback... in 2009, after 30 years in the business world, I decided it was time for a career change, quit the business world and became a full-time Assistant Professor of Marketing at Carthage College LINKY. I told Susie that we should take advantage of the situation since I have the summers off (Late May-Early September). This June we were planning on going to Kathmandu, Nepal, but they had a massive earthquake last year and still have not fully recovered. So maybe next year. Here is a reference (double bonus points... Bob Seger (come on, I know that some of you have the song in your head :-) ) AND some scenes from the city)
OK.... back to reality :-)
In the past, we have stayed in Barcelona, Nice(twice before) Iceland, and Rome. If you are interested in reading my previous vacation blogs, here are the links:
This year Susie & I are heading back to Nice... because it is nice (yeah I know... my bad :-) ) This is our 3rd time and you see a yearly pattern: Nice...another city...back to Nice...another city...
Why Nice? Well it pretty much checks all the boxes for us:
- Warm (but not too hot or humid)
- Sunny
- On the water (bonus points!)
- Lots of nearby places to visit for day trips
- Good & cheap public transportation (when the unions aren't on strike)
- Good food
- Reasonable prices (see my Iceland blog to experience STUPID prices LINKY)
- Somewhat reasonable rental prices for an apartment.
So, what are the downsides? Well, there are way too many French people....just kidding (see my "Important Notes" section below).
For those of you who went to tHE Ohio State :-) (Go Blue) Nice in located here:
Those of you who have followed my blogs in the past may have noticed I am using a new template/format for my blog. I decided it was time to "step-up" on the look of the blog. If you have any problems with the blog, please leave a comment below (or just email me or Susie). I'm hoping I got most of the bugs worked out?? ( I hate HTML!!!!!)
FYI, I added the ability to share a post via Google+, Twitter, & Facebook (located at the bottom of each blog post). I think it will work. If not, let me know. I have noticed that some ad blockers (if you use one) may block the share buttons. If this is the case, just whitelist the blog and refresh your browser. PLEASE NOTE: The mobile version (viewing from a mobile phone) looks pretty crappy... so view on a computer or tablet for best results.
I also bought a new camera and lenses for this trip (don't tell Susie :-) ). My old and beloved Sony Nex-7 camera was getting a little beat-up (4 years old... which in camera years is like 40 years!), but it was a great little camera. I now have a Sony A6300 and I expect it will serve me well. I will let you know how it works as the trip progresses.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Here are a few important notes before we begin:- First things first. I assume no responsibilities for typos or not so good grammer :-) I have a Engineering degree for God's stake. OK...I feel much better with that off my shoulders.
- If you are offended by any of my comments...sorry about that.
- If you want to enlarge any of the photos, just click on them.
- I edit all my photos on my tiny 13" Dell XPS-13 laptop which is a great computer, but the LCD screen is not color calibrated. So if a photo looks a little off-color you now know the reason. However, I'm going to try some new software to correct this issue. Hope it works.
- In my past blogs I make references to major cultural icons (i.e. Chuck Norris, David Hasselhoff...) so pay attention! :-)
- Depending on how much we had to drink, the wifi gods, if the trains are running... I try to post a blog everyday.
- If you want to leave a comment, click on the "Enter your comments..." section. The best way is to first sign-in with your Google account (if you have one). If you don't have a Google account, select "Anonymous" and add your comments. If you use "Anonymous", please leave your name at the end of the comment.
- Feel free to share the blog with others. I'm hoping to get more page hits than Google and I need your help :-)
OK, that just about does it.
Hope you enjoy our adventures & please leave some really pithy comments (or some not too pithy comments)
Cheers,
-jj
-jj
Hey there, feel free to share this post
This is a test.
ReplyDeleteoff to a great start!
ReplyDeleteJJ & Susie - I was in Villefranche and Nice late May. If you are in Villefranche sur Mer for dinner- go to La Carnavale- up an alley from the sea and Hotel Welcome. Great Plat du jour- lots of great food for 20 Euro. Avez-vous une bonne temps! Spike
ReplyDelete