bonjour tout le monde!

yes, i haven't written for a while... cannes has been a little wierd and hectic - PLUS i've come down with a miserable cold.

first of all, wasn't able to find any cyber cafes with english keyboards (on french keyboards, the letters and punctuation are mostly in different places) and it was very, very frustrating, but today someone showed me that i can change the language of the keyboard - which of course only works if you can type without actually looking at the keys - so i'd like to thank my crazy high school typing teacher....

second - SICK. yuck. nose was running out of control and i was sneezy and miserable. luckily had befriended a german girl in my hostel, who was working in france and could speak french very well, so she could explain to the pharmacy chic what i needed. of course what i really *wanted* was dayquil, that stuff is the best ever, but you can't just peruse the shelves in france, you have to ask for the hard stuff (like cold medicine). but anyway, am starting to feel better.

not really enjoying cannes as much as the other cities i've been to so far, but the hostel has a kitchen, so i can like heat up some soup to go with my sandwich and open a bottle of wine with the hostel corkscrew. so had a lovely dinner last night.

went to grasse yesterday, the perfume capital of the world, which was nice (though not as nice as it could have been if my nose wasn't running the whole time). i bought myself a fancy-shmancy french "parfum". :) which the woman told me would last for 3 months "if i use it every day, as i should" don't think i'll do that. but also, they put the stuff in aluminum bottles, which along with being safer and lighter for me to travel with, actually keeps the perfume potent for 7 years, unlike glass bottles which only keep it fresh for like a year.

today i'm catching up on bunches of e-mail and posting here for the first time in days. then i'll wander around cannes for a bit and take the ferry to ile st. marguerite, which is where the "man in the iron mask" was imprisoned. it's also supposed to be a lovely place to walk around.

tomorrow i leave the cote d'azur for provence, my first stop is marseille.

my last day in antibes... and not a very interesting day.

went in search of a laundrymat, it's been two weeks now, it's time. the one listed in my guide book was closed, so i wandered around and eventually found another one. quite boring.

had a lovely sandwich for lunch, goat chees with tomato, lettuce and olive oil. yum... sandwich... tonight is 1 euro curry night, which i'm very excited about.

sat in the courtyard for a while today to try to soak up some sun while avoiding the wind, not easy to do and i wasn't very successful. i've finished reading "the celestine prophecy" which i thought was amazing and i highly reccomend. i've traded in my copy at the hotels book exchange for something called "sushi for beginners", a sort of comedic novel, i gather. been reading a lot in antibes, which is strange. not something i usually have a whole lot of time for.

a lot of chit-chat today with various residents here, which i quite enjoy. it is still a little early for most of them to have secured work yet, so there's a lot of people hanging around. i feel that i might be getting a little comfortable here, it's time to move on.

tomorrow morning i leave for cannes.

quite a late night at the pub on friday night.... got home around 4 am. people here are content to go from place to place as things close down until the morning - don't think i'm quite that dedicated...

slept in a bit on saturday and decided to take a walk around cap d'antibes, the bit of antibes that sort of juts into the mediterranean. it was absolutely stunning, there's a railing set up along a path right on the cliffs. eventually the path was increasingly difficult to find.... and did a bit of rock climbing in my 3 inch heels. was quite tired when i finally got back to antibes and decided to pick up some potato salad from the super market for dinner. it was "pomme de terre aux harengs" i didn't know what 'hareng' was, but it looked ok. not until i got back to the room and opened it did i realize it was herring. hareng = herring. yuck. so went out to get a sandwich instead.

today slept even later than usual - didn't get up until 11:30!!! it's freezing today. went out and got some fried rice and chicken satay from a little asian place - my first non-sandwich meal in a while - which was yummy. then took a walk to juan-les-pins, which is about a 20 minute walk from here. not very exciting, it's mainly a beach place, so obviously there's not a lot of people there now.

i think another slow night tonight, one girl in my room has a laptop and i think we're going to rent a dvd to watch. and probably sandwiches from the shop around the corner. ;P i don't mind, the bread and cheese here is fantastic.

hopefully tomorrow will be a little sunnier, my last full day in antibes, and i think - laundry day.