Daisy does France (again)

(Over to TTV foreign correspondent Daisy, who continues her European travels)
Check out this HomeAway rental:
https://t.hmwy.io/vivv2GuLdZ

No not nice….Nice. We stayed here before and a week went tutu fast, so this time we have 2 weeks. I am happy to be heading back to France, but can highly recommend Santa Margarita. Portovenere and the Cinqua Terra less so. They were jam packed with tourists. Where we stayed in Grazie was a good choice for accomodation because it was quieter, but quieter means less choice of cafés and restaurants. And finding a good beach wasn’t easy. Santa Margarita was easily my favourite. You are holidaying with Italians rather than international tour groups. The buildings are vibrant, but still in the Italian ochre colour tones. The beach was spacious, and you can easily visit, the more expensive Portofino by ferry or bus from there. Let’s keep Santa Margarita our little secret.
But now onto Nice. We had trouble finding accomodation here so we had to raise our budget. So we are heading to what is supposed to be a lovely 2 bedroom apartment right on the Boulevarde d’Anglais. It won’t take long to drive there. About 3 hours, with my music playing. Tunnel after tunnel, toward the Italian/French border.
Yes, difficult news from home has affected our trip, but we soldier on.
– Daisy

View from the apartment.



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82 Comments

  1. It has been chilly and rainy here in Adelaide so I’ve been thinking about planning a holiday somewhere warm. We’ve been to Fiji a few times because it’s a ) just gorgeous and b) family friendly. Anyone have recommendations for places in a Australia or overseas? I’m not a Gold Coast person but no doubt will take Mr 7 there when he’s a little older

  2. I didn’t love Fiji. I like the Fijians but it doesn’t make up for the sheer number of tourists, and how everyone is closeted in a resort.
    If you want a lovely resort holiday, I would suggest Port Douglas, plus the reef, plus rain forests. All in one …. ish. The coffee plantation was fun. There’s lots in a close proximity but I do recommend hiring a car.
    I liked Darwin.
    My daughter recommends Broome – she’s been back more than once.
    I loved Tasmania. Just everything.
    And who doesn’t love Melbourne.

    • I don’t know about Juz’s little fellow, but I think I would enjoy that beach.
      I miss being near the beach.

        • Dave, the pebbles don’t stick to you the way sand does. Look at that water! I’d love to be in it, sand or no sand.

        • Me too, Dave. And the pebbles hurt when they are big. They are called gallettes. I moved all my gallettes over before I put my mat down. But the sea is beautiful. I love the sights on the beach, but forget personal space.

          • Dave, Adelaide has some great beaches, you pot stirrer! Not for surfing, sure, but we like to blow the minds of interstate visitors by driving down on the sand at Aldinga. Or having a coffee at Somerton Kiosk looking down at the water.

          • I was alas , only pot stirring. Juz. Come to our fabulous Adelaide beaches. If you can’t afford a decent bathing suit, clothing is optional at Maslin’s Beach, only an hour’s drive from town. We got friendly sharks here, too, to help you relax at the beach. Some of them auditioned for Jaws. Juz didn’t mention the grim history of shark fatalities at Aldinga.

          • Just a sore arse from sitting on the galettes or being brained by some drunken yob hurling a galette. Just jealous I guess because Adelaide beaches are only good for paedophiles and abductions. Do folks in Nice pick up their dog shit or just furtively hide it under a galette? I did French in high school, I oughta know.

          • Yeesh, Dave, they should write that on the tourist brochures.

            I don’t know how I feel about stone beaches. On the one hand, no sand. Sand is the most irritating part of anybody’s day at the beach. But on the other … walking on those stones would be very difficult.

  3. It’s funny but the ads that keep coming up on this page are all for holidays in France. They should rethink their stalking- there’s no point after the event (but I tap them anyway).

    • I’ve been getting improve your guitar playing ads for days. Been playing for forty years, teaching. Get stuffed…..but I click through gritted teeth.

      I liked Darwin and Broome. But that was early 80’s.

  4. On galettes; not a good idea to leave your chewing gum. Woolif got a gob of gum on his mat.
    No dogs allowed on the beach. You can’t pick up a dollop from a gallette.
    Don’t throw sand. It hurts more when one grain is 4 or 5 cms wide and weighs 150 grams.
    Don’t have sex on the beach.

  5. I love sand too. Lovely clean white sand. Not the kind with yesterday’s cigarette butts in it. I love laying under warm sand on a cold day.
    Stop! I’m making myself homesick for sand. And I am probably going to be laying on a rock quarry today. Instead of buckets, people should let their kids bring rock paints.

  6. We had a lovely swim and a stroll. Apparently Elton and Tina Turner live here. But they didn’t leave their foot, or bum prints.
    This is the bird grit they call sand. It was soooo comfortable after the quarry.

  7. BTW, the seagulls in Europe are huge. They are about two or three times the size of an Aussie seagull. They would eat our seagulls.

    What has amazed me is how mean all the children I have seen are toward seagulls and pigeons, even small kids. They have aimed kicks, charged at and thrown things at them, and generally shown no kindness. I know these birds are considered pests, but kids usually like animals, don’t they.

  8. OK. O decided to come clean about the duality of our trip. It started with worrying phone calls from him way back in Prague. Then in Santa Margarita it got worse. In fact it exploded. We learned that our eldest son, who has rapidly been throwing his life away, is addicted to meth amphetamine. He had worried us with phone calls begging angrily for money. We know we can’t give him money. He has gone from great success and achievement to living on poverty in Koh Samui. So behind the photos, there is a mother in shock and despair.
    I hope my openness helps someone else. ATM we are paying for him to be in a hotel and get breakfast so we know he has good and shelter. This is temporary so we know where he is and that he is fairly safe and fed.
    Others may have had similar experiences. We have contacted the Australian consulate to try and get him to come home. Other than that??????

    • That sucks, Daisy. I think you are doing the right thing not giving him money, but doing what you can to keep him safe. The only thing I can think of is to maybe talk to people at drug treatment clinics when you get home. They may be able to offer you some advice. You probably have already thought of that though. I send you strength, for whatever it’s worth.

      • My sister did a more or less enforced extended stay in Siberia to break an addiction to methamphetamine. There’s none there. I’m too ashamed to say some of the crimes she did to feed a 20 year habit. From what I read women tend to go for embezzlement, fraud, forgery etc. These things came to pass. A high flying job isn’t enough to pay for it. I never thought about not trusting her for a second. People get cunning on that gear.

        Like Von, I agree with no money, just a safe environment as possible.If you can get Ryan back to Australia…. but you’ve already thought about it I’m sure. No easy answers , daisy, been thinking about this all day. Cheers.

  9. And Bobi, maybe you have a funny gif or pic about me getting my head around the tragedy of it while I am walking around places like this. It’s doing my head in.
    It’s alright. I like humour in the face of grief.

    • Oh Daisy, I am so sad for you. You must feel so helpless. I wish i knew something that would make it better.
      The best I can do is cute but incredibly inadequate.

      • That:s what I always think. I have started moving all the big.stones into a pile before setting up my mat. You need a mat.

    • I know we are focussed on the gallettes, but can I point out the lovely 80 year ladies in their bikinis. Good on them.
      Or maybe they are only 20 years old but incredibly overtanned. There doesn’t seem to be much sun tan lotion being slip, slop, slapped about the place.

      • Yes. There seems to a real freedom here. With Woolif’s coaxing I even bought a few pairs myself and have worn them. No one here cares. The grannies and pops here stay young. They all seem to get about and have fun. But I do tummy crunches and other exercises.
        I won’t be posting a pic of me in a bikini.

        • Art work will do.
          My Mum painted by Dad in the nude. That was interesting. It was a small painting so details were obscured.

          • It”s been a flat tummy year. No rolls thanks to the year it has been so far. My younger sister has a young Elle MacPherson body.

      • No one cares about melanoma here. This is one of my favourites…and no it’s not a selfie. The woman looks so relaxed, even on a bed of galettes.

          • Sure is topless and daisy’s blissfully unaware subject in the foreground is female, now I have glasses on, til now it looked like a male with hairy legs. Now I’ve noticed the Forresteresque fox in the black bikini. It doesn’t galette any better than this.

          • Topless is the go Windsong, but strangely, it’s usually not the young pretty boobs that are hung out but plump ones, dangly ones and sometimes two prunes on a plate.

          • No Daisy, it’s the universal rule, isn’t it? The nudists are always the people you don’t want to be nudists.

  10. Surprise! Woke up to a cup of tea in bed……and… “Sit down. Ryan’s in prison”.
    So I am looking at the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, and all I am thinking is how much he will hate us for not bailing him out. We have him a lawyer
    Are we doing the right thing. If we bail him out he will just end up killing himself or back in prison for a worse crime
    Bet you all didn’t think it was going to get intetesting. I told it here because you guys jady been following the story.
    Thanks for all the help.

    • I think we’ve both watched enough Dr Phil’s to reason against bailing him out. I think you’re doing the best thing in circumstances and agree more harm/ drug use and worse crime if he’s bailed. Some time in what I assume is a shithouse foreign prison might prove to be a deterrent or motivation to clean up. The addict living in Ryan will probably hate you for the “tough love”.

      • LOL. Well said Dave and Juz.
        Yep. All those Dr Phils. are coming in handy.
        Last night, before we got this latest news, Woolif said, *What would Dr Phil do”
        And I said, cover it from the press, spend a Dr Phil size load of money, and have him kidnapped and put in a million dollar a week rehab with ponies. Robyn would wear a pretty cardigan and visit. I’m not into pretty cardigans.

    • I actually gasped … out loud.
      And what Juz said.
      And, then what Dave said.
      Robyn’s too thin. There must be a better “look at the rich man I found and I’ll take every shameless moment to be on television just in case he leaves me” role model. Shoes. Maybe shoes.
      But seriously, Daisy.

  11. Getting our heads around yesterdays’s news; I have asked Woolif about cutting our trip short, but it will, according to him cost us too much and we will need all our money for the lawyer and any court costs. The first visit from the lawyer is $6000. Then when we get home we will fly two days later to Koh Samui. So it’s going to be a very expensive $3 worth of petrol. That’s what he stole.

  12. Thanks, Dave.
    Sorry I didn’t get a pic of this but here’s what happened late last night/ early this morning.
    I wake up and go to the freezer for an ice-cream. I am standing at a window, looking at the street below eating it, when along comes a mismatched couple. They look like a decent and conservative twosome, like they have come from the ballet or dinner in an expensive restaurant, but he’s about 70, while she is about 45. So eating my ice-cream, I am wondering, *Why are they together? Is she a professional? Are they going to start making out?”
    Then, she hands the elderly gentleman her cardigan to hold and I think, oh, she’s going to open a car.door and drive, but then she looks furtively left and right, then when the coast is clear, or so she thinks, she lifts her pretty black chiffon and lace and squats under the bright street lamp and does wee. Then she stood and fluffed her skirt into place, satisfied in the knowledge that she succeeded.

  13. Hey Daisy, just say if you don’t want to talk about this.
    For $3, I am surprised that they didn’t just fine him megabucks and deport him. Are they waiting for a bribe? I don’t know anything about Koh Samui, and I am assuming that I may have just been enormously offensive, but I have lived in countries that operate on a system of bribery and corruption. Like its normal. So seriously ….
    And I hate to say the obvious, but have you been in touch with Australian consulate staff? It’s what they do. I am a little biased because my SiL is consulate iand she is excellent. And I would ask but they are in India at the moment.
    And/or your local member? Again, that’s what they are there for. People do forget to ask for help.
    I don’t mean to interfere – sorry – but there is someone there to help you navigate the system.

    • Bobi, as this is our first prison time, we are happy for all advice, even if it seems obvious. We had been asking the Australian Consulate via Smart Traveller and they informed us of his arrest. Because of his addiction, we don’t want him out, to end up back in on a drug’s charge. Of course we would prefer him home, but he refused offers there.
      He won’t go to rehab in Australia so we hope he will dry out in jail.
      Our priorities; keep him safe, get him off Ice.

    • He had no money to pay a bribe. Once we found out he was on meth, we paid his hotel, The Privilege (hmmmm) and that covered meals but we did send him 600 bucks but after that, no more money. Plenty of enabling there, Dave. We offered him a flight home.

      This guy is 40 years old, has run a successful engineering company and made lots of money, has ditched that and studied neurphysics at UWA, winning grant after grant and been lecturing in neurphysics. But brought heavy drugs back into his life. Now he has to steal petrol. He has gone through all his money. And has been trying to sell off properties he owns to buy drugs. He has pretty much forgotten he’s a father to two kids. And those two already went through that ordeal earlier this year. Good Lord, we sound worse than the family from Silvanus Waters.
      But it’s all in the wake of this son’s mess.

  14. I’m already planning my next trip, Juz; Koh Samui prison. I’m willing to bribe the guards and flash my boobs for an extra bowl of unsalted rice.

    • I went looking for some lovely responses to this and, omg, there was a rabbit hole.
      I now have a vision in my head that goes something like this.

      • I have to tell you, Bobi, that is exactly correct. I even drew that in my journal last time I was here. Occasionally they are plump, but more often, especially the old girls, you could tie their bosoms in a bow.

  15. Google Ryan Begley and see the man he was and is without that. And that was after running his own company and making mega bucks. Now stealing 3 bucks petrol. But he will rise from this. He was even already on hard drugs when he was doing brilliantly. Imagine how much better without.

    • And for 17 years his wife was a daughter to us and the two grandkids almost lived at our house. In a sudden moment it all changed and we weren’t allowed to see them. Yep. It’s been a big year. I need to buy a lotto ticket.

      But keep the laughs rolling in.

    • “Ryan Begley, neuro physisist”. He had been bloody working with gold nano particles to find and cure cancer ffs. Even getting $30 000 grants. Amazing what ice can do.

  16. And prior to that he was an hydraulic engineer with his own company. So let’s hope this too is another phase. Maybe next he’ll be an artist. He is a natural.
    His portraits are really good as is his sculpting.

  17. I have just had a reply from lady on Koh Samui who visits the prisoners and she has offered to visit him. It’s what she does.

      • I know. They are amazing, and she replied immediately. I just saw read some article but to be honest, I thought it could have been old. I really was surprised to get a Dear daisy, I can help you.
        But I am also going to try and see if our return tickets from Paris can be brought forward.

  18. Liis Vuitton. Windsong, is this a thumbs up or down from you?
    It probably cost about $60 000. But you’d ready for anything, like Indiana Jones.

    • I’m not really a fashion sort of a guy. If it smells clean, I put it on. And even then …

      Athough I do like all the room for snacks.

      • He looks like a dork to me. If I saw someone wearing that I would stare and take a photo.
        Pockets for: lunch, medical kit, little one for stationary, with a folding pen.

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