Illusion

Antibes is a charming city in the French Riviera with its clean tiny streets, artisan crafts, the best gelato I have ever tasted in this region, decent pubs and bars and a fair amount of expatriates from the UK. I like this city. Or I used too. The other day, my girlfriends - E, S and I decided to spend the afternoon there.

After having lunch at this ever so disappointing Indian Restaurant called Achiana, we walked in the streets and stumbled upon a delightful little street where there were some healthy looking flowers hanging off a balcony. We thought that would make a nice background for our photographs. E was snapping S and I with her camera then mine when out of nowhere, a bucket of water splashed on E! We heard laughs from one of the flats above right after the incident but did not see a face. How outrageous! E got soaked and instinctively became furious! My Panasonic Lumix got wet too and is no longer in proper working condition which made me momentarily frenzied and now infuriated.

Naturally we marched straight to the local Police station (which resembled a deserted place with no one at the counter to greet us) to complain in hopes that an investigation will be carried out at that instant. The assigned Policeman only attended to us once he was done "chit chatting" with another colleague, walked as if he was the king of the jungle and all should bow down to him, looked at me from top to bottom as if to insinuate that I was a prostitute, sat down like he had just consumed a tonne worth of food and waited for us to say something! How harassed and judged I felt at that point! To no avail, nothing came out of it giving reasons that perhaps X might have been watering her plants - that flat had neither a balcony nor plants and of course he had already learned that fact from us earlier or maybe she accidentally spilled her drink! And what, no apology? As unlucky as we were that day, that Policeman treated the case as light as feather.
We left, feeling utterly dumbfounded and speechless.

I wonder how this country's police force could entrust an incompetent fellow colleague to sign an official document which states that he, Guy LUCAS certifies that he promises to make the grade to the duties of providing public security?

I cannot even distinguish which situation is worse - two crazy women splashing water on another human being with no reason, no apology and finding it amusing or a policeman who was just too lazy to assume his role to ensure national security.

This goes beyond my comprehension.

Euphoria at its best

I was never a fan, don't know if I ever will be but at the point when these competitors passed by, I was exhilarated, not to mention euphoric!

Le Tour de France is an event you must (try) not miss when in France. The race takes place in summer from almost every corner of France, varying from city to city every year. This year will be the 96th Tour de France and it kicks off in Monaco on July 4^th and finishes in Paris, July 26^th 2009, covering a total distance of 3,500 kilometres. The stop-overs include new cities like Brignoles, Gérone (Spain), Issoudun, Martigny (Switzerland), Saint-Fargeau, Tonnerre and Verbier (Switzerland). They go through diversified stages - 3 mountain finishes, 2 rest days, 55 kms of individual time-trials and so on.

Since I am now in the south of France and they were going to pass through Nice, I decided to go cheer for them and follow them to the finishing line of the day, Brignoles - an hour inland from St. Tropez. This is the tricky part, choosing the right spot. If you pick a hilly spot, it happens so quickly you don't even know what passed by but when you're at the finishing line like I was - and at spitting distance too from the cyclists - you get to see and hear every bit of them, even succumb to the sweat shaken off them at the end of the race! I managed to get a close up of the ever famous Lance Armstrong who finished at no. 10 yesterday - day 2 of the race. He was huffing and puffing like the rest of them in the scorching 35°c heat but was generous enough to give away his water bottle to a kid who probably didn't know who he was.









It may seem like a feasible race to some people but to me, that's just plain madness! I can't even imagine cycling more than 10 kms a day! If not, I couldn't help but shout out "Bravo to these courageous cyclists!" Cycling is a sport of endurance which is attained through age. With that said, it gives me hope.