The Farmhouse

In the morning I got up early and walked the path from his house perched on the side of the hill down into the ravine and back up to the road. We'd walked it in the dark the night before but I didn't remember much except it seemed like a practical joke as we stumbled off into the woods.

I took my gopro with me and recorded the entire path for my mom. I also did a tour of the house and climbed down the steep slope to the swimming hole. The pool was overgrown and sheltered and I was sweating profusely from my short walk so I stripped down and jumped in. The water was the perfect temperature to cancel the heat and humidity.

Walking from the Road 04:44 (70.6MiB)

Touring the upper house 02:29 (36.9MiB)

Touring the lower house 02:25 (35.9MiB)

The stream 00:39 (9.7MiB)

Ja bought the house with his girlfriend Celine and I think it's poor accessibility was the main reason it was cheap enough for them to afford it. It was originally built in the 1600s but had been refurbished in the sixties using local stone in the traditional style with solid oak beams supporting the roof. The lowest floor was meant for livestock, the top floor contained the bathroom and bedrooms, and the floor in the middle with the kitchen, dining room, and den, was cool and dark. They had a door that opened out on the second floor with a three meter drop into the terraced back yard.

Back to the road 02:27 (36.7MiB)

A hiking trail ran along the uphill side of the house and the land was tiered and covered in gardens and fruit trees. The house used to be the local olive mill and the ruins of the old stone building were just down the hill, covered in weeds and vines. There were no fences and the creek was cold and refreshing in the summer heat.

Amanda called about her luggage at 11:00 (the website said it had arrived in Nice at 10:30) but they said it had only arrived two minutes earlier and they would give her a call when it was delivered. They were vague about what that meant and we were all pretty skeptical we would see it that day. I was eager to hear their excuse when we called again in the afternoon.

A little before noon we drove down into Menton to shop for a sim card, a power plug converter, and food for Saturday's party. On Saturday, the fourth of July, Ja would be barbecuing hamburgers and afterwards we would all have some miracle fruit pills and sample a variety of foods. Most of his friends had never tried miracle fruit.

We made a shopping list for a miracle fruit tasting party and I recorded it in my notebook:

Green Apples
Pineapple
Nectarine
Jesier
Granny Smith Apples
Potato Peeler
Gala Apples
Sour Candy
Lime
Oranges
Cranberries
Kiwi
Strawberries
Pomegranite
Grapes
Blackberries
Rhubarb
Chili Peppers
Raspberries
Tobasco Sauce
Boudin
Goat Cheese/Blue Cheese
Avacado
Red Onion
Dark Chocolate 70% (bitter dark chocolate is rare in France)
Cubit de vin
Flour
Dry Milk Powder

After driving around the city for a while we finally found a parking space and got to the post office a little past noon. Unfortunately they had just closed for their two hour lunch break so to kill time we wandered through the narrow streets downtown.

We perused a shop that specialized in sardines and another that did lemons (Menton is renowned for it's lemons). We tried lemon liquor (like thick syrup), lemon jelly, sugar sweets in a 90% alcohol, and bread soaked in lemon alcohol. They even had lemon beers.

Ja stopped at a patisserie and we bought a citrus and caramel salt pastries.

After walking down the commercial stretch along the beach we filled our water bottled from an ancient fountain built over a natural spring and wandered into the steep narrow cobblestone streets of the old city.

Everything was made of concrete and stone and it was beautiful and urban as only an 800 year old city can be.

At two we returned to the post office and spoke to a woman who started to setup our SIM cards until she realized she didn't have anything that would fit in our phones.

So back out into the streets and to a bakery where Amanda bought a loaf of rye bread, "Une rackof pan", paying with her 10 euro note.

On the way back up the hill we stopped at the supermarche and filled two shopping bags with food. Vegetables had to be weighed and you used a digital touchscreen to print out the price unless they were labelled 'une piece' which meant each was a set price. We bought stuff for the miracle fruit party and supplies for ourselves.

Carrying our bags back to the car we passed three women in the parking lot giggling and wrapping a long string around a parked car. They laughed nervously as we watched and explained themselves with "We know her well!"

Afterwards we drove into Monaco to find another post office. It was thirty minutes before closing when we walked in and when Ja asked about setting up some sim cards and the man responded with genuine dismay, "Oh no!" He told us they didn't have micro or nano sim cards but he probably just wanted us to go away.

The cell phone plans in France are weird with several overlapping carriers which offer varying service. Ja told us getting a sim card from a cell phone store would result in worse service but we decided to give it a shot after the girl at the counter seemed interested in helping us. I bought a prepaid card for 40€ and Ja would have gotten one too but they needed his bank account number.

Afterwards we visited a posh shopping mall and I bought a simple US to French power converter to recharge my electronics.

From there we returned to CMU and the stars and bars outdoor restaurant to drink a beer with the rest of his coworkers. When the man asked me what I wanted I answered 'Non" and Amanda answered 'water'. They brought her a 3.50€ bottle of water and set it next to her half filled nalgene bottle.

We drank until 8 and then ran back up the hill to the car to return to the house for dinner. Lucille (one of Ja's coworkers) met us at the house and we had fried potatoes, Amanda's rye bread, and a large can of duck legs fried in duck fat.

I saw fireflies for the first time and we chased the geckos that were crawling up the sides of his house.

Ja and Lucille gossiped about coworkers and we almost watched a Buster Keaton movie but Lucille said she had to work the next day.

It was past midnight before we got to bed and I spent another hour trying to take notes on all the stuff we saw and did during the day. I had to type fast, Amanda had set the alarm to 8:00 the next morning so we could get an early start.