First Full Day in Nice

Saturday Cara surprised me and handed over Zara's passport. It was such a big surprise because she took me to court in December to prevent me from taking them to spend Christmas with family. And until about a week ago she was still pursuing a case to keep me from traveling with them outside of Norway. She never wants us to leave, which is disappointing to say the least. So I make do with an obsessive amount of travel. It's probably not healthy - I'm running so much to run away from my problems and running away to other countries to escape them too. But there is so much of Europe to see, and I have a truly unique opportunity with my job allowing me to work asynchronously from anywhere in the world.

Maybe Cara thought she'd successfully defeated my plan to take them on a trip to Italy for Påskeferie. And she certainly didn't want their travel ban to continue until summer when she has travel plans for them. Or maybe it's the thrill of being in love with her new boyfriend that's softened her up. Who knows? It still enabled me to get Zara's passport and take the kids at least sort of to Italy. We flew through Paris as the Notre Dame burned and on down to Nice. There's almost as many Italian flags flying here as French ones. And Garibaldi's mom is buried in the cemetery up on the hill by the Colline du Château.

This is my first time in France, and I really, really love being in a country where they expect you to speak their language. My French is not spectacular (I nearly failed it in high school), but I've managed to muddle my way through dozens of conversations now. Maxwell truly has a gift for languages and can decipher a lot from context. It's quite amazing. Zara took a year of French in school last year, and so has a pretty good grasp of the basics but grunts her way through interactions rather than trying to speak it. Still it has totally been the broadening of their horizons that I'd hoped for.

I'm especially excited aout how excited Maxwell has gotten as the trip has opened up. He was very against it because it would interfere with his Fortnite gaming, but acquiesed when I told him he no longer had a choice. He's gone from a position of being afraid of flying to planning his own adventures to Poland and the Philippines with friends. Nothing makes me happier than to see him gain that confidence. I gave each of the kids a hundred euros for souvenirs, snacks, meals or whatever and today Maxwell used 19 euros to buy the two of us a sushi lunch. Sushi lunches have a special place in Maxwell's life because it's something both I and my dad do with him. Afterwards he was beaming and crowing about being able to buy me a sushi lunch. Of course we bothed laughed at the fact that I'd given him the money before the trip, but we both knew that it was his now and he had used the power it gave him in an extremely satisfying way, both gustatorily and mentally.

Zara, of course, has used the money I gave her to buy candy. That girl has quite the sweet tooth! She was also excited about the beach from the beginning, because that sort of thing is more her style. She had great big plans to go out and about in Nice (and make jokes about how nice it is), but ended up being a little more timid and wanting to hang out with dad. It was very sweet, but I'd planned to work while they went off to the beach. Good thing I get up early! So this afternoon I went out with them and lounged on the galets by the sea and read while the two of them invented a game of building cairns. As they say, it's something like reverse Jenga. It involves stacking stones until someone makes one fall and looses. Thus the strategy is to make it dangerous for your opponent. I played it with them this evening after dinner. Before that, however, Zara had gone off shopping on her own to avoid sushi, which she despises. Then I sent them off for a couple hours so I could get some work done before dinner.

But how did I start off this glorious day? By applying the same algorithm I do for every European city I visit: get up early, find a mountain, and go run up it! In this case I had to run down the beach a ways first and then around the harbor while I waited for the park to open, but the views and the history in the Parc du Colline du Château were well worth it. From the WWII Jewish cemetary, to the incredible views, to the rats and the amazing flora, to the ruins of a medieval eglise, to the waterfall and the nice lady who took my picture in front of it, it was definitely a run to remember. If I did nothing else in Nice those 13 kilometers would be enough to treasure the place.