Rear Window

I felt much better today.  My cough was nearly gone, but I was envious of Martha and her daily perambulations on the shady, attractive streets of Nice.  I spent some of the time sitting at the window, looking down three floors to the street below or across the street at the Hôtel La Villa, where the occasional guest would appear in a window.  I remembered that Academy-Award-winning Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window, in which James Stewart, recuperating from an accident, watches the inhabitants of the building opposite his and witnesses Raymond Burr murdering someone.  Refreshing my memory of the film on my iphone, I found that Stewart’s girlfriend was coincidentally played by Grace Kelly, looking very much like a future Princess.

Today, our tour group was departing Nice and heading west to Carcassonne: 

Visit Arles with its honey-coloured façades, Roman ruins and Camargue culture, and enjoy some time at leisure to explore this beautiful city.  Alternatively, choose an Optional Experience to gain a deeper understanding of Vincent van Gogh and local history with our resident expert before winding your way to the fortified city of Carcassonne.

I rarely watch television, but French TV proved interesting after I had grown tired of looking out my Rear Window.  I could understand perhaps half of what was being said on some of the news programs, which were very much like they are here, with commentators pondering the issues of the day over “Breaking News”-type headlines:  “Prix du Carburante – Quelle Solutions?”  (Price of gasoline – what is the answer?)  Surfing the other channels, I found French rap music, a courtroom drama, cartoons, a weather channel, a French version of “American Idol,” and various music videos.  I also stumbled on La Petite Maison dans la Prairie, (Little House on the Prairie, from the mid-70s, and looking very dated) dubbed in French.

Finally, I found something more interesting:  the Tour de France, with French commentators who were speaking so rapidly that I could only follow some of what they were saying.  But I had watched the first few stages of the bicycle race before we left and it did not take me long to figure out who the new leaders were at the end of Stage 18.  I learned that Chris Froome, one of my favorite riders, was out of the Tour due to Covid, perhaps watching it on TV as I was.

And what a surprise!  French President Emmanuel Macron made an appearance, riding in a little red car with Race Director Christian Prudhomme, waving from an open window to the cyclists he passed and to the spectators lining the road.  Under any circumstances would an American President be permitted to appear other than in a big black Secret Service limousine behind bullet-proof glass?