Food for Thought

I miss Indian food at times. The curry, the dal, the spice and the roti. A friend and I discovered a good Indian restaurant called Punjabi, where we go once a week. In the process, the punjabi owner of the restaurant gets to see a couple of Indian faces (mind you, this place is FILLED with French people, much to my amazement). He even ensures we get a complementary fruit juice, on every visit !

There are others... There is Taj Mahal (in heaven's name, i dunno why a pakistani restau is named so), Namaste, and a few others, with typically indian names. I'm yet to find a place that will serve a good masala dosa. I think its going to be a long search....

In another part of town, i discovered another Indian restaurant. I haven't tasted the food here, but i heard it is substandard. The reason i mention this restaurant is it's name. It is simply called "Indira Gandhi". I cannot imagine a person in his right mind naming a restaurant after the former Prime Minister.

I pointed this out to Louis one evening as we were strolling through Centre Ville, and asked him to imagine the following : You come to India 10 years hence, and find a French restaurant called "Jacques Chirac", how would you react?

I have never seen Louis laugh as hard as he did.... well, i guess that pretty much sums up the way i feel when i see a restaurant named Indira Gandhi !!!

At the Movies....

Last evening, i finally went to see a French film, with Louis and Caroline. The movie was called "Quand j'etait Chanteur" (When i was a singer), and starred Gerard Depardieu, who by the way, is like the Big B of French films.

Not much to write about the movie as such. My friends claimed that it wasnt a typical french movie, given the fact that the hero plays an aging singer who falls in love with a young woman, who for some odd reason kept crying at different points in the movie (i think the "odd reason" was my inability to catch the almost insane pace at which the French was spoken). The hero also coughed up blood in between, and the 3 of us were in splits, realising that it was on the lines of a Bollywood flick. In between, almost all characters slept with all the other characters (all straight though), which pretty much made everyone happy and miserable at the same time.

Anyway, the point is that i understood a huge amount of the language, and even got a few jokes. So i'm improving in the language department. In fact, i even spent most part of the evening speaking French !

My Addiction and Withdrawal Symptoms

I am a self-proclaimed net addict, and not having internet access really messes me up. I'm writing this from a internet cafe, and it sucks... but the feel of the keyboard relaxes the symptoms that i've had for the past 10 days. I now feel the familiar tingling on my fingertips... the feeling that i'm finally typing into cyberspace again... yes, i'm a net geek, and i love it !!!

One thing i've learnt in France is that u need to be patient for everything. When i applied for my broadband net in India, i thought 4 days for an Airtel connection was too bad... and i thought 1500 rupees a month was costly.
This prompted me to tell my mom that once day information will flow like water from a tap, thanks to some strange deeds of mine. (yeah, but then again, i also told my mom that someday India would have a national holiday in my name : like a "Swaroop Jayanthi")

Now i'm waiting 3 weeks for an internet connection, and realising that maybe 4 days was actually quite fast !

Hopefully someday, information WILL flow freely, like water from a tap... whether it is because of my actions or someone elses, who cares??

McDonald's and the Maharaja

So last night, i sat down to watch "8 Simple Rules to date my Teenage Daughter", which by the way is telecast in French (Touche pas à mes filles = Dont touch my daughters).

During the commercial break, i got up to scan the fridge for some fruit. Thats when i heard the familiar sound of Hindi !!! I turned around to see a Hindi ad, with French subtitles.

This is how it went. In true Mughal-e-Azam style, with a flourish of cornets and all, the emperor is pissed with his daughter for falling in love with a commoner (a role reversal of the classic Mughal-e-Azam). Just when he orders "off with his head", the guy offers the king a burger, which looks delectable, and the king forgives the guy and lets him have the daughter.

The burger, by the way, is a McDonald's and i have no idea how McDonald intends to sell burgers in France if they dress people up in clothes from a 'nautanki' company and make them eat junk food. They probably know something about French consumers, that i dont !!


addendum : for heaven's sake, if u dont have a blogger id n want to leave a comment, PLEASE put ur name on it. especially for the brickbats.

&#ç°$¤ù

Cell phones in France are costly. I dont like that.

For 30€, you get 1 hour of talktime. 1 hour. Or 300 sms. Not both, one of them.

30€ = Rs.1800
I dunno exactly how long you could speak for that price back in India, but i'm sure it is well over 10 hours.

Damn it !!

The French Riviera

Early saturday morning, i took the shuttle from Grenoble to Lyon St.Exupery, and boarded the 1-hour flight to Nice. I was a bit disappointed to get the aisle seat again, but as my luck would have it, the guy next to me didnt turn up. I promptly moved to the window seat, and thoroughly enjoyed the take off. Of course, the last 15 min of the flight was the most exciting. The pilot takes you south, and turns left near Cannes. He then flies along the coast, over Cannes and Antibes. I cannot explain in words how beautiful the french riviera looks from up there. The water is clear turqoise in colour, and by 9:30 in the morning, the adventure sport fanatics are on the waters. To top it off, Nice airport is on a peninsula, and as the plane descends, you feel like he's landing onto the water. When your heart is in your mouth, you will see the runway below you, and he touches down on the edge of the land. Absolutely worth the money you pay for the flight (which, by the way, was only 15 euros more than the train!)

I took the shuttle to the railway station, and met Shashwat, who was cursing me cuz he hadnt had breakfast on his overnight train. I hadnt either, thanks to Air France idea of a breakfast (un petit cake aux fruits). We had an early lunch, and dumped bags in the room we had booked. Took a 20 minute train ride to Monaco, along the coastline.

Monaco. This is the place to be on a summer day. It's a stinking rich place, and i think every house here has a yacth in the bay. Even better is that it hosts one of the most challenging F1 races, and thats why i was here. We walked the streets that form the F1 track, a good 4 kms. Felt absolutely exhilarating to walk the streets where men have raced and won... Senna, Hill, Mansel, Schumacher, Hakkinen... I even got a picture of the pole position on the start-finish straight, and a video of a car driving through the famous tunnel, albeit slowly. We ate at a cafe that is located on the stretch that forms the pit lane during the race weekend !!


Boats at Monaco
 


Pole Position for Monaco Grand Prix
 


We got back to Nice later that evening, before the sun set (which is like 9pm or something), and learnt that there was a "fete du port" at Nice port. So off we went to a carnival, with a parade and eateries and dance and music. But the feature of the evening was the fireworks, or "feu d'artifice". Brilliant, 20 minutes of nonstop fireworks. Got back to the hotel by midnight, and crashed.


"Fete du Port" at Nice
 


Nice Coastline at Night
 


Had planned to go to the beach on Sunday morning, but went a bit haywire thanks to the weather. Nice gets 300 days of sunshine in the year, and we woke up to a rainy morning. We were totally disappointed, and headed to a nearby hill and chateau. By the time we were up there, the sun was out, and people were starting to head out to the beach. When we got down, the beaches were crowded, and that is wat Nice is famous for. Beaches without sand, only pebbles. And crowded.


Nice Port from the Chateau
 


What i am about to describe next, absolutely dumbfounded me. Of course, i had heard before going to the riviera that the place is famous for sunbathing, and there is no distinction between a "clothing optional" and "public" beach. But i was still amazed to see people (read women), just basking in the sun, and not feeling one bit conscious about onlookers. And mind you, this beach is not outside the city or anything. It is the heart of the town. It is like going to Marine Drive in Mumbai, standing near the wall and seeing a topless woman sunbathing just 10 metres from you !!


 


Well, who's complaining ??!!?? But yeah, i guess for me it was a big big culture shock !!

We had lunch at a private beach, and walked the length of the "Promenade des Anglais", and noticed that the beaches were getting really really crowded. The whole of Nice seemed to descend on the beach when the sun came out !!

Had another snack in the evening, and boarded the TGV back to Valence. This TGV track was not a superfast one, but surely fast. A stone hit the train when another TGV went past, and the train was delayed by 14 minutes, for a thorough inspection of the damage. Got to Valence, and took a local train back to Grenoble, and got home well beyond midnight.

Awesome, awesome weekend !!
In 7th/8th Standard, we studied world geography, and out teacher told us about "hot dry summers and cool wet winters" of the Mediterranean region. At that time, i'd never have dreamt of ever visiting the place, but here i was !! The entire trip, i kept thinking "I'm in Nice, i'm in Nice"