Saturday, January 06, 2007

Fed Up and It's Only January...

We picked Nice to have our Sunday coffee partly because it's a very lovely place to visit on a sunny day and partly because I've started a new blog called Nice in France Daily Photo so come over and visit when you've got a spare minute.

Yes, the Negresco. This is one of the world's great hotels situated right there on the seafront albeit with a dual carriageway out front (but the sound proofing's so good you'd never know). Here are some things I didn't know: that the hotel remains in private hands which is what gives it a certain individualism and its owner actually lives there in a penthouse apartment. The other thing I learned was that the owner, Jeanne Augier, has the most fascinating collection of paintings and sculptures on show in the foyer and galleries of the hotel and that visitors can walk round and enjoy it all.


It was towards the end of the visit that 2007 started to slide downhill: I threw my camera at the Renoir bronze of his wife's head. Yup. Really. I was taking a photo of the head when the camera started to slide through my fingers and while trying to grab it I managed to, well, throw it. I'll just say that again;

I.threw. my. camera. at. a. Renoir (as in famous French impressionist painter) sculpture. It hit the head and then the floor and burst open...It was fixable but doesn't work quite as smoothly as it did. The bronze was fine...

This happened just a day or so after starting the photo blog and receiving photoshop as a Christmas gift. Of course.

And just to complete the destruction of any other photo hopes Picasa has tidied my photos away somewhere and won't tell where. Yes, they are still on my hard drive so all is not lost but they're not so accessible there and then do I trust Picasa to look after them again? I like Picasa and more importantly I don't want to have to become accustomed to another software but it's time to back up the files.

And while pondering all this I caught this year's microbe: a flu-y stomach bug so I'm not really a very happy bunny.

This was supposed to go in the paragraph on the hotel but I forgot it and it's one of the things about Nice that enrages me....

Take a good look at the photo of the hotel frontage and let me point out here that this building has been classified as a National Heritage. Given its splendour how on earth did they obtain permission to put that extremely ugly door at street level? How can anyone think it's a good idea, except for makers of aluminium door frames that is.

I'm stunned...

10 comments:

Open Grove Claudia said...

Sorry about the camera...the flu bug... ugh! and the historical marker. They have entire awful neighborhoods here. You can't bulldoze the area because it's historical. sigh....

I hope you feel better soon!

Gigi said...

That sky looks so deep and blue...and the hotel looks dead posh, too!

As for the camera/Renoir incident...I hope at least it was a good shot?? (terrible joke, sorry)

I'm hardly ever ill but I also got one of those bugs this winter - the sore throat, fluey, coughy one. I'm fine now though. Hope you feel better soon...:-)

Shaz said...

Oh I hate your not well honey(Iknow how you feel)
I wish you health and a camera that bouces(giggle) that joke was worse than the last one SOoo on that note sorry about the camers and get well soon. Hugs to you xx

Unknown said...

Too bad about the bad beginnings. Although you must have made your "mark" in history by throwing a camera at a Renoir.
I hope the rest of the year improves. You have 349 days left for it to do so.
I'll check out your Nice blog.

JP (mom) said...

I'm sure the next 11 months will be much, Much, MUCH better!!! Much peace & happy New Year's wishes Angela - JP

tut-tut said...

I visit a few of the Daily Photo blogs; they'll be glad to have you! I'm looking forward to visiting both of your blogs in 2007. And I'm trying my darndest to figure out my camera, a Fujifilm FinePix. Maybe not the best for blogging.

Ming the Merciless said...

Look on the bright side. It's cheaper to buy a new camera than pay for the Renoir. :-)

Love your photos and story.

Ming the Merciless said...

Opps! I also want to add that the photo of the cappuccino with little squares of complementary chocolate brought back good memories of my trip to Nice 10 years ago. I was a naive and poor student then and that piece of chocolate was such a wonderful present for me.

Anonymous said...

Well, that's more sophisticated then me. I dropped my camera while photographing a common mushroom from Sainsbury's

Astrid said...

I can imagine the heart racing as you feel and see the camera fly out of your hands hitting the Renoir...Ooof.

I've dropped mine too - not taking any photos at all, and now my little camera can't decide if it wants to take a photo or a video, it changes constantly so I guess the switch is broken.