Dearest Family and Friends,

Yes. I know. It's been 6 weeks since my last Chaligram. Shame on me for being so lazy. But in all honesty, it's been a pretty laid-back, event-free 6 weeks, and not a hell of a lot to report if you must know the truth.

We find ourselves back in the Nice old port again..... and THIS time we're on the EAST side of the harbour; opposite the superyachts, so I don't feel claustrophobic like when we were here in June. It's quite lovely; we both really like Nice. And since we signed up to stay for over a week, we even got a break on the mooring cost.... which is pretty low to begin with. So for the bargain price of $46.00/night more or less, we're staying in a marina in Nice. Such a deal! And considering that staying in the free anchorages actually costs us about $13.00 a day in fuel to run our generator 2x/day (for the refrigerator), the difference to stay in the marina is only about $33.00/night!! That's cheaper than.. TURKEY! If you're feeling squeezed by the cost of fuel where you live, in France we're paying about €1.60/litre, or €6.00/gallon which is the equivalent of $8.80/gallon. There. Feel better? Enough about money! It's depressing enough to track the markets and economy in both the US AND Europe, not to mention reading about those irresponsible idiots in Congress making such bad money decisions!

The weather has been extraordinary. GORGEOUS! DELIGHTFUL! Not too hot. In fact, if you can believe this, Chuck actually wore his flannel pajamas for about 10 days in late july/early august! And mind you, that's withOUT air conditioning. That's how cool it's been in the evenings. Very unusual. Perfect sleeping weather.

So, we've really been taking it easy. The highlight of July was our visit to Menton, the eastern most town along the French Mediterranean coast. Italy is less than a mile away. As you will see from the photos in the link below, Menton is just BEAUTIFUL! It's very Italianate, with colorful buildings built on the hillside. And ..... there's a good reason for that. It started off in the 1200's as a town owned by a Genoan family before it became part of the Grimaldi principality (Monaco). It didn't become part of France until 1860. It's been a holiday destination since the 1880's when wealthy British, American and Russians and others sought it out as a winter resort. It has a wonderfully warm micro-climate, nestled on the sea and protected by the Alps. It's purported to have the most temperate climate in France. From the old port where we stayed, to the cemetery on top of the hill, it was a visual paradise. We stayed there 11 days, and made friends with a French liveaboard couple, Kate and Patrick. Patrick's passion is fishing, and one day they came by the boat offering us FOUR Dorados. I sauteed them that night, and they were delicious! We socialized a few times with them. They're very thoughtful and friendly people. It was really a treat, because we haven't actually met many French live-aboards ("Vie-abord"). It's mostly weekend sailors with their established land-based lives, and so they have a totally different mindset than we live-aboards have. We had to leave Menton because the owners of the various berths where the office assigned us all came back, and there were no more berths available! ☹ In fact, we had to leave on a fairly yucky day with threat of rain and high winds on the nose. But we managed to dash out of there before any unpleasantness began, and an hour later anchored in a new place, on the east side of Cap Ferrat. Monaco is between Menton and this anchorage. In fact we could see its skyscrapers, and the dozens of helicopters coming and going every hour from there..... some even landing on the megayachts in the anchorage.

So, we hung out in various spots in this anchorage. We had a rendez-vous in the anchorage with Suzanne, Brian and their JackRussell terrier, Bisquet. (No, Bisquet and Zoey didn't really get along....both are too much little princesses.) Suzanne and I had become Blog penpals in June, when they'd arrived in Gibraltar after crossing the Atlantic. It was great fun to finally meet in person, and we got together a couple of times. When weather got really bad, we went into the marina at Beaulieu-sur-Mer (literally translated as Pretty Place on the Sea, though between you and me, I think Menton was much more beautiful!). Beaulieu was a nice place, though; it had a daily veggie/fruit market in the town square, a MAGNIFICENT supermarket close to the marina, AND a train station. We hopped on the train and took it along the coast, heading west past Nice to Cagnes sur Mer. From there we took a taxi up to visit our new friends Bill and Elisabeth Polk in their exquisite villa in the provencial hill town of Vence. That's the same place where Zoey had her close encounter with a Toad which I described in my last email. It was a very enjoyable and delicious dinner party with lots of interesting guests who were authors, diplomats and other foreign service types.

And now....... we're back in Nice. It's always such a treat to tie up in a harbour after being at anchor for a long time. I've gone to the grocery store every day we've been here, just...... beCAUSE! And there's a washer/dryer in the marina, too! Am I in heaven, or WHAT?!? We've made friends with a lovely Scottish couple here who've just started the live-aboard life. We're due to leave here tomorrow to start our very slow cruise west again, hitting some new spots this time, before we turn south towards Spain and into Barcelona by Oct. 15th. I hope we remember how to sail! We've spent the last 8 weeks in an area not longer than 15 coastal miles! And we never bothered to raise the sails to just go 2-8 miles from one spot to the other.

Big News on the family front: We became grandparents for the fourth time on June 20th. Chuck's daughter Christina ("Tuni") and Dean gave their 6-year-old Claire a little baby sister, Eliza Spinney Turner. Now that Eliza's almost 2 months old, I think Mama is finally getting a little more sleep. I think. I hope. ALSO, our baby Alex (well, she'll be 29) and her fiancé Barret have decided to get married on November 12th.... a little sooner than expected, but since one of Barret's brothers is being re-deployed for the 4th time -- to Afghanistan this time -- they wanted to have their big shindig before he leaves. As a result, we'll be heading back to Virginia just a wee bit earlier than usual, on Nov. 2nd. They met at art school (Savannah College of Art & Design) about 10 years ago, and they're getting married in a modern art museum in Wilmington, not far from their home in Philadelphia. Cool, eh? So... the family expands.

Hope you all are surviving the heat I keep reading about over there, and enjoy the last weeks before school starts.

Link to our latest photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/alisonspinney/ChaliGram114FranceJulyAugust2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPSWzvXrmoyDmQE&feat=directlink

Love from Alison, Chuck and Zoey, of course!