Jazzy July!
Last year the Nice Jazz Festival was cancelled following the horrendous terrorist attack on the Promenade des Anglais on July 14th when a 19-ton cargo truck deliberately drove into the crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day. The city, the country and perhaps the whole world will not forget the 86 people who died and the 458 others who were injured.
Before the fireworks began at the Eiffel Tower on Friday night, a minute of silence honored the victims. Earlier that day, French President Emmanuel Macron flew to Nice alongside past presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy immediately after the Military Parade ceremonies to commemorate the first anniversary of the attack. Nice didn’t have fireworks this year — instead they placed candles and a book of memory to mourn their loss. A mass in the Sainte-Réparate Cathedral was held, attended by Mayor Christian Estrosi. (See a slide show of the commemoration.)
I arrived in Nice late last night and expect to see a show of resistance by the residents and tourists alike who are determined not to let such random acts of violence instill fear of enjoying their own city. The Jazz Festival is very much ON this year, and I already have tickets for Wednesday night when Sir the Baptist, Chinese Man and Mary J. Blige perform at the Scène Masséna — just steps from my apartment. Sunday plans are in the works to go to Juan-les-Pins to see the Blind Boys of Alabama.
I’ll be in Nice till the third week of August with the exception of one week in Sardinia for the “real” vacation. It’s a test: am I capable of having a real European summer weeks away from the day-to-day of business in Paris? Of course, I’m never really “away” from work and business as the only time you will not receive our Nouvellettres® is the one week spent in Sardinia (August 5-12) when I become a “lizard” on the sand. In addition, we have many people interested in learning more about investing in Nice and its environs with whom I will be meeting for consultations or searching for property.
On the to-do list in a big way this summer while in Nice is writing my memoir. The book proposal is done (that took two years!) and now safely in the hands of my literary agent who will be “shopping” it to publishers at the end of the summer. Meanwhile, I’ll be laying down the chapters. This is my first attempt at a book and am learning a lot about the construction of such an animal from a very experienced editor. She talks about “scenes,” “scaffolding” and “controlling line breaks.”
The memoir, while it is a tale of how an American woman (me) falls in love with Paris, moves there for just one year with her family, ends up divorcing, stays in Paris against all odds, manages to survive and prosper in the realm of real estate and devotes a good portion of her energy to a dreamy “viager” apartment with a terrace, a skylight and a complicated, tangled administrative web, that ends in loss, but leads to a new beginning. Whew…this one paragraph is the “elevator speech” to describe what I’m about to write. Can I do it? We’ll see…but I sure am going to try!
If all goes well, the prognosis is to have a book in hand by fall of 2018 or spring of 2019. Stay tuned!
A la prochaine,
Adrian Leeds
Editor of Parler Nice
Adrian Leeds Group
(at Place Massena, Nice)
P.S. The “Best of Paris” is Expatriate Magazine’s annual campaign to find the companies, services and achievements expatriates in Paris feel deserve recognition. Our own monthly coffee gathering, Après Midi was nominated for the Best Recurring Event in Paris for Expats 2017!! The networking event began as long ago as 2003 and has met and provided information and entertainment plus great networking in the same location 11 times a year ever since! If you haven’t been, then you must put it at the top of your to-do list. But meanwhile, please vote! Thanks!!!
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