So, where did I stop last time ? Oh yeah, I had just set foot in French soil. Technically speaking, you can’t see any soil anywhere in the city. It’s all concrete roads and pavements. The only soil you can see is a small circle around the numerous trees and shrubs which are planted along the roads. And in the flight from Frankfurt to Nice, we flew over the Alps ( Nice is pronounced as Neeze by the way – just short of a sneeze). It was a really wonderful sight. Nice airport was a small and neat one. Thanks to the IIM-C guys who had studied in CERAM, ( I guess I forgot to mention, CERAM is the name of the college I was going to), we had found accommodation and they had given instructions on how to get there. Luckily, we got our bus as soon as we got there. The bus was excellent to say the least. For an Indian, seeing such smooth traffic with no policemen in sight is like seeing Bipasha Basu act as Mother Teresa. For those who don’t understand analogies, the transportation system is unreal dudes. There is almost no speeding, people follow the traffic lanes strictly, and there are hardly any bumps or potholes. Not to mention, there was no pollution or dust. Everything in the city seemed clean, hardly something I could say about my own room.It was about 45 minutes journey from Nice airport to Juan-Les-Pins (our home to be – quite a nice sounding French name). First day there, with luggage in tow, we had no clue of getting to our apartment ( Couleur Soleil Residence). And to put it politely, people in France are not quite fond of speaking English. To put it not so politely, the French hate the Brits. So, we had a bit of a problem on our hand in getting directions to our place. It was now that I realized that my 6 years of French learning (yes, 6 fucking years) had taught me nothing.

I opted for French as my second language in 8th standard, since I couldn’t for the life of me remember the innumerable Tamil poems, quotes and grammar which we supposed to reproduce in stenciled handwriting. I studied French quite properly till my 10th standard. In 11th and 12th, they started French from scratch for the sake of the innumerable people who joined French to score good marks in their final exams. In college, I opted for French with a couple of friends because a young, French woman was taking the course and we spent 1000 bucks just for flirting – which ultimately led to nothing. So that is the sad story of my useless tryst with French. Nevertheless, learning the language did make me want to see France.

Back to the relevant time frame ! So, we had trouble asking directions. I first asked an old couple, then a very helpful shopkeeper and understanding bits and pieces of their speech ( mainly their hand gestures), we made our way. Thanks to a couple of signboards, we managed to make our way to the apartment and finally made ourselves at home in our room. On hindsight, I guess it’s easier to find your way in European countries than in India. I can just imagine a French guy trying to travel in a Delhi bus from point A to B. He’d pack his bags the next day.

PS: Pardon me for my lack of chronological coherence and the innumerable notes in italics. I guess this is going to plague this blog till I can get used to thinking straight.