Pétanque

Very cautiously and slowly, like a newborn foal awkwardly testing out its legs for the very first time once the winter's snow melts away, spring is encroaching on my Antibes life.

While winter did have its low points, overall it was a fairly bland one seeing as how I was still wearing shorts into November. But to give new meaning to an old adeage, when it rained, it poured. Last week I was drenched with torrential downpours and today I let my super white legs have their first taste of fresh 2008 air. Well, yes, they're white but perhaps not super, as I've been using sunless tanner lately ;)

I take that back. They probably are ghastly, but since I'm the palest person I know they're not as white as they could be. I figured I'd spare all the sun-drenched locals.

But getting back to downtown Antibes -- In December, I gave Aimee the grand tour and showed her along the seaboard. It was a ghost town; hardly anyone was out walking, enjoying the rare sunny rays in the beginning of a dreary winter.

Yet today, that tide is changing. Dozens of people lounged about on the decks of an old abandoned cabana club and in their bathingsuits no less! After running to the gym and working out in my shorts, I decided to continue my journey down to the ocean where I soaked up some rays eating an apple and reading a few pages of my current book.

Of course, the best part was seeing all the elderly men out and about again.

No, not like that, I'm not a pervert.

Instead, they were breaking in the newly-installed courts. Each of them huddled up in a crowd to see who could get closest, and whose strategies were the best, whether landing their chrome balls with finesse, or out-right launching them with no regard to anyone else standing nearby was the best way to win.

That's right, just like how the groundhog sees his shadow in February, you know warmer days are sure to come when the French men take to the courts in light jackets and big hats to protect their delicate skin from the sun to play their beloved pastime.

You and I call it bocce ball or boules.

To them it's not just pétanque. It's more than that. It's a lifestyle.

...19 days until California!!