This morning we went sibling Christmas present shopping. Each child gets around 25 Euros to spend on one of their siblings (picked by pulling names out of a box). We didn't find anything today but came home with lots of fun ideas. I can't list them here in case my kids are reading this!
We spent the afternoon at a friend's house out in the "arrière pays," the mountainous back country behind Nice. They used to live around the corner in Old Nice and Ivy is best friends with their daughter. They're enjoying country life with a big house, huge plot of land (both needing loads of work to restore...but that's half the fun) and a gorgeous view.
The dad was distilling grappa when we drove up. I had fun watching how it's made and seeing the color change towards the end of the batch. They made it from grapes they picked on their property.
They have a brand new Staffordshire Terrier puppy, plus two cats. The puppy got tons of love and then took a nap inside Eric's coat.
They also picked olives from their 11 olive trees and had them pressed into olive oil in a neighboring town. We got to test it out with some baguette slices. The oil was a gorgeous cloudy green-yellow with a deep flavor and spicy bite.
We picked a few kakis (persimmons) from their tree. I'm used to the teeny American persimmons, but the ones here are a different variety and are as big as apples. They also have a stronger, brighter flavor.
The approach to their property is dramatic. You turn into this impossibly narrow lane, squeeze through a Batman tunnel, and then go up a crazy steep hairpin curve. We filmed it coming back down.
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