out of the snow of Oslo and into the sun (rain) of France

I have been gone from Oslo for 10 days, visiting France. First I went to a conference in Nice, then rented a car and drove down the coast to Rasigueres in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, where Tom shares a house with friends. The flight from Oslo to Nice was a pure pleasure. The day was clear and we flew over the Alps. It was an incredible sight. I never realized how close Nice was to the Alps, but we came down out of snow capped mountains just in time to see the Mediterranian and Monaco, Nice and Cannes sitting right there on the French Riviera. The plane followed the coast line for quite a ways, and it was solid building as far as I could see. We landed and it looked so tropical with many palms and blooming plants, that I felt a long way from the winter of Oslo. I walked down from the hotel to the water and found a beach of a great many rocks from fist size down. The sound of the waves coming in and moving the rocks was so wonderful that I took a video just to remember it. But, here is a photo.