Just back from a long weekend in Nice in the South of France.  A good break from the office, but the discovery that my boss had moved to another division in the two days that I had been away marred my return somewhat when I discovered that his work had been passed on to me.

Temperature was between 25 and 30, roughly the same as when we were there in the summer, so it was far too hot for me, but perfect for my wife who regards any temperature below 20 as baltic.  Spent a very pleasant time reading in bars drinking good coffee and Pastis while my wife shopped.

Until this summer i'd always avoided the strange cloudy drink that my brother in law drank, assuming that it would be as vile and sweet as I remembered Pernod to be.  But the variaties available in France were very different, not sweet, and, when cold, very well suited to a hot Saturday afternoon.

I was also struck by how friendly the French were.  I'd always assumed that the stories of the unhelpfulness of their waiting staff and their refusal to speak english even when they could were true.  Not my experience at all, although I suspect my Norn' Irish accent might have helped in that regard.  I did witness a waiter feign an inability to speak english with an english couple and then procedd to speak quite clearly in english to me. 

But then they had been quite rude to him  on their way into the resturant.

As usual I spent a little bit of time in a comic shop on Saturday morning, in the wonderful BD Fugue Cafe .  Staff were very friendly, coffee was good and the selection of French BD was awesome.  I wish I could read the language, the variety of material available is stunning, from westerns to scifi, historical stories and humour..  Heavy Metal really does not do the european scene justice.

Even the Marvel Soleil books, while welcome are nothing in comparison to the originals which are published in much bigger volumes (in terms of page size, rather than page count).  No wonder they, along with the Savage Sword of Conan reprints which eventually led me to get glasses.  The same applies to the Lewis Trontheim Dungeon books, published in little more than paperback size by NBM, in France they are on the same size paper as Dc's absolute books.   

In the end I bought very little, but I couldn't resist picking up an excerpt from Jacques Tardi's 1914-1918 published in newspaper form, a little like wednesday comics but in black and white and featuring a single story.  The words were not necessary to understand what was being said.  As vivid a treatment of the horrors of the first World War as i've seen anywhere.  I may order the collection at some time even if it is in french.