Patricia Sands

Author

Antibes

Be there or be square!

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SEE YOU TODAY ~ October 4th ~  AT  HEIDI’S ENGLISH BOOKSHOP IN ANTIBES, 24 RUE AUBERNON FOR THE BOOK LAUNCH OF THE PROMISE OF PROVENCE IN FRANCE!

PSandsPhotos
PSandsPhotos

THE FIRST DRAFT OF THIS NOVEL WAS WRITTEN IN ANTIBES AND THE SETTING FOR THE LAST PART OF THE STORY IS ALSO ANTIBES AND THE REST OF THE COTE D’AZUR … SO WHERE BETTER TO LAUNCH?

THE CHAMPAGNE IS ON ICE!

WE ARE READY TO PARTY!

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE LET US KNOW YOU WILL BE WITH US IN SPIRIT FROM WHEREVER YOU HAPPEN TO BE!

TPOP_sm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POST I WROTE 2 YEARS AGO, WHILE I WAS LIVING AND WRITING IN ANTIBES, AND SEE WHY THIS IS A BOOKSHOP NOT TO BE MISSED!

More later! Bon weekend!

Fangirl moment …

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If it’s Friday, it must be France … Really? It’s Friday again? So soon? It’s been a busy, wonderful week in Nice (with the usual side trips that are so easy to do here …) but somehow I’ve even managed to get in some work on my WIP. * doing a happy dance* We’ve got an early train to catch to Toulon and then a quick ferry ride to beautiful Saint Mandrier tomorrow to visit friends for the weekend. So this will be brief! I just wanted to share my total fan-girl … okay, but fan- lady  just doesn’t have the same ring … moment with you. After spending the day in Antibes – and it was SO good to be back there – catching up with Heidi at the Bookshop and Julie and Victor at Choopy’s and good friend Antonia, my DH and I hopped on the train back to Nice to meet up for an apèro with Ted and Joan Jones. Ted is the author of The French Riviera ~ A Literary Guide For Travellers. If you spend time in this part of the world, you need to have this book with you.  Trust me!  Click here for a post all about the book that I wrote when we were staying Antibes two years ago. All I want to say right now is that it was a distinct pleasure to meet Ted, at long last, and Joan as well! I even got his autograph!

Meeting Ted Jones!
Meeting Ted Jones!

What are you up to?  Bon weekend!

Travel Theme: Distance

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

As you know, photography and France are two of my favourite blogging topics and occasionally I have the opportunity to combine them. Like today!

“Distance” is the theme on Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack  and this photo is one I took on an early May morning when my husband and I were on our way to the Nice airport to pick up visitors. The air was cool and crisp, offering us perfect visibility past the iconic Marina Baie Des Anges condos, over the city of Nice, across the lower hills of l’arriére pays and up to the summits of the Alpes-Maritimes that run into Italy.

Biot/Route de mer-PSandsPhotos
Biot/Route de mer-PSandsPhotos

Next is a morning sunrise shot with the overnight ferry from Corsica in the distance covering the last few kilometres to Nice .  I would pause to to take in this scene most mornings as I worked on my first draft of The Promise of Provence. Before I began writing I seldom saw a sunrise!

Antibes sunrise-PSandsPhotos
Antibes sunrise-PSandsPhotos

And then this classic shot taken from the castle ruins at the top of the Jardin Exotique in the perched village of Eze, which shows the beauty of the distance one sees along the Côte d’Azur. This same shot can probably be found in millions of photo albums around the world, taken by every tourist who has visited there. I smiled when I saw it on my friend, Susie Lindau’s blog after her recent trip overseas. (If you haven’t stopped by to wish Susie well with her recent surgery, now is the time!)  I know I’ve shown this photo to you before so thanks for indulging me one more time!

From Eze-PSandsPhotos
From Eze-PSandsPhotos

Part of the fun of these photo challenges, is visiting other blogs to see what has been posted. Here are couple of my favourites this week:

http://esengasvoice.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/travel-theme-distance/comment-page-1/#comment-9151

http://travel-monkey.me/2013/08/30/ailsas-travel-theme-distance/

http://vosperdruiter.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/distance-ailsas-weekly-travel-theme/comment-page-1/#comment-3795

You never know from where in the world the photos will be. It’s always a trip and so much fun!

And that, dear friends, is my segue to letting you know … speaking of trips … that The Promise of Provence is featured on the Travel Novels website this week. Click right here to stop by and have a look, leave a word, or share. Merci beaucoup!

If you have some favourite photos that would fit in with the “distance” theme, why not post them and join the challenge. The more the merrier!

Mission accomplished!

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With reference to my last post about making choices, missing golf, and other assorted moans, it took me all week but I got the job done!

Clearing the mountain of paper, books, files and assorted flotsam and jetsam off my desk took longer than I expected. Sorting through the piles (which resulted in several “So that’s where that went … ” moments), organizing an enormous collection of business cards, filing papers and information  appropriately, and … um … making yet another “to do” list finally led to this.

I decided not to post after last Tuesday until I could show you the final result. Ta Daaaaa!

There was a desk under that mountain of stuff, after all!
There was a desk under that mountain of stuff, after all!

I had chocolate to celebrate!

I don’t always write in here as I like to take my laptop into other rooms when the spirit moves me, or out to the terrace. This is Control Central though, when I am in Toronto, and it’s been unrecognizable for several months as I copped out and simply piled everything into a frightening, sloppy mess. Seriously. I don’t know why I did that. I just did!

I’m feeling much better now.

It’s so much easier to focus on writing without that haunting image playing constantly in the back of my mind.

Have you ever let all your paperwork get completely out of hand or are you always organized? I’m seriously going to attempt the latter from now on. How do you do it?