And how awesome Côte D'Azur is!
At Port Vauban, in Antibes (check it out), you can see snow on top of the Alps when the Mistral blows. With the castle in the background it looks astonishing. We ended up renting an apartment cause we got a permanent job working in Speedy Go... after delivery.
We had something magical happening to us there.
One day we went to the beach and out of the blue we started climbing up the remparts - that is, the stone wall that surrounds the city. When we reached the top we saw closely a sea petrel crashed onto the wall, looking very scared. We immediately decided to fetch him and saw he must have lost the ability to fly due to a thick pine resin covering part of his feet and wings - southern France is full of pine trees.
We then took the bird to the boat and started to try and clean it. He was really stressed. We tried soap and water, alcohol and finally, we managed to remove almost all with triclor-ethylene, and finished the operation with Brazilian talc powder called polvilho antisséptico Granado. The annoyed animal was biting Paul's hands the whole time but he withstood it with courage. We took the bird to the deck, where there was a parking place, and put the petrel on top of a car. I remember it as if it were yesterday: the squeaking sounded like a tantrum and indeed, it looked pretty pissed off. All of a sudden the bird flew low on the water. At first it looked like it was going to drown. But then it started to rise, and rise, and rise... until it disappeared onto the sky.
It was such a rewarding scene - so good to free such a creature - that this feeling became imprinted on my soul. Good to share it with you.
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