Simply hot blogfest - see part of my collection

Okay this is my entry for the Simply Hot Blogfest. Seeing as it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere it is thought people are hugging coffee cups of their favourite brew. But what is your favourite coffee cup is the question? I like these simple blogfests as you learn something about people.

Well I moved my entry to my Pichets in Paris site as I am posting my Publication Party on L'Aussie Writing. Sometimes it's just handy to have more than one blog.

When I travel I collect coffee cups. What do you collect? I pick up a cup in every country and the quest for a cup leads me to interesting places at times. I wrap them in bubble wrap and lug them around, getting more annoyed as my luggage gets heavier and heavier. But getting home, unwrapping, and putting them up in my specially-made cabinet is fun.

Here is a photo of the top two rows of coffee cups. The next two rows contain, ahem, shot glasses, beer mugs and the like.

Enjoy my mug shots!

If you're like me you're scrunching your eyes trying to read the countries/cities so I'll help you out - Top row - London, Ireland, Switzerland, Verona, New Zealand.

Bottom row - Paris, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Spain

I love them all, especially the Paris mug on the left. Here are three angles to show the scenes.

And when the thirst is really on, only the mega Starbucks cup from Paris Champs Elysee will do. Glug. Glug.

Well it is simply hot over here in Queensland at the moment, but strangely I still drink my cup of coffee or two every day. Delish.

Enjoy checking out the other coffee addicts' cups here.

MUSIC BLOGFEST - THE TOP TEN SONGS OF ALL TIME (according to moi!)

I panicked when I saw some of the Music Countdown lists posted and published mine just to realise I'm a day early. *shrug*. At least it's here.

Oh, we only get 10 choices! This is hard! So thanks to music freak Alex J Cavanaugh for this blogfest which gives us the chance to nominate our top 10 best songs of all time. It will be interesting to see across the spectrum of differenct countries and different cultures which songs will be common amongst us.

My Top 10 Songs

Seeing I'm on my Paris blog (it's too crowded over at L'Aussie) I'll use French numbers. Good to keep up.

  Un:          I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2

Deux:       Fernando - Abba

Trois:       Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi

Quatre:    The Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams

Cinq:        Love me tender - Elvis Presley

Six:          Gotta be somebody - Nickleback

Sept:        Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen

Huit:         In the name of love - U2

Neuf:        Lost and Running - Powderfinger

Dix:          Sounds of Silence - Simon and Garfunkle

There you go. It was tres difficile to choose only 10. There are many more I like equally, but the man said 10. Enough!

Denise

South of France - how did I wait this long? Nice, Nice, Nice...

Next to Paris, one of my favourite places in France would be the South of France, so much so that one of my novels has a chunk devoted to this delightful part of the world. Whilst travelling (always in winter as that was when our holidays fell) my husband and I used to get SO COLD! Coming from an Australian summer to a northern winter was no joke at times, so what did we do? We jumped on one or two of those ridiculously (to an Aussie) low-priced planes to Nice - you know EasyJet etc. I'll never forget my first flight from Dublin to Nice, where the plane trolled up the Cote d'Azur on a sparkling sunny winter day, with the Mediterranean glistening and twinkling - it was breathtaking!

Here are some pics of glorious Nice! Love it! I want to be there now!

Our first sunset in Nice, taken from Castle Hill. Watching the sunset in Nice is like a religious experience. It seems everyone comes out to see the glorious display which goes for what seems hours!

Who wouldn't love Nice at sunset?

Let's start the day with breakfast 'on the beach' just off the Promenade des Anglais. Not enraptured with the pebbly beach, but it does have a certain charm.

Don't you love these pastel buildings. We got lost in these passages a few times, but how good was that!

This is my favourite building in Nice. So Moorish!

Let's wait for sunset again. Another perfect day in Nice, but still need the coat!

I hope you liked my reminiscence of Nice. I will be back to share more next week...