Crazy Cote d'Azur

There seems to be a relatively large quantity of crazy people on the French Riviera and in Nice in particular. We have the regular “bird woman” walking around with dirt all over, no shoes, screaming incomprehensibly like she was possessed by demons. We have a Finnish lady that has been walking the streets for several years, holding a rag over her mouth, using the same story over and over about how she fell, broke her teeth, and need money to get home. I have several friends that have been subjected to unprovoked attacks from lunatics, hitting them, pulling their hair, et.c. One of the most spectacular attacks was on a Scottish friend’s girlfriend. They were talking in Spanish!, on the bus, when a crazy woman attacked them, pulling his girlfriends hair whilst screaming something like “god damn tourists!”. The police had to come pull her off the bus.

Even the street performers are crazy. There’s a Japanese guy, singing with an extremely high pitched voice, constantly turning his hat around. And there is a guy doing the most bizarre dance I’ve seen. He moves around in a kind of new age style to slow music, in very tight pants. But there is something fascinating about him. He always draws a crowd, and I think it is because people wait for something to happen, but nothing ever does. He has no talent what so ever, and that’s what makes the guy so funny.

The latest lunatic encounter I had was this morning. When rapidly walking my 150 meters or so to the bus, one would think that I wouldn’t bee subjected to mad people, but I was. A man was walking around greeting people in a quite cool way. The first part of the salute was an incredibly loud and exaggerated laugh, which was followed by “Bonne Année!” i.e. Happy New Year! Since I like to analyze, my theory is that the guy had a psychosis from sniffing too much glue or overdosing on drugs last New Year’s, lost the concept of time, and now regards every day as New Year’s Day.

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