guarding those leisure moments in Antibes

I like to guard my spare moments.  I do not remember anyone teaching me to work hard.  No one succeeded to teach me to like work.  If they tried, they failed.  I have always wanted to guard my spare moments and expand them, improve them.  I did not ever like to work; I don’t deny it.  I would rather hike and travel and paint and read and watch movies and take pictures.

Is there something to say about idleness?  My parents did tell me that nothing is impossible.  In Antibes I discovered that they were wrong.  Doing nothing is possible.  In fact there is not enough time to do it.

Sometimes it is nice to sit beside the Sea on a crisp sunny day, listening to the water break, or watching the gulls dart about, or smelling the breeze curl around you.  That is idleness and by no means a waste of time.

The other day the wind blew fiercely on the Côte d’Azure.  Wind surfers came out to play.  It is called faire de la planche à voile.  Sometimes they take flight when the wind is strong.  It can be spectacular, their bodies curling and twisting in the wind and above the water like birds.  (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)

On other days people find other ways to guard their spare moments.  Idle they are.  Are we seeing the root of evil here.  A proverb says, “If you have no useful work to do, you will think of harmful things to do in order to amuse yourself.”  Idleness is by no means a root of evil.  It is a divine life.  (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)

Pétanque is a type of bowls played in southern France.  It is played elsewhere, of course, but is particularly popular here.  Often Antibeans will gather in the small park, which is at the foot of Boulevard Albert 1 and next to the Mediterranean Sea, and will play until the shadows from the pins parasoles and palm trees stop the play.  (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)

Nearby is the start of the ramparts that circles around Antibes in the direction of Nice.  A small park with some benches offers some places for repose, idleness, time for amusing oneself.  Filling the time with thinking too much.  (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)

“Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness.” ― François de La Rochefoucauld