Hacks in the Belfry

It's good to know that wherever you go in the world, local news never gets any better. In an attempt to améliorer my French, I've been reading the local paper, Nice-Matin, this afternoon and like the Nowheresville Evening News (not released in the evening, definitely not newsworthy and most stories only have tenuous links to Nowheresville), not a lot happens.

On today's front page, we have... "Le monde en 3D à Monaco" (about a new exhibition in Monaco that is entirely in 3D; you can, for example, obtain your own 3D portrait), "Cannes: Grands travaux au Caffe Roma" (one of the cafés on the Croisette has to lose 1m of its terrasse because it is blocking too much of the pavement) and, my personal favourite, "Mougins: Une webcam sur le clocher du village" (webcam installed in the bell tower in Mougins).

Mougins has always been one of my favourite villages in the quartier, mainly because of its name, which I pronounce "Muggins" even though it's really "moo-zhan." The article about the bell tower takes up almost a whole page inside. The camera will provide tourists with a 24/7, 360-degree view of the village and surrounding countryside and takes two minutes to complete its rotation. The paper reassures its readers that there will be "aucun voyeurisme" -- don't worry, folks, the camera is high enough that people stalking Mougins peeps via the interwebs won't be able to make out individual people or cars. Also, the reporter signs off by warning people not to bother trying to dissemble the camera or pull any pranks because it's been disguised so even if they manage to climb to the top, they won't be able to find it.