Vive la France!

“I think it’s funny when couples have matching swimsuits.” - Pete, my brother-in-law

“Yes, it is weird. Are they both wearing the same pattern?” – John, Danielle, and Heather, my sister-in-law

“Yes, and they are even wearing the same shape.” – Pete, as he points out the couple both wearing women’s / speedo bottoms and no top. Love the French Riviera.

Heather and Pete came to visit this week, so we headed out of Switzerland and down to Southern France for wine and beach time. A perfect vacation combination.

We rented a car, accidentally made a stop at a McCafé on our way out of town for coffee, and hit the open (other than the frequent tolls) French road. We made a beeline for our first stop, a B&B in the middle of nowhere near Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in Provence. We arrived at the chateau, got the tour of the pool and terrace and decided it would do for three nights. It was beautiful. 

 

We headed into town for a late lunch and explored the quaint streets. 

Then we went to “the source” as it’s called. It’s basically a hole with water in it that supplies the river its water. A little anti-climactic since we didn’t see any of the rumored nymphs that hang out there.

We had to get back to our chateau, though, because dinner was served at 7:30 in the dining room. The woman who ran the B&B was an AWESOME chef. I’m going to be mean and post food pictures. Hopefully I don’t cause water damage to my laptop while uploading these because my mouth is watering just thinking about the lava cakes. 

The next day we did one of my favorite activities ever… wine tasting in France. We stopped at five wineries, three recommended by Rick Steves in our wine road tour guide book and two that we added at the end since we weren’t ready to go home. I think drinking before 11am is perfectly acceptable when it’s in a guide book. We tried to calculate how many bottles we should buy in total, and considering we left Heather and Pete with two for their last two nights in Europe, I think we did a great job. 

We combined the wine tasting with cute village touring. Then we stuck just to the wine tasting. Our favorite winery was up on a hill and had a friendly old British man who took us through their wine list and told us about the region. He mentioned that he really wants to go to Walla Walla someday. Weird. We were there during harvest season, so we got to see the grape delivery and sorting process. 

I got to practice my French at the last two winery stops since the people there didn’t speak English. And since they were our last stops, my French was even better than usual. 

We had another dinner at the chateau complete with another cheese plate. I love chateaus and cheese.

The next day we did a tour of the cute villages in the area. We hit Gordes, Rousillon, and then Avignon (more of a city than a village). The villages dated from the Middle Ages, and it kind of still felt like they were there. 

Then we arrived in Avignon, which used to house the head of the Catholic church and the Papal Palace. We skipped the tour since the 50-something couple who was staying at the chateau with us said it was only “midly interesting”, meaning likely to be totally uninteresting to us. 

We did the two Rick Steves walking tours and then headed back to the chateau for some wine. We went to an Italian restaurant that night where we practiced our serious “santé” faces. It is rude in France not to look people in the eye when saying cheers, so we made sure to look each person in the eye… for a long time… every time… we cheersed. I think we were totally integrated into the culture. (the pics are on Pete’s camera, but it’s worth a check back on this post later when I get them)

Our little Scenic then took us down to Aix-en-Provence on our way to the French Riviera. It did not fit into this parking spot. It is not a big car. 

The view from our hotel in St. Jean Cap Ferrat, an isthmus just outside of Nice, was unbelievable. We had a view of the Mediterranean sea, the cliffs, beautiful gardens, and of the huge yachts anchored in the bay. You know the boats are big when they look big even from far away. We had take-out pizza and wine on the patio in front of our hotel. And we played card games until late that night. It was heaven.

We explored the beach selection in the morning and finally settled on a little cove just down the street from our hotel. This was the entire day.

In keeping with the celebrity lifestyle, we went to Monaco for dinner that night. First we decided which yacht we would pick.

  

Then we went to the casino. 

And then on to the castle and “old town” where we couldn’t decide if we were in the New York hotel in Las Vegas or if real people actually lived there.

Once again, going all out, Pete and Heather ordered a fireworks show for us as we walked back down to the train – I mean yacht. 

Very un-celebrity like, John and I caught the EasyJet flight home yesterday. We went through security at the airport, and the lady manning the x-ray machine looked at John’s bag of bathroom stuff. She stared intently at his stick of deodorant and felt it. She looked at it like she had never seen deodorant before… possible… love France.

Now we are back in the real world where we don’t even own a car. C’est la vie!