The Mediterranean Sea!

Today we got up early and drove to the sea! I cannot do this day justice as this is a public blog. You will have to ask for each individuals account of this day in person. Each will have their own story to tell.

We picked up Saraphina around 9am and drove on the tiniest road we have seen to date on the steepest ravines we have seen to date. It was awesome minus poor Aunt Beth who couldn't hardly keep from crawling out of her skin she was so scared to be on the down hill side and the other two drivers who were cursing the French and their skinny little roads. Mom seemed to handle it very well :) I'm so proud of her! Oh did I mention there are tons of bicyclists on these crazy roads? Then we hit the sea! It was just like the pictures (accept in the picture your the one sitting on the beach not the one stuck in round abouts wondering why all the entrances to the parking are exits and you can't actually get to the beach like everyone else knows the secret but you!) We finally found the perfect beach with shade for me and sun for everyone else and jumped in. WHOA! IT WAS COLD! Okay so in my mind the water is perfectly warm almost like a bath but this was SO not the case. We snorkled a bit and saw a couple varieties of fish and a flounder and lots of sea grass. Mom dove over and over for what looked to be a cool shaped shell but ended up being a burried piece of sea weed! We spent all day reading, sun bathing, swimming, walking, staring at nudes (hey they stared at us, 11 women and a baby! We just stared back), napping, repeat. When we finally tore ourselves away from the beach we decided to visit the city of Borme. Okay I can't say enough about this village. It is the top best place we have visited thus far! I could have lived there for a year! From the moment we came around the hill and saw it perched on the side of the mountain craig with the sun going down casting that orangy glow we all love so well WE FELL IN LOVE! Why do we find all the cool places just as they are closing up for the night! We were all very tired so a quick walk through town we grabbed some glacier (ice cream) and headed home.

I do have one funny story from this little piece of heaven. I was carrying Evie in the car seat, taking pics etc when she woke up. Tawni took her out of the car seat cause she is so much easier to carry that way and we put our purses in it with the blanket over them. As we were heading back to the car park I noticed a little steep alley and dove down it to take some pics.
As I was multi tasking: carrying stuff, walking down a hill with stairs, taking pictures I tripped on one of the stairs and barley caught myself from falling face first pell mell down this steep skinny alley. I heard everyone gasp and run reaching for the car seat when I realized they thought there was a baby in it! They were looking at me mortified as I shouted "No bebe! No bebe!" Then the looked confused and disbelieving so I said "Avec mama!" And this little old lady gasped with relief spouting off a bunch of French while clutching her heart. I quickly tucked my camera under the blanket and raced away red faced. I'm just really glad it wasn't worse.
Thinking I would wind my way around and head them off at the car park I was very mistaken. I ended up at the bottom of a little neighborhood
looking up a big cliff at the car park above. A little French man started following me grinning ear to ear. I think he was amused to find me lost and flustered at least that's my story (This is getting to be annoying, frenchmen and their blatent appriciation for women!)

After dropping Saraphina back at home, mom Beth and I went back to the lookout to grab a couple picks of La Garde Freiner in the sunset light. Then home for dinner and...bed...wait a minute! I don't know who started it but there was skinny dipping too! Kara and I saw the coolest shooting star and we spotted lots of satellites before finally going to bed.

Wednesday - La Garde Friere

Next day we went to market in La Garde Friere. It was supposed to be a quick trip. (The girls slept in after their long adveture up north). We met a women over olives who promptly invited to show us the town, a fountain, a lookout, and her friend Kate's "typical french house". Saraphina came to visit and swim in the pool. She stayed for dinner and then at sunset she and I walked to the top of this hill (everyone else drove) and had "sun-downers." It was an amazing view and the wine was splendid too. Sorry so short. Trying desperately to catch up!

Tuesday a day of rest - for some!

I wish I could get one of my sisters to blog their adventure driving to Monico and back! They arrived home exausted and grinning from ear to ear. I think they had a good time but enough driving in France for a bit! They made good time to Nice but couldn't find parking. I guess the traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Monico! They got there just as the palace was closing so they only got to see the grounds but one of the guards finally explained to them why Evie was getting so many looks. In his broken very limited english he told them that the sun is so much stronger here that you don't take babies out. Its too dangerous. That explains why we haven't seen a baby younger than walking age out and about!

As for the rest of us, we slept in and took a swim in the pool. I made breakfast of fried potatoes onions and sausage with fresh garlic, rosemary and olive oil! It was yummy! Pretty much just laid around the pool and painted and pooled and painted again! Around 5 we decided to go "chauteau hopping" as Aunt Beth calls it. We sampled wines and bought our favorites. I'm going to try and sneak a few bottles home...we'll see. One beautiful place we wittnessed a mother and daughter have a little spat right in front of us (not typical french behavior!) The mother could speak english but wanted her daughter to have the chance to practice. The girl asked if we wanted to "try" any wines and her mother said no its "taste.". The girl rolled her eyes and responded "try taste all the same in english eh?" Mom argued daughter slapped her hands and shooed her away then refused to speak till her mother left the room. "I know English but I no like her correcting me all the time!" She said. It was hilarious! Another beautiful dinner together on the patio. A dip in the pool and stories shared as the Monico group arrived back late. It was a good day!

Monday was an elusive market day

So on Monday we got up early again, coffee croissants with chocolate again for breakfast, loaded in two cars this time (less getting lost and separated we hoped) and headed for a market in St Tropewe drove for an hour and dove back into the crazy confusing costal towns again. Back and forth, up and down, round and round. We finally gave up and went back to a huge super market we saw before we hit town. It was heaven! A little bit like america and a little more predictable than anything we have done or seen yet! I found an atm and an adapter and chips and mineral water in bulk and ice tea! Shampoo and conditioner and sun block and "after sun" and medicine for my head! We finally made it back home by late afternoon and dove right back into the pool. Some of us decided we weren't going ANYWHERE tomorrow!

Sunday was Market day

Vidabaun was a cute little town. After arriving late after a crazy departure from fast paced Paris and getting lost going in circles in those crazy little coastal towns, it was nice to go at the slow country pace for once. Some of us still feeling the push and rush of Paris, tried to stay together. Others feeling the freedom of a small town went to explore. As you can imagine, this was a bit like herding cats. It didn't take long to find the market...we just followed the empty baskets! The full baskets were coming from this tiny hole in the wall which turned out to be a pedestrian alley where we were met by the biggest wheel of cheese I have ever seen! The lady there had all 11 of us taste testing goat cheese and sheep cheese and goat/sheep cheese and cow cheese (yuck!) And compte 3 months old and compte 2 years old...it definately gets better with time! I definitely love old compte. Anyway, after we had our fill, picked our favorites most of us moved on down the lane while Coleen picked out portions and paid. The lane opened into a square (if you could call it a square) maybe twice as wide as the lane where farmers sold fruits and "verte legumes." We tried to figure out what a kilo was by buying very yummy cherries. Then Coleen caught up to us with huge eyes...she was speechless. When speech returned we learned that the cheese had cost 98 Euro ($150) and that we had 2 Euro left in the pot for dinner. Live and learn I guess (it was really good cheese!) I found bread and bought a loaf of olive bread and a loaf of multi grain bread. I also bought a liter of olive oil. While getting these purchases (unbeknownst to me) the bell in the church tower above me rang for mass and was deafening. People flooded the streets and then it was quite empty. Good for us shoppers :) It was awesome! It was fun looking thru all the linens and shoes and clothes and jewelry. I found a peach tea I like much better than their water. We all gathered at a fountain as we finished and made our way back home. I am not used to the way men openly appreciate women around here. With 11 of us its quite an oggle fest. We jumped in the pool and had a restful rest of the day at our little villa in the vinyard! That night Nana played on the baby grand and we sang while making dinner. We ate on the veranda at twighlight. I love it here...