Johny Depp aka Stinky Cheese

This morning we woke up and the 'Morris' girls made breakfast. We had potatoes and onions again with ham this time and scrambled eggs! It was so yummy and nice to have everyone together again on the veranda. I must say our meals have been amazing. Salads with lots of stuff in it. Cherries and nectars. Cheese and bread with balsamic vinegar and oil. Coleen made a yummy chicken noodle thing one night. Beth made a yummy ham noodle salads. And tonight Coleen is making fettecini with our yummy expensive cheese and Beth is making sauteed vegetables. Oh and lots of vin!

Anyway today we went to La Plan De La Toure. Home of our favorite pirate Johnny Depp (aka Stinky Cheese). We found parking and walked the streets looking for stinky cheese. It was a very cute and very nondescript. Extremely small we didn't dare mention his name so stinky cheese became the code word. It had a fun boutique. I bought an extra suitcase to send home with the ladies and french fries. We looked all over for stinky cheese but never found him. We saw what we assumed was his house but nobody really knows. From here we all decided to do different stuff. Lu's car went to the sea and shopping in St Maximes. Tawni's car went home and to the turtle preserve, which ended costing an arm and a leg so we declined going inside and to the butterfly caves, which ended up being a beautiful winery under construction, and to go horse back riding. YES, I, Jen Morris, rode a horse and did fine! It was very uneventful which was perfect in my mind and we rode down to a crick and up through some vineyards, up where you could see over the valley. We even saw 2 turtles (very lucky our guide said). Coleen said they even gave us real horses, not the retired trail riders but competition horses that jump and race! It was very lovely and my horse Ferrell did very well. The guide wasn't so bad either even though he didn't speak very much english and I even less French between our gestures we carried on great throughout the ride. Mom's car went to La Garde Friene and visited a cemetery and went home for a swim then back to our "butterfly cave" and to the super market.

It was a lovely day. We ended with the best fettechini and sauted vegetables I have ever tasted. A nice blanc from Chateau Verez. The sun went down as big storm clouds threatened to rain in us. We ran to the vineyard to get pics before our light was gone. Brenna found the biggest spider, I didn't go look, she had already danced and spat and stood speechless for long enough and that was good enough for me :)

Back inside the packing began. More piano playing and dragging of feet. We didn't want this week to end. One last skinny dip and 3 falling stars and tons of satellites. A perfect ending to our villa in the vineyard.

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!