Days of Sunshine and Fun on the French Riviera - July 27, 2010

 Senne's Summary: 4 days of reckless fun in the sunshine... okay, maybe not reckless 😉

Saturday July 24, 2010

Uh oh, things are already starting to blur together! I'm writing this on Tuesday and I already mostly forget what happened on Saturday… eek! From what I remember :) -- Saturday was a beach day. We swam, sunned, ate and had a generally marvelous time. We went out for a walk to get ice cream in the evening. It was a beautiful night and the moon was almost full… it certainly doesn’t get any better than that. 

Sunday July 25, 2010

Steve decided he wanted to try the "lovely walk" again… or portions of it. So we packed up the backpack with important things (towels for swimming, Orangina light <almost as good as diet coke>, and the camera) and headed out. We didn’t make it too far when we saw an interesting road and made a little detour. (I can see some of you shaking your heads from here! Don’t worry, I didn’t wear flip-flops this time!!!).

We ended up walking through some streets in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and seeing some amazing villas. We got to a road where I saw a sign for “Villa and Jardins Ephrussi de Rothschild”. I remember reading somewhere that this was a beautiful villa and gardens. So we decided to check it out.

Again words can’t describe it. Some rich baroness builds this palatial home on top of a hill with seventeen acres of gardens on the French Riviera. You can see ocean on three sides. It was absolutely stunning. Again, the pictures don’t really do it justice.

Imagine if this was your view!

For some reason I was over-heating today, (maybe the flip-flops prevent overheating???) so we decided to head back to the beach for a swim.

We notice some young girls take a little secret path with beach bags so decided to follow them. When we saw their beach we decided to just go to our own. Ours is definitely better :)

So we went to the beach, had a refreshing swim, had a little ice cream and then headed home. I believe this is the day that Steve lost our little card game (insert evil laugh here), and was required to make me a picnic for dinner! Yes!

This evening we were watching our new favourite show (Breaking Bad—you should really watch it! Thank you to Steve’s brother, Chris, for recommending it), and I heard some rumbling outside. I got all excited because I thought maybe it was a thunderstorm… I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one. So we opened the blinds and were treated to fireworks! They were just over the hill in Beaulieu, but we could see them perfectly. It was a great way to end the day.

Monday July 26, 2010

Today we had another fabulous beach day. Swimming, sun, ice cream… I think you get it :) This evening we decided to go out for dinner, and ate at a nice little restaurant just above the harbour.

Important information: Steve continued to lose at the card game and was forced to listen to Lisa call him the inappropriate name for most of the day :) (insert another evil laugh here!!!!)

As we were watching another episode of our new favourite TV show (we’re mid season 2 now) we hear fireworks again! This time they were right in our little bay. We aren’t really sure what the reason for all the fireworks is, but are certainly enjoying them!

Tuesday July 27, 2010

Today we decided to go back to Nice. We had a few errands to run, so thought that it might be easier to accomplish them in Nice. List in hand, we headed out on the train. There were approximately 20 police personnel at the train station (SMALL train station). We think they might have been to control the cruise ship crowd, after the long lines we saw the other day.

Here’s my tip for the people that run the train station. Instead of bringing 20 police officers to make people behave in line, how about fixing the automatic ticket machines (both broken) and opening up more than one ticket line so things go a little faster? Just a thought...

Anyway, we got our ticket and headed into Nice. We are like old pros on the trains now… still don’t understand the French announcements, but so far have gotten on and off the trains at all the right places (knock on wood).

First we head down to the mall to pick up some of the things on our list. After finding none of them, Lisa is dangerously close to HULK mood, and must be taken for food. Luckily, Steve again takes me directly to the restaurant I wanted to go to! It’s the same one as last time. I REALLY wanted the eggplant tart and lemon meringue pie! Eggplant and onion tarts – Check! Main courses – good – check! Time to order dessert – Lemon pie is “done” “no more”---EEEEK! Instead I had the crème caramel and Steve had the crème glace. They were okay, but didn’t compare to the lemon meringue pie.

I was feeling a bit sad, but brightened up when I realized I could go get one of those meringues that are bigger than your hand!!!! Wrong, apparently that bakery is closed on Monday and Tuesday. Sigh.

We finish running our errands, cross lots of things off our list and head back to the train station.

Steve goes off to the little grocery store to get some food for dinner and comes back with a bucket of pink candy floss, chocolate cookies, cola flavoured menthos … oh and some other healthy stuff not really worth mentioning ;)

We haven’t really decided what to do tomorrow. It’s one of our favourite things… just wake up and do whatever you want, whenever you want! Can’t believe we get to do it for another 13 months :) Maybe longer than 13 months, if Plan A – Win the Lottery or Plan B – Steve becomes a Poker Hotshot work out. I’m crossing my fingers!