Ahhh....The French Riviera

Bonjour one last time from France!

We left Grenoble days ago (seriously losing track of what day it is) - I keep having to look at my phone to find the date - vacation issues...:)

Our road trip started out with a total "Nick and Barb" moment when we got in the car in Grenoble to and went to put the address in Antibes into the GPS.  Nothing would come up - we tried and tried and then low and behold we figure it out - our GPS was still set for Switzerland and they apparently do not have a city named Antibes!

We drove past some beautiful lavender and sunflower fields along the way and ended up with a pit- stop in Avignon about 50 euro lighter due to the blasted tolls on these highways - Where is my "good to go" pass when I need it?

Avignon is in the middle of a huge summer festival and there were small cruise ships along the river that is just outside the city so it was packed.  The city is ancient and surrounded by what appears to be a large original castle wall.  We both felt like we were entering "Kings Landing" (for our GOT friends).

There were musicians everywhere and tons of shops and cafes in super old buildings like we have seen in most all of the city centers that we have gone to.  But something about the wall surrounding the city gave it a really different feel.

We decided to get a drink at a cafe where a street performer type band was playing and here is where the fun began.  We have been doing pretty well with translation or we thought we had until I ordered my wine (I swear I pointed to the glass) and yes we got an entire bottle of really good Rose'.  So Nick had to help drink it and then we had to walk it off before we hit the road.  It was really hot and humid there so it didn't take long to "sweat" it out.

As we drove away from Avignon we once again had to get a toll ticket - which later down the road did not want to work in the machine.  Picture us dumb American's not speaking any French at the toll booth with cars lined up behind us trying to insert that damn ticket every which way lol.  Finally we decided to push the button for help and thank goodness someone answered (in French of course).  Nick asked if they spoke English and they spoke enough to ask us where we had come from with the ticket and then just charged us a flat rate.

I know I keep talking about the tolls but they are INSANE.  We seriously have a plastic bag of EUR in our glove box of the car and I'm the "counter of coins" (quickly I might add) as we get to a toll.  There were some tolls on this drive though that cost us close to 14 eur each.

We arrived at our hotel in Antibes (well just outside in Juan-le-Pin) 4 hours after our planned arrival time which was fine since we had a great time along the way.  Nice place and our room is really big compared to the others we have stayed in but SUPER dated.  Like hot pink and orange worn out chairs dated.  I told Nick it kind of reminded me of the places my grandparents would take us at the ocean as little kids.  We are only 4 blocks from the beach though so it's a win!

We walked around the first night and found a fun outside patio/bar with good music and the most stunning view of the sunset.  The entire beachfront is lined with restaurants in the sand (one of my favorite things - my feet in the sand).

Nick started reading up on the beaches and we discovered there are two types - public and private.  The private beaches are these restaurants during the daytime.  In the morning they pull the tables and chairs and put out beach chairs and umbrellas. 

A down day is what we needed after being in the car for so long the day before so the entire next day was beach day.  We picked one of the private beaches and rented beach chairs/towels and an umbrella.  It was a really fun day.  Just relaxing, people watching, and swimming in the ocean.  You could go up to the bar/cafe and order food and drinks which was a really nice perk.  We did eventually find the public beach but we had no towels and no way to travel with them afterwards so this worked out really nice for us.

That night we had dinner on the beach and watched the sunset again - it's so warm in the evening and the food here has been as good as it was in Paris - lovely salads and seafood.  The funny part was you really don't here current music in the restaurants.  It's like one singer (a girl) and she does cover songs - so you recognize the words and the music but yeah it's like bad elevator music lol.  We knew we had sat there for a while when it started repeating!

Antibes is just a short 30 minute walk from our hotel so we did that early in the morning.  It's just like the other cities/towns we have seen with a more modern part and then you get into the old town part which is my favorite.  Tall buildings with living quarters up on the tops and shops/cafes on the bottom.  Really cool windows and doors and either really true French people or exchange students and of course tourists. 

We walked back and decided to go to Caan for lunch.  It was a short 30 minute drive and it's so funny I'm not sure what we expected - like there should be the red carpet and huge yachts like we saw on Entourage when Vince and the gang went to Caan but no it's just a city.  An obvious city with money but just a city.  We ate at the most AMAZING Italian restaurant where Nick got his favorite thing here Mussels and I had a really great salad recommended by the waiter.  It was seriously the best cantelope I have ever had with Italian shaved ham and green salad.  I could eat that again in a heartbeat. 

Nick had read about a town called Grasse that is supposed to be the perfume capital and just be really cool which it was.  It was way up in the hills and we took a wrong turn so we had to drive on these small one way roads up further and further.  It was like driving the road to Hana.  I loved it but I know it was a little stressful for the driver...:)  You could tell they must have a small university up there because there were a lot of students gathered in bunches.  Very fun to see.

On our last night here we walked the beach down to where we could hear music.  It was a band playing a super large outdoor concert that people were lined up for.  It's the beginning of the Bastille festival and the area was packed.  We were glad we were not staying in that part of town but down in the more quiet area.  Like like little old people :)

Today we are packing and heading out for more adventures before we catch our 5:30 pm flight to Venice.  We are hearing the weather is not going to be great so let's keep our fingers crossed that it changes!  Italy here we come!

We both agree France has been incredible.  The people have been very friendly and understanding of our lack of knowing any French other than Merci' and Bonjour...:)

Adieu!

Nick and Barb