Cheers... to great friends!
On June 23rd, we once again piled into our car and hopped on to the A1. Next stop (besides potty breaks): Monte Carlo, Monaco!
Riann and Lincoln did awesome on the long 8 hour ride, they are such troopers! Jamie and I are very lucky they are such well behaved, acclimated travelers.
Monte Carlo was Monte Carlo - full of expensive cars, top names in fashion, and high rollers being gawked at by the middle class. I wasn't really all that impressed by Monte Carlo. Sure, it was pretty, we saw the famous Casino Monte Carlo and Hotel de Paris, and a ton of fancy cars and multimillion dollar yachts, but I felt like this was one place we could say, "Cool, we went here, saw that" and that was good enough. Then again, maybe it had to do with the fact that I was SO excited to get to Toulon, France to see our good friends, the Hoblets!
One night in Monaco, a morning of yummy pastries, and some sightseeing, onward to Toulon!
We arrived to Sarah and Phil's chateau, mid afternoon; it felt like we all picked up right where we last saw each other - State College, PA and before that, Jacksonville, FL. Including the kids, Lily and Zack, who are the same ages as Riann and Lincoln, had a lot of fun all planned out on their own.
Our first afternoon, we just kept it simple with a nice little walk down the hill from their house to the beautiful beach where the kids had fun and the adults just enjoyed the crystal clear, clean, blue water.
Our friends Sarah and Phil made plans for a week full of side trips and a whole lot of fun.
Our first adventure was to The Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, which was founded in 1148 and populated by monks, a beautiful medieval Cistercian abbey known for its lavender fields. We didn't see any monks, but we did enjoy many photo ops with the lavender.
Our next destination: Gordes. Oh, lovely, lovely Gordes! I am convinced that Sarah and Phil picked the best places for us to see in southern France. Oh la la! Just a quaint little town where we picked a perfect spot for a fancy picnic, which included French wine and a baguette plus all kinds of other good stuff. We walked through the town, poked around in a few shops for treasures and treated the kids to glacées artisanales... French for gelato - delizioso! I mean délicieux!
Next stop: L'Isle sur la Sorgue and their Sunday market to find all things fun and French, new and old, and tasty too of course!! The market had everything!
I scored with a few more treasures: a linen table cloth, some fun French ceramics, breakfast of cafe and pain du chocolat, and a few more photos of the experience. We proceeded with our adventure and arrived in Avignon for lunch, a ride on a carousel for the kids, walking through the streets of Avignon, more photos, and a quick stop of... yup, more glacees. I'm telling you, it makes every adventure for the KIDS that much more enjoyable.
Our last sight of Avignon: Pont d'Avignon, a famous medieval bridge in the town of Avignon that originally spanned the Rhône River between Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, now it no longer crosses the entire river but it does make for beautiful photos!
Back in Toulon, we had a quieter, less adventurous day - we spent it an a gorgeous beach just about a 40 minute drive from Sarah & Phil's house. The kids had a blast, the water was amazingly clear and aqua blue; we brought snacks and sandwiches which made the day even more fun.
We thought the beach had worn out the kids, but they still had energy to help celebrate Jamie's 35th birthday, a little early, but with a fabulous dinner outside and with some tasty pastries from a nearby French pastry shop and homemade Tiramisu that Sarah whipped up.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, as did our visit to Toulon and the Hoblet's...
But not before having one last day seeing "Sarah's little corner of France": the usual places she goes for cheese, wine, baguettes, the market close to their house.
And not before the grownups had an evening out, kids at home with a wonderful babysitter:
Drinks at a bar with the (British) owner who Phil has become more or less friends with.
Dinner at fabulous restaurant called Le Lido was amazing, whatever it is we ordered ;o)
(Sarah and Phil had to translate everything for us, they even ordered for us... I couldn't fake this language!!!)
A beautiful, scenic walk home, up the hill, overlooking the Med... priceless! An amazing evening with friends who treat you like family. One adventure we will always treasure - I even have over 1,000 photos (yes, really) to remember.
