Oui, oui, oui, mesdames et messieurs, je fais l'amour France!

Translation: Yes, yes, yes, ladies and gentleman, I do love France!

We have been so lucky to have had friends living in Toulon, ones that have been submerged into the French culture, and they let us come visit. Again. This time, we took advantage of a military flight, aka Space A (Available), that was departing Napoli and going to Toulon for a Memorial Day service. Space available for the four of us, yessss! The kids - Zachary and Lincoln, Lily and Riann - picked up right where they left off last time. They have SO much fun together!

 We started our first night in Toulon off - just the adults - with a concert at an old opera house. It was a warm evening, almost too warm, and the French don't really have air conditioning so it was even hotter sitting up in our seats.

The ambiance was lovely - truly a beautiful night in a beautiful opera house, our friends really know how to show us the less touristy parts of southern France which are actually my favorite parts. We wrapped up the evening with dessert. Jamie and I fully relied on Sarah and Phil ordering for us, and being our full-on translators. Oh wait, except for the occasional "Merci!" or "Bonsoir!" with terrible accents.






Sarah and I had made plans to leave the guys home with the kids for a day trip to Aix en Provence. It was another lovely day for the drive, and for walking among the French through the city, strolling through the market, window shopping and then enjoying a relaxing lunch - sans kids and husbands. Aix is beautiful!






The following day we took a day trip to Sanary sue Mer - a gorgeous coastal town along the Med. Sarah and Phil were actually babysitting two Irish boys who tagged along with us. The kids all seemed to enjoy the outing, especially when we found ourselves in the middle of a Pirate Festival.

Memorial day weekend was coming to an end and it was almost time to leave. Only we didn't. Our plane had some maintenance issues, so we spent an unexpected extra two nights in Toulon. Sarah and Phil were gracious enough to re-welcome us back at their house.








Jamie, Sarah, all 4 kids and I went to Cassis, another picturesque French town! We started our visit to Cassis with the "Petit" tour of Calanques - the steep-walled, (limestone) inlets from the sea along the coast of parts of southern France. Crystal clear, incredibly blue water - surreal! France doesn't get much better than this!! After walking around the town, enjoying a quick lunch, Sarah treated us to an unbelievable scenic drive - Route des Cretes. Cliffs that make you go "gulp", views that make you never want to leave... amazing!

Amazing food, great hosts, generous friends - we have certainly been spoiled by seeing parts of France most people don't even know exist. This time it was really time to go home. Fortunately, we had a new military flight come to our "rescue".