One Last Beach Day - Cap d' Antibes, France

In an effort to keep cranky children at bay during sight seeing we've been using the beach as a lure to behave.  It's worked overall and yesterday was no exception.  Regardless of the fact that Kelly, Michelle and I really wanted to see Antibes, the kids really wanted to hit the beach one last time before heading further inland to Arles in Provence. 

Antibes is just south of Nice on a little penisula in the French Riviera just about 20 kilometers from Nice.  We had researched a few beaches but of course the GPS couldn't tell us how to get to any of them.  So we just followed the signs for the beaches and continued driving and figured we'd turn around when we felt we'd seen enough or saw the beach we wanted to go to.

In typical fashion, we ended up blocking a bunch of traffic in our ginormous minivan at one of the beaches.  A 50 point turn later we were back on our way to a public beach.  The private ones were way too pricey in this area and really didn't offer much more than the public ones with the exception of the ability to rent a lounge chair and umbrella (to the tune of 18 euros each - by comparison, Barcelona is 6 euros). 

We ended up on one of the public beaches and at first the kids were disappointed that these were not wavy beaches, but in the end they loved it.  Because the waters were nice and calm it made for great exploring - the rocks, the sea life and of course, the beach itself.  This was one of our first non-rocky beaches since we set out from Barcelona (we had one near Nice but we were only there about 45 mins which just wasn't time enough to truly enjoy). 

The kids found a sea anenome (probably spelled that one wrong), a sea urchin and several fish.  Aidan is a lover of the sea and all aquatic life and spent quite a bit of time snorkeling - again I can't wait to see how he does in Greece in a few weeks - I think he's going to love the snorkeling there!  Liam did amazing with the water - he went in all the way up to his neck!!  This from a kid who wouldn't leave the shoreline for the longest time, huge progress!  Zach and Haley enjoyed exploring all the rocks and what was living inside the crevices between them - anything to climb is good in their book!  And the adults got to relax for a while since the kids were occupied - that was great in and of itself.

Testing the waters

Liam is slowly becoming a little fishy

However his favorite thing is the fact that he can pee in the water - I know, it's becoming a habit!

Look how far he's venturing!

Aidan snorkeling

Zach found more crabs!

And Haley found this anenome!

Some of the many beautiful boats off the shore

One of the views from the beach

Liam exploring the rocks

Aidan running back in the water

Playing catch

These were just a few of the yachts that were off the shore

Sea urchin

Haley's sand castle

Liam's sand castle

Aidan's sand castle

Aidan laid down and Liam immediately followed suit... typical little brother!

By 4 it was time for us to move on as we still had a long drive ahead of us to Arles, France.  We grabbed dinner at one of the only places open in the center of town (after all it was only 5).  It was decent but the service took forever since there was only one waiter for all the tables.  Finally we were on the road to Arles.  It rained for the first time as we were driving and the temps dropped to 18C which was huge considering we'd been seeing temps 10 degrees warmer in Italy.  But it was a nice reprieve for just a bit.

We got to Arles around 9ish and of course Conchita got us lost.  We were on a tiny side street (this is becoming a bad habit!) and a woman approached us immediately.  She must have known that we were American by our huge bus of a van going down a tiny little street.  I showed her the paper with the name of the hotel.  She told us, in French, where we needed to go.  I was lost after the first left but was doing fine perpetrating like I know what she was saying til Michelle and Kelly started to laugh and then I burst out laughing.  I'm sorry super nice French woman - you were only trying to help us and that was soooo rude of me!! 

Finally we made it to our hotel and I remember seeing this place when I was here in October with Josh and the kids.  It's a gorgeous little hotel tucked into beautiful little sidestreets right near the Arena and Roman Ruins.  Today we'll do some exploring of all of those.  Originally I was a little disappointed knowing we were going back to some place we'd already been when there is so much we haven't seen in France still but in the end I'm actually glad to be back.  Not only is it familiar but of all the places we've seen this town was one of my favorites and I'm glad to get a chance to explore it even more, this time in the nice warm weather of the summer!!!

Julie

It's Nice in Nice (France)...

On Saturday we left our apartment in Rapallo, Italy to make the journey back home to Barcelona.  We had decided when planning the trip that we would stretch out our return over a few days (even though it's only a 9 hour drive).  So on Saturday afternoon (after LOTS of traffic) we arrived in Nice, France in the French Riviera.

It sounds fancy to me to just say French Riviera.  Never in a million years would I have thought I'd be visiting some of these places - like Monaco last week or the Italian Riviera.  I just finding it amazing and think we are so lucky to have this opportunity for travel.  Aside from the fact that Josh working so hard has enabled us to fund all these trips, I'm lucky that my job is so flexible that I can take it anywhere with me.  Though I will admit that keeping up with it has been a challenge with our schedule over the last week and a half. 

Anyways, I digress... we got to Nice yesterday around lunchtime.  At first when we entered the city we were like, no way, this cannot be it, it's a dump.  But as we worked our way towards the port area where our hotel was, I can see why it's such a beautiful city (you just have to be in the "right" part of it).  But it is a huge city!!

Our hotel was a bit of a disappointment but it was the cheapest we could get in the city near the water and it was just for a night so we managed.  Interestingly our hotel tonight in Arles is 1000x better and not much more expensive.  Just goes to show, city versus country.

We checked in and immediately hit the road looking for some food.  It was after 3 and everyone was starving.  Unfortunately most places were already closed for lunch and so we ended up at an Irish pub that had super fabulous food.  Don't get me wrong, I am a major carb addict - Italy was a carb addicts wet dream.  But after a week of pizza and pasta I was ready for something more hearty and since French food was out (since they were all closed), this was the next best choice.  Since it was just a snack we asked the waiter for somewhere good for dinner.  He recommended a restaurant by the name of Snug that he said was great.

A square by our hotel

Road off the square by our hotel :)

More of that same square (but hey it's pretty)

Statue with horses on it's head

Cool building, though I can't remember what it is

Castle we could see from where we had lunch - we walked up by it to get the most amazing views (see below)

Kelly and Michelle

Street we had lunch on

Liam and "Jake", yes named for our Jake

Me, Liam and Jake...

Liam "borrowed" my hat which is now his... he looks so damn cute!!  I think he looks like he could take part in a barbershop quartet though!

Aidan had a paper heart from a wedding we saw - he broke it apart and told me that I did that to him... at least this time he said it with a smile on his face.  Not sure if that makes it better though.

Cutie pie

So we wandered around the old city area and went up to see the panoramic views at the top of the hill which was stunning. The kids were less than thrilled to walk uphill but the adults won in the end (there was a small battle between myself and Aidan that wasn't pretty but we've moved on from it). Our original goal was to go to Snug to make a reservation for later on though once we saw it, it was yet another Irish bar so we said we'd play it by ear. You can't do Irish twice in one day when visiting France, right?

Another nice building - don't know what it is though

More cool buildings

We went to a local toy shop and Aidan got a dragon and Liam got a fake knife that you can stab people with and the knife part goes into the hilt.  He thinks this is the best toy EVER and has stabbed us all several times.  Hopefully he is not a serial killer in the making...

Everyone getting along... finally!

Brothers

Not sure how we worked it out that they all matched...

View as we start walking up up up

Exhaused from all the stairs - I don't blame him

The initial view, but it gets better

Haley, Kelly and Zach

Me and my boys!

Liam "stabbing" Zach

Loving his ensemble today I have to say!

Now this is a view!!

Liam is throwing a tantrum as we take this picture...

Liam, me and Auntie Michelle

Me and my Liamey

And me and my Aidan...

Love their hats!

View as we go down

Just about street level...

After walking along the promenade by the beach we meandered back to the hotel to freshen up before going in search of dinner.  I almost fell asleep while waiting to go out.  I think the lack of sleep is catching up with me!  Michelle and Kelly asked the night desk person where we should go for dinner for a good steak.  We're not sure but we think the answer "McDonalds" was a stab at us being American (see more on this later in our future entry - Find the Americans). 

We walked thru the same area that we had gone thru in the afternoon which reminded me of the Gottica and Borne area in Barcelona - very windy narrow roads.  Everything looked fantastic, albeit a bit touristy.  In the end we realized that the restaurants that were off the beaten path that would be great for the adults, might not be so great for the kids.

So we ended up at Snug, yes, the Irish bar.  Which interestingly enough was a gourmet Irish bar - seriously, the food was fantastic and everything is completely fresh each day and the menu changes daily.  They have no microwave and no refridgerator.  What was funny though is two people actually recommended the restaurant for their steak ...and yet, there was no steak on the menu.  Ah well, it was fantastic. 

We ended the night with crepes which I must admit were yummy but still not up to par with my Creps a Barcelona.  But my sweet tooth was satisfied, I had the kids in bed by 11 and I was asleep before midnight, so I'm going to call it a very good day for all of us! 

We left today to head to Arles, France so keep your eye posted for that trip!!

Julie