Village Perches

Or hilltop villages.  There are several tiny villages built on hilltops for safety during medievel times around this area.  We have visited quite a few now, mostly within half an hours drive from the flat. 

Tourettes sur loup is very cute and is famous for violet products, especially ice cream, very good.

Eze has the most stunning views as it is perched on a cliff top 300 metres above the sea.  Lovely exotic gardens to visit there too.

Saint Paul is charming and cute too.

Biot is famous for glass and ceramic production so lots of shops selling local stuff.

Gourdon is the highest and has fantastic views over the valley and towards Nice.  The town is known for soap making.

Mougins is shaped like a spiral and crammed with art galleries.  There is also a good selection of restaurants.  Picasso lived here at the end of his life.

At the beach

For only the second time we went to the beach for a few hours instead of the pool and it was lots of fun.  The sea is as warm as the swimming pool and we all have our fab beach shoes so no problems walking on the pebbles.  We set up camp near a shower and a snack shack.  Sandwiches and chips for lunch.  We left when the waves were getting a bit out of hand......

Italy

Local wine and giant breadsticks at one of the lovely restaurants.

The pool at the hotel "Corte Gondina"

We are back in hot France after being in ever so slightly cooler Italy.  La Morra was even better than we remembered.  We tried two local restaurants recommended by our hotel and they were both fabulous.  The food and service were great at a very reasonable price, about the same as the average touristy place here.  Very good pasta of course and great breads and desserts and wine and well it was all yummy.  We visited a vineyard for tasting and a tour (Vajra in the wine area of Barolo).  Lovely friendly lady who showed us around and didn`t mind that we took Zizou.  We bought some wine of course and I am enjoying a Moscato d'Asti right now.  Low alcohol sweet ish sparkling wine, num num.

Dare I complain that it is too hot?

We have been here nearly one week already, time flies.  Been taking it easy, regular visits to the pool.  We have gone to the sea for evening swims a couple of times too.  Zizou is a bit scared of the waves so he has not actually swam yet.  Very wisely decided to buy beach shoes for swimming because the beach is very stony.  The temperature of the sea is just a couple of degrees lower than the pool, probably about 26 degrees.

We visited Jarle`s personnel manager Wenche and her husband Ralph at a nearby town called Frejus.  They have a lovely cottage with their own wee pool.  Zizou made himself at home!  Their garden was completely enclosed so he could run around freely.  We enjoyed a good lunch with local rose wine.

Discovered today that we need new number plates for the car!  We were supposed to change them when we moved the car down here.....oops.  Jarle went off to the Renault garage and VOILA that is done.  V.tempted to get air conditoning in the flat........

I will download some photos asap.

Sunny Antibes

Well, here we are, sweltering away.  We drove South from Paris on the busiest weekend of the summer and survived to tell the tale.  Actually it was not too bad as Jarle wisely got us on the road early on Saturday morning from Beaune (in Burgundy about 3 hours south of Paris where we spent Friday night in a lovely hotel) to try to beat the crowds.  It worked quite well and we were just delayed nearly two hours.  That sounds a lot but I think we got off lightly as it was getting worse as the day went on according to radio traffic reports.

Off tomorrow

tra la la la la

Plane to Paris where we meet up with Jarle then off to Burgundy for one night and onwards to the south coast and our lovely flat.  Yippee

Change of plan

Jarle is off to Paris today to attend a course.  We decided to change our plans and leave the same time as Ben on Friday and fly to Paris instead of Nice.  So we can all drive down together and stop at our old favourite places, i.e. Beaune in the Burgundy wine district.  Shorter flight for Zizou too.

Sunny again today.

We went down town yesterday and got rained on!!  Enormous cruise ship in the harbour and lots of tourists around.

Warm weather

It's been quite a warm and sunny week.  Super for the world sand volleyball competition going on in Stavanger right now.  Today we (me, Mia and Zizou) decided to have a picnic snack by the beach.  Very windy but very warm (by Norwegian standards) about 24 degrees!!!!

Lighthouse at Lindesnes, the Southernmost tip of Norway