So, half of our vacation is over.  It's a sad reality, really, but we're making the most of the precious few days we have left before we take on a desolate Paris Monday morning.  We spent nearly five glorious days basking in the sun on the Cote d'Azur.  Gui's grandmother (Mamie) has a lovely home on a small piece of land a bit west of Nice and a short drive away from the celebrated city of Cannes.  We soaked up enough sunshine to get us through the rest of our beach-less summer; our lunches were made of the freshest summer fruits and vegetables, picked directly from the enormous garden each and every morning; and we relished in our free time spent reading, knitting and napping by the pool, on the terrace and in the comfort of Mamie's domain. 

We spent one day on the beach in Cannes, where we people-watched, sunbathed and dipped our sandy toes in the refreshing blue sea.  The beach is so magical, isn't it?  I could seriously spend my life trotting around from beach to beach, taking in the sun and rolling in the sand with a good book.  I'm not much into swimming around in salt water with marine life, but I can't think of any better place in the world than a sandy beach with cool, clear water within arm's reach - heaven on earth.

I got a lot of knitting and reading done during our long, leisurely days, but I admittedly spent a good deal of the late afternoons snoozing to the sounds of far-off crop planes and mountain winds.  The coolest thing about the south of France I found, was how varied the landscape is - mountains, sea, farmland - it's all there.  And I found myself in the rare circumstance of feeling overwhelmed with absolute calmness and tranquility, which I wholeheartedly reveled in.

We did run into a few snags along the way though, in the form of my sensitive skin's allergic reactions to weird, country insects.  A wasp flew into my chest as I was running out to the pool, which scared the crap out of me.  I'd never been stung by anything other than a mosquito, and man, is it painful!  Mamie brought out some fleur de lis petals and I rubbed them on my wound until all was better.  Nature versus nature, I guess.  Then, the day before we left, I broke out in some sort of rash along my collarbone and upper arms.  We never figured out what it was, but it went away and came back the next day only to go away again.  There's no sign of it now, so we're chalking it up to over-exposure to the sun or something.

Now, we're in the lovely center of France.  It's not exactly in the middle of the the big hexagon, but it is kind of in the middle of nowhere.  We're here to celebrate a wedding of a friend of my father-in-law and to finish off our week of vacation in the countryside with a bit of R&R.  The landscape is tremendously beautiful here, but the cool winds and sweater weather is a stark difference from the hot sands of the French Riviera.  I plan on lounging around, finishing my knitting project and catching up on some True Blood before we pack it up and head back to Paris on Sunday.  I heart les vacances!




Herbs that came home with us from Mamie's garden.