A tour of the Cote d'Azur

{Pretty much had this whole area covered, from Marseille to a little past Menton}

    
    As I write this, I am sure my mom is in a Dramamine induced stupor (and very possibly drooling) somewhere over the Atlantic about halfway into her 20 hour trip back to the west coast. Although I am not sure she really needs the Dramamine since for the last 10 days we have pretty much covered most of the South of France and a bit of Italy so we are all pretty beat. Regardless of the fatigue, we all had a great time and did everything we set out to do, which as anyone who has had visitors knows, almost never happens. (And bonus, my mom got to see 2 games in which...gasp...the team actually won.) So we considered the visit a success on all levels. We hit up the usual suspects... Le Castellet, Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Eze, Ventimiglia and even Marseille. Oh, and managed a beach day in between. Might sound like a lot to many but it was pretty relaxing too. We took loads of pictures (so nice to have a 3rd person to take pictures) and pretty much laughed the entire time. Those who know me, know I am not a serious person at all... add my mom to that mix and you get 2x the laughs and silly/stupid moments. I like to think of it as we can find humor in any situation, good or bad. So as we recover from the week, Shaun will head off to his last game of the season, while I start to get the house packed up for our departure in 11 days or so. I am getting the feeling the next week or so is going to be a busy one.

{Eze...still can't believe this place isn't a faux Disneyland city}

{Eze again}

{Being idiots in Eze}

     After spending a few hours exploring Eze, we made the 10 minute trek to Monaco for the rest of the afternoon before heading to Ventimiglia, Italy for dinner. Both Shaun and I have been craving the food at Pasta e basta, which is the restaurant we ate at earlier this year when visiting, so we knew we had to make one last trip to eat there before heading back stateside. This all sounds more complicated than it really is since all these cities are all with-in 15-20 miles of each other so it was a very easy drive. Monaco was great, opulent as always. We contemplated valeting our car adorned with HTV basket stickers in front of the casino amongst the Bentleys and Rolls Royces but decided against it, didn't want to embarrass the others. Monaco is always fun, but at this time of year, there is a little extra something in the air since they are setting up for the Grand Prix.

{Casino Monte Carlo in Monaco}

{Getting ready for the Monaco Grand Prix}

{Like I said before, not many serious moments}

{Overlooking the harbor..you can see the grandstands already set up for the race on the left hand side of the picture}

{Everything is classy in Monaco, even their 'no walking' on the grass sign}

   A few days later, we went back to Nice for the afternoon before heading over to Cannes for a 'match amical/scrimmage' between Shaun's team and Antibes. It was so hot in Nice that the thought of braving the rocks at the beach didn't seem as crazy as normal. We decided against stripping our clothes off and streaking into the ocean and instead, ate lunch in Nice then shot over to Cannes to catch the scrimmage before eating dinner on the Croisette in Cannes. The film festival starts next week so like Monaco, Cannes was being transformed to welcome stars from all over the world. We did a typical french thing and ate dinner for over 3.5 hours, eating, talking and enjoying the good company. We were joined by our good friend Olivier, which is always fun because not only does he speak great English, but we also love teaching him the 'not so PC' English words and phrases. Hey, I'm just reciprocated since those are pretty much what both Shaun and were taught right off the bat when we came to France. So, it's only fair. It was the perfect way to cap off a great week and send my mom off with a bang.

{My mom in Nice, overlooking the promenade des anglais}

{Our afternoon drink of choice, Perrier with strawberry syrup in it}

{Cute Nice store front display}

{Dinner with Olivier and my mom in Cannes}

{Last but not least...us}