Provence

After meeting up with Dad and Bonnie we spent one night at a beautiful B & B near the quaint town of Menerbes. This B & B was owned by an older Parisian couple who had lived there for ten years and the wife liked to spend her days topless by the pool perfecting her tan. The grounds, rooms, and pool were jaw droppingly gorgeous. I could definitely spend some time there. There were hammocks under the trees, pastis or wine at your disposal and the sound of cicadas chirping in the background.

The next night it was time to meet up with the other 17 friends and family who had come to Provence to spend the week celebrating Dad & Bonnie’s 25th wedding anniversary. We had two villas, one of which had 15 people and the other housed the rest of our crew (6 people). Our villa (the big villa) was just beautiful and huge! I slept in a dorm room with my cousin Amie and Aunt Pam, and we had quite the good time. The week was spent going to ancient sites, from stone huts to roman ruins. Dad was a great tour guide, and we took our rag tag group of Americans along on many a road trip, with many a car following Dad through the winding streets of medieval towns. Dinners were fantastic, with a few culinary whizzes in the group, we had some amazing meals. The afternoons were punctuated with driving back at the villa and jumping in the pool stat for a cool refresher from the warm Provence touring.

As we were in the towns the family gradually got used to using French and by the end of the trip I was happy to see everyone had mastered the basic greetings. Of course at this point I had mastered the fine art of consuming as many baguettes as possible. Mmm bread. One of my most favorite things!

We also consumed a large amount of wine, but of course! We went to several wineries, including the winery where the film “The Good Year” was filmed. Have not seen it but heard it was nothing to rave about. You will not be surprised to read what my first questions to the wine makers was upon entry to the winery. Is the wine organic? At the aforementioned winery which was a father-daughter operation the daughter told us they had been completely organic for 30 years! So fantastic! Now I know that I am probably getting a lot of eye rolls upon reading this, but organic wine is better for you. In addition to having less sulphites it doesn’t have pesticides. Now who wants to drink pesticides? That’s all I am sayin’.

The party where Dad and Bonnie renewed their vows was fantastic, Bonnie wore her wedding gown and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I read a little poem I wrote that had people laughing and misty all at the same time. We had it catered, the food was amazing and much laughter was to be had. We ended the night with a rousing game of charades. Dad & Bonnie requested that everyone send them charade suggestions in advance but only a few did, thus Dad entered a bunch of his suggestions. Totally random.
Some examples:
1. Song- Wurly hurly girl
2. Movie- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
3. Some song by a group called “X”

We climbed castles, clambered over ruins, visited the Pope’s Palace, walked on Roman bridges and got a true albeit brief taste of Provence. After Provence it was off to Nice for the night then home to the states. Our drive to Nice was non-eventful, but trying to circumnavigate the one way traffic/people ridden streets of Nice was most certainly not. We had three cars, the only one having a map being Dad’s and three hotels to drop people off at. After spending 90 minutes driving around, getting honked at and having the feeling that our individual blood pressures were above the safe limits we decided to drop off the rental cars at the airport and just take taxi’s to our hotels. Whew! After checking in it was time for a very brief tour of Nice.

Impressions of Nice:

Not so impressed. Really beautiful beaches and buildings, but INSANELY crowded, tons of money flowing through there and not the kind of place I would want to spend a large amount of time. I am told off season it is quite nice, but I have grown to have quite the affinity for small towns and villages and less hustle & bustle. Our small group of 9 found a Thai restaurant to eat dinner at which was off the beaten path and very quiet. After dinner Dad, Grammy and I went out for an evening nightcap. My last drink in Europe! I tried to convince them to go to an Irish pub, but they put the kibosh on that. It was at a bar called the Ritz which of course prompted me to break out into the “Putting on the Ritz” song. (:

My last drink on European soil? Pastis of course! When in France…

It was a really great week and so many rich memories were made with friends and family. The perfect end to a really long but amazing summer. So thankful to have so much love in my life, be it family and friends.