Provence and the Cote d'Azur - A week in the South of France

Ok - I think I have recovered from the stress of the planning and activities of this trip to actually talk about it now... This holiday was supposed to be relaxing - but I was so worked up by the time we got to Provence I was ready for the funny farm! I really need to learn to chill... Don't worry - the whole trip was not a disaster of stress- we had such a great time, and I can't wait to go back - Brangelina have good taste in places to live - I wish I could live there - its beautiful in every way...

Seriously - planning a week's vacation ANYWHERE is stressful and time consuming - and this trip was no exception to be sure! Do we stay in hotels, Chambre de hotes (bed and breakfast) or maybe a gite (cottage)? How will we get there? Airplane, train, car, some combination thereof? Will we drive straight through or stop somewhere? Its too far to drive straight through, so where should we stop?

In the end, we decided to drive, stay in Beaune on the way there and Dijon on the way back (hotels). We picked a gite near Fontvielle - in the countryside away from the bigger towns, booked it for the week, but took a midweek overnight trip to Monte Carlo and stayed in a Hotel in Nice. Driving meant a ferry - do we take one that goes over or under the Channel? We opted for over... Then there is the worrying about how does the ferry work? will we be on time? what if we miss the ferry? OMG we have to drive our "left hand drive" car on the right side of the road! What if the hotels and Gite I picked suck? I about worried myself into a frizzle...

But I get ahead of myself... let me start now at the beginning of the trip:

We were meant to catch our Ferry to Calais at 9:30 on Friday morning, so instead of having to worry (there is that word...) about missing the ferry because of traffic crossing the Thames, we decided to get a hotel about 30 minutes from Dover on Thursday night. We left after rush hour and got to our handy dandy Premier Inn about 8pm and visited the adjoining pub for some compulsory refreshments... The kids were SO excited about staying in a hotel and going on a ferry and going to France - and all I could think about was: did I remember to bring the (fill in the blank), and did I turn off the gas oven last Tuesday after baking that pizza? is the iron plugged in? did I turn my "Out of Office" on? Pat was stressed too and we were a nighmare on wheels - thank goodness for the girls who keep us in the moment, you know?

The next morning it was, yes, cold and rainy. We enjoyed our nice Premier Inn breakfast (I love that chain of hotels - they are like the McDonalds of hotels, you always know what you are going to get and its always a good and cheap place to sleep!) Our anxiety building as we approached Dover, we easily found the docks and followed the sort of clear signs - all I had was a printed out e-mail confirmation for our Ferry ride and as we got closer to the check in we were more and more apprehensive about whether we had what we needed or not - what if we didn't? Where would we go? what would we do? what if we missed the GD ferry? Turns out there was nothing to worry about (there it is again) and we found our place in the throng of cars and lorries waiting to board the ship. I, of course, drank too much coffee and had to pee but I was afraid to get out of the car, lest we have another "Eiffel Tower Incident" where I've left the family waiting in a queue that moves faster than expected and screwed the whole works up... but nature calls and off I went - leaving the rest of the family to WORRY that I wouldn't get back in time - turns out I got there JUST in time...

It was so cool watching the caterpillar of cars weave across the pavement and up the ramp into the massive ferry - it was impressive to see how many vehicles could fit onto the thing! Not knowing the "drill", I took my time figuring out whether or not to bring a coat, my backpack the kids (kidding) out of the car while Pat applied the required headlight adjuster thingies (need those so you don't blind oncoming traffic with the "left hand drive" headlights) and a GB sticker, when suddenly this alarm started to sound and we were being hustled into the passenger portion of the ferry...

Ok, major crises averted, we survived the embarkation of the ferry... but would we survive the journey? "how long will it take?"," how long have we been on the boat?", "mommy, why do I feel like I'm going to barf?", "can we get a toy, drink, snack, magazine?" And we had only just begun! Ah, but kids will be kids :) It was a very choppy journey across the channel that day - its a wonder we didn't all barf, for heaven's sake! The ferry was really very nice, lots of comfortable seating, shops, snacks, a bar (too bad we had 6 hours of driving ahead because we could have both used a pint or two :) ) The journey only took a bit over an hour and disembarking was a snap - 'right side, right side right side' we said aloud - counter clockwise, counter clockwise we said at the roundabouts... After a few short minutes Pat was cruising with confidence in his left hand drive car on the right side of the road...

Not much to worry about between Calais and our first stop Beaune - except for the tolls... now I know what you are thinking, what is the big deal? E-470, you pay your $2 and you go on your way... well multiply that by at least 10 and put all of the signs in French and you get a little ..... worried... We must have dropped over 100Euros on TOLLS during the week we were in France - yes, the roads are in excellent condition, but DANG you pay for it!

We drove through the Champagne region - not much to look at - just flat fields and long stretches of highway... The highpoint was the rest stop with the free bouncy castle. The kids really needed to blow off some steam, and it was a lovely day so we let them bounce their brains out :) We also went through the Burgundy

region, which is where we spent our first night in France - a lovely wine town called Beaune.

Breakfast in Beaune - our hotel (Hotel Central) is in the background

Beaune was really beautiful - we picked it as a place to stay because it was recommended in the Rick Steve's book. That guy knows what he is talking about when he recommends places to go! It was about dinner time when we got there, so we piled out of the car, took the necessary bits up to the room and headed out to explore the town.

Our hotel was close to the town center (thus the name Hotel Central...) - in the town center there was a lovely square surrounded by historic buildings with restaurants and shops in them. After peering into the windows of the wine shops and boulangeries (bakeries) determining which ones we would visit the next day when everything was open! For diner, we finally settled on an Italian restaurant - I swear, we eat more Italian food when we go to France! After pizzas and pasta and some nice local wine and beer, we made our way back to the hotel to get some sleep - we were all exhausted from a day in the car...

The next morning as we headed out to the town center we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was market day - oh how I LOVE markets!!! In the square was a carousel- of course the girls got a ride - and a few antique stalls - I found a lovely copper pitcher and an amber glass bottle -really cool... and we went to the bakery and got some wonderful pastries for breakfast!

The market was full of wonderful colors, and smells and sounds - the kids had 10 Euros burning a hole in their pockets and they bought some fun little trinkets and I bought a scarf (I always buy a scarf...)

Then we took more Rick Steves advice and visited the Hotel Dieu - a 15th century hospice -it was amazing. From the outside it looked like any other building, but when you got through the gates there was all of this multicolored tile and spires on the roof - and the way they have preserved the medieval rooms inside, was spectacular - so interesting that there was such a thing as a hospice 600 years ago... Leave it to a socialist country to cover that base - they always have had better health care there, I guess...

Promise more soon - gotta get some sleep!

High Atop a bluff in Nice



Its all in the wrist...