Boinsoir!

Bonsoir, mes amies!! Yes i am in France and loving it, of course. We arrived in Nice early on Wednesday and after getting settled into our DARLING hotel (only 6 rooms and ours has a private veranda!), we hit the beach which was only a 5 minute walk away. The way the beach is set up in Nice is essentially a long strip that is divided between small areas of public beach (aka free) and small section of private beach, each with a different name/theme/restaurant (Hi Beach, Florida Beach, Le Voiler Plage, Blue Beach, etc.). Both Wednesday and Thursday morning were spent at the beach, soaking up the rays, and occasionally dipping into the ocean. Thursday we also took a day trip to Monaco/Monte Carlo to check out the casino and all that fuss. It's fairly overrated, if you ask us, and considering we weren't about to pay to get into the casino, we mostly just walked around and looked. That evening we were invited to a party on the beach by S. (Background: S is M's boyfriend's friend from college whose family has a house in Cap D'Antibes and who graciously invited us to stay for a few nights while we're in the South.) A party on the beach in the south of France? Sure! His parents were throwing it and it was mostly 100+ family and friends. Tons of delicious food, beaucoup du vin, and a LOT of dancing.. not to mention a ton of beautiful Lebanese women in some serious couture. It was all a bit out of my league (to say the least.. i mean how many families do you know with houses in the south of France?), but was definitely a good time. We crashed at S's that night and returned to Nice the following morning to check out of our hotel and enjoy our last meal before returning to Antibes.

We stayed in Antibes the next three nights and days were filled with lounging by S's oh-so-fabulous pool, getting served (uh huh..served) breakfast on the balcony, overlooking the Mediterranean, and making day trips to Juan les Pins and Cannes. Luckily we had access to a SMART car, which made our road trip to Cannes tres fun. Imagine 2 American gals in a smart convertible, windows and top down, blasting Madonna, singing, dancing, and oh yes enjoying the gorgeous ocean view! Loads of fun. Dinners involved copious amounts of wine, bread of course, and lots of seafood. I really dig the fresh cuisine of the South, so different from the heavy creams/sauces in Paris.

This morning we woke up early and caught our train from Cannes to Lyon. 4 hours of blissful train sleeping later, we arrived in Lyon. Lyon was kind of a last minute addition to the trip, in an effort to save money (staying in Saint Tropez is just so ridiculous) and out of curiosity as neither of us have been here. Suffice to say i know nothing of Lyon.. nothing. I imagined it as a less glam version of Paris, and that's fairly accurate. Today we just walked around, luckily our hotel is in a great location and close to a lot of the shops/cafes/etc. I don't think i'm a huge fan of Lyonnais food.. lots of weird meats like veal's head and tripe and blood sausage.. not my cup of tea. But tomorrow is essentially our last day, and we're going to try to hit up a few of the museums and enjoy a meal. Wednesday we are off to Paris!!

I've had a lovely trip so far and a pretty serious tan to prove it. During our time in the south i couldn't help but feel guilty for having the opportunity to enjoy such a lush and luxurious vacation while my parents are home working away. Being around the extremely wealthy is also interesting and i'll muse a bit on that later. But it's been a great time of reflection, and i'm happy to report that i've been journaling daily. I've finished a couple of books and am now reading "Marley and Me" which of course makes me miss my Lola Collette even more. Not even halfway through this trip and i'm already starting to miss my day-to-day in Austin. Funny how that works huh? I guess there's only so much playing one can do before tiring of it, haha. Paris and London should be fun though, as they are both cities i adore and cities FULL of an endless list of things to do. Hope to blog there later! Bonsoir, friends!