As Nate mentioned in his previous post, this summer we decided to take a few different smaller trips as opposed to one longer two to three week vacation. We had been thinking of going to Dinard, a town in the Brittany region of France, around mid-September. We still haven’t been to that region and we figured this would be a perfect opportunity to head there. But Louis reached out saying he would be in Cannes for work during that very same time frame and so our plans changed and we decided to head south instead of west. As an added bonus, Keelin was able to join him as well.
We hopped on a plane (since that’s an hour and a half as opposed to 5 hours on a train) early on that Friday morning and were in Cannes having lunch with Keelin by 12:30. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect with warm temperatures. We walked around Cannes that day and did a little exploring. The city is very glitzy and you can tell that there’s lots of money rolling around there. Oh and there was a yacht show in town that weekend which only added to the amount of wealth in that city. We of course found the famous stairs and red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival which happened to be under construction. But they moved the red carpet to another set of stairs that looks just like the original ones so Josephine and I still got our chance to pose on the red carpet. Louis finished with his conference by 5:00 so we gathered some wine and cheese and headed back to our apartment to catch up.
Saturday was our beach day. After a leisurely morning and allowing Josephine to get her morning nap in, we met Keelin down at the private beach associated with their hotel. Josephine got a chance to wear her new swimsuit, touch (and try to eat) sand for the first time as well as dip her toes in the Mediterranean. She was very curious about the water in the beginning but quickly got over it. I don’t think she liked the waves coming in at her. Much different from her small little bathtub at home!
Sunday we decided to change up the scenery and took the short 15 minute train ride to Antibes, another town just along the coast. This had been recommended by one of Nate’s co-workers so we figured we’d check it out. It was a cute little town. We stumbled upon a market and then proceeded to find a perfect patio spot for a leisurely 2 hour lunch. After lunch we wandered closer to the coast, enjoyed the views and the walk and then made our way towards the train station to head back to Cannes for another evening of wine and cheese. Honestly, it never gets old.
There is just something about being at the ocean that makes me feel like we’re truly on vacation. Eventhough we were only there for a total of 2 and a half days, it felt like a true getaway. We didn’t do a beach vacation this year but have now sworn to make that happen for next year. Perhaps we’ll head back to the Cote d’Azur – or the French Riviera as is better known to us Americans.
