The lovely South of France

I'm just home from a lovely weekend in the South of France. It was so fabulous. I'm relaxed, tanned, and at least 5 pounds heavier!

Friday, we left around noon and got to our hotel in Cannes around 6pm. My boss wanted me to meet with Prince Lorenzo from Italia at a party but I was tired and hungry and a little grumpy from all the traveling and didn't know if I wanted to go. Andrew and I walked along the Croisette and decided that maybe we did want to go to the party after all - the beach was gorgeous, there were so many people out, I got my second wind.

So we made ourselves pretty and then walked down to the party on the beach. We had a little trouble finding it because the invite had the name of a hotel on it, but the event was actually in a tent on the beach. The "door" alone was an interesting experience. We were behind a group of 4 older people complaining that they came "all the way from Monaco for this.." and finally the three girls with the clip boards gave in and let them enter. My boss had called ahead so all I had to say was "Stephanie Jacobs" and we were in!! Kind of cool, I've never been "on the list" for an event before. 

The party was thrown by Martini, so when you entered the main room, all the guests received four drink cards, each with a different drink. I don't think the writing was in French BUT I had no idea what the cards said as far as the kind of alcohol that was in them. I found a pink champagne that was my go-to drink of the evening. 

I wondered how on earth I was going to find this Prince that Jane wanted me to meet for her when all of a sudden there was a giant blonde guy with an Italian accent in front of me talking to another couple. So I waited and had a little liquid courage and then introduced myself. Lorenzo was so super nice!! He swore up and down that he had met Andrew before but I guess Andrew just has one of those faces because we've definitely never met this guy before. He was adorable and took us into the VIP section to meet the other Lorenzo that my boss wanted me to meet and then I was done with my obligations and could just hang out!! The VIP section of this party was exactly the same as the rest of the party except that there was a rope around it and two people manning the entrance to that rope. The gatekeepers of the VIP section weren't too happy to let riffraff like Andrew and me in, but did so anyway. We didn't stay long. 

I kept getting our drinks from the same bartender. He only spoke French but got a big smile on his face when I would come up and handed me a pink Champagne right away. I was glad to have Andrew there, he speaks the French so any time anyone said anything to me in French, I just panic-blank stared at Andrew and let him take over :) 

The funniest part of the evening was when the prince leaned over to me and said "I'm a gonna say something bad...all these plastic women look the same! I never know if I have met them before or not" This brings me to the highlights of this party: 

1) the Crazy plastic surgery women - they could have been 40, they could have been 60+ you literally had no idea. Every inch of them had had some for of "work" done to it and their faces honestly looked like aliens with their skin pulled SO tight that their eyes were slanted. We enjoyed watching them hit on the younger men and dance... oh the dancing... 

2) The VIPs - This party had the B-list, perhaps even C-List celebs. Clearly they all knew each other, but we had no clue who any of them were. The BEST part was at least half of them had camera crews following them around literally filming their every move. The extreme - the next morning when looking for a cafe to have a cup of coffee, we saw a guy running for exercise and he literally had a videographer following him as he was running. And the videographer was wearing a suit.

So we drank our free drinks and then walked down the croisette to find some food. It was funny, people were literally dressed to the nines everywhere, just looking for some sort of party to get into I guess? I'm not sure why else they would be all dressed up. We has some pizza and risotto and then we were back in the hotel for a little TV and a glass of wine before bed. 

Saturday, the real vacation started!! We got up, packed up, and went down to the Croisette in our silly little blue car. We got some coffee and a chocolate croissant for me and walked around a bit to take a few more pics. Absolutely gorgeous, Cannes. 

Then off to Andrew's dad's house near Avignon! I think that's the town it is the closest to, but I have a hard time hearing French sounds, so between what Andrew was saying and the names I saw on the street signs as we were driving, this is what I deduced! I think the actual area is called Pont Royal.

It took us an hour and a half to get there with the traffic. We got stuck in a fair amount due to two accidents along the way. Our little car could barely get up to speed limit as well... silly Twingo! For any Psych fans, we were joking that it looked like Gus's car we were driving :) 

We got to Hubert and Dea's in time for a hug and kiss before their tee-time. Andrew and I immediately plopped ourselves by the pool. The JVM house is nicer than any resort.. the pool and terrace area is heavenly. We had all our meals on the terrace by the house and spent a fair amount each day in the lounge chairs by the pool. I honestly haven't been this relaxed since I've gotten to Europe. Andrew, who has been so so stressed with work stuff, was a whole new person here - completely recharged. It was fantastic.

And Saturday night, Dea and Hubert took us to the AMAZING French restaurant Ansouis in a town about 30 minutes away. They had eaten their several times before but this time, they had booked the chef's table. So we were literally in this little room overlooking the Kitchen all by ourselves!! We all opted for the pre-set menu and it was delish!! Everything was in French, but from listening to the others' descriptions, this was our meal: starter - a bean-based soup and a cream foam on top with mushrooms and pistachios, the second course was risotto with a reddish bisque base it was set in and had a Prawn on top, the main course was white fish with an olive tapenade set on top of a potato whip and asparagus, and finally, I ordered the profiteroles for dessert and they came set in the most amazing chocolate soup. I don't even get me started on the phenomenal wine... I could not move after this meal. It took all my energy to stay awake on the car ride home! 

When we got back, Jill, Andrew's step-sister, came!! She and her fiance Steve were supposed to come for the entire weekend with us, but poor Steve got into a Vespa accident with a car a few days before and fractured his collarbone!! Jill set him up nicely for the weekend and then came down. 

Sunday and Monday, we relaxed, had huge breakfasts of bread and cheese and chocolate croissants (Andrew's dad always spoils me with these every morning when I see him!!) and fruit and yogurt. Due to my lack of self control, I seriously gorged myself at every meal. And Dea made great lunches and dinners with salads and veggies and steaks and cheese and fish and I can't even remember all of it because there was so so much at every meal. And fantastic wine. Andrew's cousin runs a few vineyards in the area so we enjoyed wine and jams from those. We even visited one, Terre Blanche i think it was called. Beautiful. Everything in the South of France is stunning. 

We also saw the towns of Aix and St Remy, and walked around a castle village on a hill (I didn't catch the name of that place) but everything was gorgeous! Can't wait to go back!

And I would like to thank my mom for a book she lent me as it made excellent reading on this holiday called the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It was about the German Occupation on the Island of Guernsey, part of the Channel Islands between England and France, with the story told in letters from different characters to one another. Fantastic book. AND it turned into a love story -  a really good one involving one of those Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy kind of loves that are just addicting to read about. I loved it so much, I have started to read part two of the book a second time!! I read it so fast the first time to see what happened next I'm sure I missed a lot of the little things that would make it even better :) 

One final note in this insanely long post - I, again, cannot STAND Ryanair. I understand it's cheap and that it gets you from point A to point B just fine and that it's not supposed to have any bells or whistles...but it's been a painful experience both of the 2 times we have used them. 

This time we printed out the boarding passes ahead of time. We had our one carry-on (drives me NUTS that I can't have my handbag AND my computer - everything has to be in one). Well, with the whole mess about me going to Cannes with work and then not got to Cannes with work, we ended up booking easyjet on the way over to France and Ryanair on the way back. To allow for the chance that I might have been going with work, we paid the bag fee to allow for one checked bag on each of these flights. Easyjet allows for 21 kg in your checked bag. which is just over 42 pounds. Seeing that these two airlines have VERY similar rules with everything else, I didn't even think to check the Ryanair checked bag allowance. So we get to France with no hiccups at all, and then at the check in counter at Ryanair we are trying to drop off our bag and the girl weighs it and it's 22 kilos. So I'm thinking it's just over, maybe she'll let us slide. oh no, Ryanair lets you fly 16 kilos in your checked bag and they charge you 20 euro PER kilo after that!!! So we step off to the side and are changing shoes, wearing extra clothes and stuffing the heaviest items we can find in our already full carry-ons... Carry-ons are only supposed to weight 10 kilos so i'm REALLY glad they didn't weigh those... So annoying. I mean, I know it's my own fault for over packing, but come on.. should it really be THAT hard to fly for a decent price?! 

My Take aways: pack less shoes and learn French.