We’re back from our annual trip to the Côte d’Azur. It’s hard for me to wrap around my head the fact that we were away for a little over two weeks and now that we’re home, it almost seems as though we had a vacation dream.   I returned to work and…. well, let me start at the beginning.

Friday, June 21, 2024, into Saturday, June 22, 2024: The Road Traveled

My bags were packed.  And yes. Once again, I managed to overpack. By now, I’m used to it and I won’t even bother to change my packing ways.  I will gladly accept Luggage Shaming because I won’t shove all my shit into a carry on.

I wore 1/3 of what was packed. But I love having a choice.  That LV Randonee GM came in handy as my “personal” item. I shoved a ton of stuff into it. In addition, LV repair did a stellar job at replacing the vachetta!

The weather was quite nice for flying.  And this time we had a driver drop us off and pick us up at Philadelphia International.  No more hassles with parking the car, overpriced payment or stressing about the state of the car upon our return.

I’ve never seen my husband this happy at Philly airport. It’s because we hired a driver to take us there! No parking hassles!

After all, this is Philly, the city of brotherly love and thievery.

The thievery. I bought an airpod to keep in my luggase so I could track my checked luggage.

Our flight was a night one but we left four hours early just in case the airport was a zoo. And it was. The line to check our luggage was ridiculously long but, it ran quickly.  Next stop: TSA, which, to our surprise was empty save a few travelers.  Once again, I was “randomly” chosen to have extra security check me out as I appear to be a very dangerous, 69-year-old woman.

Nevertheless, we headed up to the gate, grabbed my usual peanut M & M’s because that is my flight ritual, started reading and relaxed.  I was also relaxed, in part, by the fact that I was able to track my luggage with my Apple Air Tag. I small device that I clipped to the interior of my behemoth suitcase.

Okay, so here’s where my delusional personality steps in. I thought that since American Airlines has been flying direct to Nice from Philly daily—which commenced in May, that the plane would be empty.  Non! It was fully packed.

And although the flight was uneventful (thank God), I did feel for my husband. He was sandwiched between me, with my allergies, constantly blowing my nose, and a young man who, I later found out was asthmatic and was spending the flight also blowing his nose.  Stereo honkers!

This is what my husband had to endure through the entire flight. He was in the middle of two of us. And I can tell you this much–I’m STILL blowing my nose. All day!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t sleep on the plane; and I am one of the epic sleepers of all time but with the cramped quarters, it wasn’t happening. My zzzzz’s eluded me.  A quick glance out the window and my eyes beheld a purple sky—morning had broken…..

Now THIS is a view from the plane. Early morning rising!

Uh oh. And quite an eyeful of clouds!

….and soon we would be on the hallowed ground of Nice!  At some point.

Getting closer–and the excitement is building!

Almost there!  I swear these views are never dull!

Here’s the thing about American Airlines. When the flights land in Nice and CDG, you must wait for a bus to be transported from the aircraft to the terminal.  Our flight was full.  We were seated in the last row. You know what I am getting at.  We were the last to leave and got onto the last bus. So, the bus makes its way to the terminal but there’s an issue on this late Saturday morning.  The escalators from the ground up to the border control are not in service.  It is a merde show.

This was all I cared about. Knowing my luggage was waiting for me at Nice since the last time I checked 8 hours ago in Philly!

Luckily, my husband and I are experts at handling a crowd and once we got to the customs area, it was like a line to get into the most popular ride at Disney World.  No problem though because my husband asked a worker if I could enter the country on his passport and the answer was a delightful “oui”! The funny thing is I was unable to do so last November in Paris, but the niceness of Nice allowed it.

Our luggage arrived in no time!

Zipping through customs and headed to baggage claim was a cinch because our luggage arrived as soon as we did.  Then it was off to the other terminal to get our car.  Umm..we had to take a tram and got on the wrong one.  I swear to you this was a comedy of errors and all we could do was laugh—afterwards!

There were a few people waiting but it didn’t take long to get the car.

We get the car, and………………..my husband was a bit confused regarding the exit and after a few go-rounds, we exited the airport and headed on A-8 to Theoule-sur-Mer.

The official start of vacation–getting onto A8 and…

…exiting onto the Theoule entrance!

This was year 14 at the apartment and it felt like our official home-away-from-home. We quickly ran to the French doors leading out to the terrace, opened them and stood there. Mystified. Staring at the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a vision that we never tire of.

The sun greeted us for about ten minutes. The terrace. Where every meal in enjoyed!

Clouds? Who cares!

Unpacked everything because it’s the only way I can de-stress, took inventory of what we needed from the hypermarche and off we went to my mecca—Geant.  For years I have been extolling my love for this wonderful market. It’s Costco on steroids.  Everything from gourmet food to washing machines.  There is no store quite like it.

And as we drove into the parking lot, we noticed something.  The Geant logo and oversized sign was replaced by Auchan.  What is an Auchan, you ask? It’s the largest chain of supermarkets in Europe. Geant fell victim to Auchan.

What a shock to the system!  Geant was replaced by Auchan. And at least Geant was “ouvert” all day Sunday during summer season. Auchan is opened on Sunday only till noon!

It wasn’t the same.  Auchan wasn’t chock-full of bras and panties and other consumables that I could spend money on.  There were changes.  Overall, the groceries were the same but it was the little touches that were no longer there—as in the number of employees.  Geant had a full staff.  Auchan has half.

I breathed a sigh of relief, though, when I saw my beloved Socca Chips.  I had enough of a supply to widen my ass by three inches!

And the makeup aisles were now smaller but I managed to grab a few much-needed items!

And yes. The French do not make everything from scratch. They have boxed sauces (of which I did not buy) and they have quite the selection of boxed mashed potato flakes!

I was also happy to see these mini Caprice cheeses. The cheese is so freaking inexpensive!

No matter, the changes weren’t enough to get my knickers in a twist over.   We’re aces at the aisles and quickly made our purchases while still continuing to be amazed at the great quality of the food.

A vision of beauty!

And now that it was Saturday afternoon—late afternoon, we unloaded groceries, I took a bath and, by this time, tried to not fall asleep as I had been awake for over 24 hours.   Got dressed and headed to the terrace where my aperitif was waiting for me.  We had a lovely first night dinner and continued to fawn over the view of the Mediterranean while my husband commenced his annual ritual of complaining about the massive cruise ships in plain sight.

First night aperitifs.  Along with some tasty treats. We kept it light because we were exhausted at this point.

And, as usual, my husband managed to complain about the cruise ships!

Bonne Nuit!

Sunday, June 23, 2024. The Rains Came.  No Swimming Today!

Our first full day.  Awakened to the sounds of the water hitting the rocks in the little calanque across the way.   It rained last night into early morning and the weather didn’t appear too promising.

The rain gave way to the clouds. Luckily the bubble house was still in plain sight!

Rather than a day at the pool, we enjoyed coffee and croissants on the terrace, then headed into Cannes to peruse the goods at Marche Forville, pick up beverages at Nicolas and to get goodies at Ernest, our favorite Traitor.

Ahhh. The rain was quite good for the plants on the terrace though!

I’ll tell you this—things have a way of changing in no time.  Last summer, the Port area in Cannes was under construction—not too much but you could tell that it would be a while until things were back to normal.  This summer, that same construction was magnified tenfold or more.  We were a bit surprised.  Regardless, we made our way through the detours, parked the car at the Forville garage, grabbed the totes and we were off!

Sunnies on a cloudy day? You betcha–there were pockets of sun.  It was a bit on the cooler side too–I wore pants!

Lots of construction happening. It started last year and continues..

In making our way to the garage, we had to drive out of the way. I did not stop here!

Okay.  The construction flowed over to the Marche and half of the market was still housed in the building while another half was in a make-shift tent over by the promenade.  I breathed a sigh of relief when we spotted the Tapenade man.  It was a familiar sight to see the many types of this glorious olive treat and was equally familiar to do some sampling.  Three tapenades in tow.

The sun made an appearance for a while as we approached the “old” Marche Forville building!

Marche Forville never disappoints.  I want to buy everything..

The Olive Man selling the best Tapenade ever. Peonies. Hydrangea. What’s not to love?

We walked across the street with visions of stopping at Ernest’s other shop—the pastry shop.  We discussed which desserts we would buy to end tonight’s dinner.  And then—just like that, the shop was closed.  Permanently.  As shocked as we were, we walked another 50 feet to the sight of Ernest Traitor—my husband dreaming of having their incredible pissaladière topped with anchovies and caramelized onion.  Only one thing greeted us. Another closed shop.

I thought the changing of Geant to Auchan was shocking. We were NOT prepared for THIS!  

At this point we were both astonished and confused. Ernest was infamous for it’s catering through the area and we just couldn’t understand what was going on.  When we saw that Nicolas was opened, we breathed a sigh of relief in the fact that we could buy Crème de Cassis and possibly find out what happened to Ernest.   Luckily my husband’s first language is French because he had a conversation with the sales assistant and found out that the owners of Ernest had not been honest financially—that is all I’ll say.  Some things really change.

As an aside, I purchased one of these one-euro totes from Nicolas to carry the bottle of Casses in. I think I have about 15 of these at home.  We stopped back at Marche Forville to buy pissaladiere, which was just as good–if not better than Ernest.

Remaining optimistic through the clouds and gray sky, we decided to hit the road and head to Grasse. Because the weather was iffy, it was a pragmatic decision to head to Fragonard on this Sunday rather than waste a sunny day when it could be spent at the beach or pool.

Arriving at Grasse. It took no time to drive from Cannes!

As in the past, my annual visit to Fragonard remains a pleasure. The scents are amazing and I loaded up on my favorites this year!

My love for all things Fragonard remains steady..

..and despite the fact I loaded up on more Fleur d’Oranger items, I bought the new limited edition “Lilas” scent. It’s gorgeous!

When we were at Fragonard, my husband, still upset that Ernest’s pastry shop closed, asked the sales assistant if there were any patisseries nearby that she would recommend.

The very lovely sales assistant recommended Weil. This place had a line out the door.  We purchased a few pastries. They were good but we preferred Ernest.

Back home (the apartment), the weather remained on the cloudy side, but it didn’t stop us from heading to the pool for a while. Vincent slept and I was able to continue reading my book about Nick Drake.  Then the rain came.  And we ended up back at the apartment.

We didn’t have to worry about getting a chaise as the pool was practically empty.  

Might I recommend this book about my favorite musician?  It was a great and heartbreaking read.

As luck would have it, the rain stopped in time for us to enjoy our aperitifs and dinner.  An extra gift was the most magnificent rainbow.  It made our evening special.

I just about had these every night for dinner. The shellfish and fish is so freaking fresh here!

Why can’t we have pastries like this back home?

How beautiful is this? Seriously!!

Hanging out on  the terrace was familiar and after a few hours, we headed down to a most excellent night’s sleep!

Part Two coming up!