November 4-7
So our first few days in Grasse were spent exploring some of the coastal towns in the French Riviera. First stop was Nice. After lunch we hiked up to Castle Hill where there were amazing views all around Nice in all directions. The kids enjoyed the park at the top and the Nutella crepes at the café. We took the stairs down by the water and finished the day stilling down the promenade along the beach and watched the sunset.
Paulette and I with Nice in the background.
Matt and Justin at the top of Castle Hill.
Max taking in the view of Nice.
Unfortunately the timing of our departure from Nice was pretty much rush hour traffic. What took us 45 minutes to get there was over an hour on the way home that included one wrong exit from a round about. Matt and Paulette missed the train to Grasse by 5 minutes so they were even longer getting home. We were all pretty happy to get back to the house and put our feet up.
With the weather so amazing we thought we should have a beach day so we headed to Antibes in the morning and spent a few hours on a beach there. A perfect little bay with stone walls around, no worries about the kids wandering off. We noticed a ridiculously large yacht in the marina and so I googled the name of it, “Dilbar”, happens to be one of the largest yachts in the world. Owned by a Russian tycoon. We spent a few hours on the beach, Justin was a little nervous of standing out in the crowd since he didn’t have the tight speedo swim shorts that the Europeans seem to prefer. I’m sure with a little nudge he might have gone out and bought some but it was alright as he wasn’t the only one on the beach in board shorts.
Antibes marina with the enormous ‘Dilbar’ Yacht centre in the photo.
The kids playing on the Antibes beach.
We found this great Indian restaurant in the old town for lunch. I think the best Indian food I’ve ever had, not that I’ve had much Indian food in my life.
After a home day we figured on Saturday we should hit Cannes. Paulette and Gia joined us for another beach day. Justin dropped them off at the train in Grasse and he picked a beach for them to meet us at once they arrived in Cannes. We parked in the parkade near the beach and popped out onto the street to a noisy crowd near a building. It turned out to be the French Music Awards and celebrities both French and International were arriving for the show. Shelby and I walked over because I just had to see what was going on, who knows it could have been Adele or Taylor Swift or someone else we would have been thrilled to see. It ended up being some North American artist whom I don’t recall the name of. I’d like to say the song sounded familiar but that too I can’t remember. It was good though, and neat to see it up close. Shelby kept asking will there be famous people here? I kept saying “yes I’m sure, famous in France at least”. Well after we get home I google the awards show info and found out Adele and Justin Bieber are performing. After Adele’s single Hello was released it has become Shelby’s new favourite song, so she was excited to hear she was going to be there.
After checking out the awards show area we hung out at the beach on yet another beautiful day. We have totally lucked out with amazing weather. The kids actually swam in the ocean, I dipped my feet and was content with that. After a few hours on the beach we headed into town for a quick lunch. I was on the lookout thinking we might see some celebrity out and about but no such luck. Home we went for our last dinner with Matt, Paulette and Gia before they leave us tomorrow, they’re headed out on the train to Barcelona.
Shelby at the beach in Cannes.
