Aaaaahhh France…

Docking at 0700 and back on dry land at 8,  we were met by our delightful Rome Cabs driver, Daniela who would transport us to Rome-Fiumicino Airport in just over an hour for our after lunch flight to Nice.

We paid for Alitalia lounge access and both still feeling a bit under the weather,  managed a  reasonable snooze in the surprisingly good lounge before our flight began boarding just before 1 pm. A short and scenic flight had us touching down in busy Nice airport at 2.30 and quickly in a taxi to drop off our luggage at the hotel until our apartment was ready.

Antibes, (where we stay a week later) on approach to Nice airport

We rendezvoused with Rosey who had arrived in Nice the day before and eventually navigated our way to the train station just in time to greet Ben who arrived on the TGV from Paris.

Depositing our luggage and Russell into the apartment Rosey, Ben and I strolled the streets of Nice until dinner.

The following morning Russell and I picked up our rental car whilst Rosey and Ben caught a cab to the airport to pick up Ben’s lease car. France is I think the only country to offer the option of leasing a car as an alternative to renting one and is a great option if you’re renting for more than 21 days which Ben was.

(In France, the purchase tax on a slightly used car is much less than on a new vehicle. By leasing new vehicles to tourists at cheap rates, French car companies create a supply of almost-new, reduced-VAT cars that can be sold to European citizens and rental firms at highly competitive prices.)

We were also really excited to be meeting Inês, her baby Leonor and partner Miguel after their flight from Portugal. Inês had stayed with us in Australia whilst doing vintage at Chapel Hill in 2017 and her family were joining us for the next week in our rental in Cotignac.

Against all odds we found each other and after a happy reunion with Inês, introductions to her family and with the ultimate destination plugged in to respective GPS’s, we headed off to Cotignac, about 90 minutes drive away.

The first glimpse of the village didn’t disappoint and we met the local manager of the property and followed her up a somewhat challenging dirt track a little outside of the village to our home for the next week.

It was beautifully situated in an isolated spot with not another house in sight and had a gorgeous infinity pool which would turn out to be a better ‘relaxing by’ than ‘swimming in’ spot given the cool weather we had for the following week although a couple of hardy souls did have one quick dip 😉

The next day Rosey and I drove to Marseille to collect Zoe, recovering from her Sail Croatia adventure, we had a quick lunch in the nearby and very windy, coastal village of Martigues and our house party was complete.

In the following week we visited the stunning Gorges du Verdon, the local Cotignac market, picturesque Moustiers-Ste Marie and generally explored this beautiful and verdant countryside.


We drove north to the village of Les Mées, known for its unique “puddingstone” stacks said to resemble monks in their robes and known as Les Pénitents following stories involving monks and indecent doings with young ladies (who would have thought?)

We started off on what we thought was a short walk to a lookout which turned out to be a 5km plus hike straight up and then pretty much straight down… with our variously unsuitable footwear, a baby in a sling, no water and questionable fitness ( of some members of the group anyway) we were lucky not to have needed rescuing but enjoyed some great views 🤣

The next day with good weather forecast again we headed south to the coast and lively St. Tropez. Fortuitously, St Tropez was celebrating Les  Bravades…

Les Bravades is a very long-standing traditional festival which happens annually in May to celebrate the Patron Saint of Saint Tropez.

It also celebrates the formation of the army created in the mid 16th century. Expect traditional music, dancing, food and drinking plus stalls and parades in the street. Saint Tropez is dressed in white and red, the colours of the Pirate City, to applaud its military parades. They remind everyone that the inhabitants of the city were always ready to take up the arms to defend themselves against Barbarians and those who threatened the peace and prosperity of their city. Every year, fifes and drums precede the sailors and other Musketeers in a peaceful parade.

We had great fun watching the parades, blocking our ears from the very authentic blunderbuss explosions, shopping and exploring the lovely port area.


And just like that it was our last day….Ben had already left on his long drive west, the weather was grim but we decided to visit a couple of villages a short drive away and ended up having a nice lunch in Tourtour.

Tomorrow Inês and her family would fly home to Portugal and the rest of us ( and luggage!) would attempt to cram into the Toyota for the drive to Antibes 😊

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