Five (or so) Sullivans: We Didn't See London, But We Saw FRANCE...

...and it was amazing!! (But I am keeping quiet as to whether I may- or may not- have seen someone's underpants.) Here's the scoop from our petit voyage to the beautiful Cote d'Azur:

The View From Our French Riviera Hotel Room

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This was my Xmas present from Skip last year- a trip to France during the Cannes Film Festival. After all the hemming-and-hawing was done with, I finally decided I just might survive the week away from the boys. So I agreed to go have some alone/grown-up time with my husband. (I really almost turned it down, if you can believe that!) Sounds crazy, but I was completely freaking out about leaving the kids for so long... Plus I'm still a nursing mom and that added a whole new aspect to the trip! It ended up being fine, but I was less than thrilled at having to pump every 3 hours or so... And it took a good 1/2 hour each time I pumped since my double-electric pump doesn't have battery backup and isn't approved for use with European voltage. So I was stuck with the single, manual pump- argh. Next time we go I'll be sure I'm not nursing anymore because that part of the trip was a real drag!

My mom & dad stayed at our house with the kids for the week, which was just so incredible for them to do for us... The kids loved it, too! (It took a day or two after we got home for them to stop calling me "Grandma!")

The flights over to France went well- thankfully we weren't on any flights with Mr. TB!! (He flew Air France that week and we were on Swiss Air. Phew!) I had dressed my most presentably, in hopes of getting bumped up to any available First-Class seats... (I really wanted one of those sleep pods!!) However, I was unable to convince Skip to ditch his comfy shorts, so I blame him for us having to settle into coach seats for the duration! I know. Poor me, right?

One of our favorite trip memories happened before we even left the U.S. We met a new friend at Kennedy Airport between connecting flights... He is 23 years old and was on his way to Bangladesh with the Peace Corps. (He was hanging out in the bar next to us as we took advantage of upgrading our drinks to doubles for only $2 extra. What a bargain!!) We had a great time chatting with him. Hopefully he has a fantastic time over there for the next two years. It was very cool to see a young person doing something so selfless. Very humbling!

Anyway, we quickly got over the fact that, unlike our new bud, we were on a trip that was all about ourselves and we continued on over the ocean. We stayed at a place right on the beach in Juan-les-Pins called Le Meridien. We had a beautiful room- the bed faced the balcony so the first thing we saw in the morning was the beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea. Words just can't describe how cool it was to fall asleep with the balcony door open so we could hear the waves rolling onto the beach below.

We have a million fantastic memories like that from this trip- too many for me to mention and if I go any further then I'll try to describe it all and this will turn into a novel. So, let me throw out a couple more of our favorite memories and then I'll just give you some photos. I might even try to toss a video on there, too, but don't wait for it. I am still figuring the ins and outs of the new video camera- it's a slow process with all three boys in my hair all the time!

First Night in Juan-les-Pins: We ate at a restaurant called Le Ruban Bleu. It was awesome!! Our table was sur la plage (right on the beach) so we had our bare toes dug into the soft sand as we drank some delicious French white and gazed at the ocean. We could see lights sparkling in the distant mountains... And don't even ask about the warm chocolate cake! It was a perfect night.
Driving to Monaco: We took our rented convertible for a spin- headed nowhere in particular. We ended up driving north through Nice and continued on up to Monaco. It was the most beautiful drive! We stopped in Monaco and checked out the Monte Carlo Casino (you may recognize it as Casino Royale...) and we had dinner at a sidewalk cafe there. I had the most delicious French onion soup! I was so excited about it I could be heard exclaiming to Skip in pure tourist-style, "Skip! I'm eating French onion soup.... in France!! Take my picture!!" Which he obligingly did. (see photos below) It was so cool. The people of Monaco were busy preparing for the Grand Prix that was the following week and it was pretty neat to see (and drive) the course for that race. We can't imagine how those drivers do it- the streets are so curvy and narrow!
Dinner at some other sidewalk cafe on some street in Juan-les-Pins... We don't remember much about the name or exact location... Perhaps because our barely-English-speaking waiter treated us to limoncello shots after dessert?... He was very cool and the dinner was really fun. We, naturally, had had several glasses of wine before we even got to the shots, so it was a fuzzy walk back to our hotel...
Just walking along the beach on our last night... collecting rocks from the Mediterranean in the dark... Watching the fish swimming right up to our feet!

We did have a great time in Cannes itself, but most of our favorite moments happened during the spontaneous side trips and meals. The vacation was just beautiful... I could have stayed there with Skip forever if the kids weren't back in Maine!! Hopefully we'll get back there again someday with the kids, too.

Oh, and yes, to answer some of you who have asked: there were topless women on the beach there, but I wasn't one of them! Thankfully, I got that out of my system before having kids... So, anyway, that's that. (Be glad I only posted the short version!)

Enjoy the photos...

xoxo k.

*********************************************Some women walking on the street at Cannes...