And now, for a change in scenery, we'll take you to the Riviera....
Or the Azure Coast (Cote d'Azur) as the French call it. Such an apt name, the Mediterranean sea was. just. gloriously. blue.
Azure.
Calanque de Sormiou
Having said that, the most famous beaches in the Riviera - St Tropez, Cannes, Nice, Monaco - are actually poor excuses for a beach, if you ask me. Compared to the fine, soft, white sandy heavenly beaches back home, these are downright hell. They are rocky, pebbly and pokey. Why would anyone want to sit there for hours? Every move or turn is torturous. We just do not understand.
So this is where my planning, erhem, comes into the picture. We stayed in Cannes, where they import tonnes of that fine sand to cover their beaches, instead of Nice, where they may have a bigger infrastructure for tourists. I insisted we make a detour to the calanques near Marseilles on our way from Provence to the coast to enjoy some natural soft sand.
The calanques are tall white cliffs sporting slivers of white sandy beaches hemming the clear cool jewel-toned waters. Most are only accessible by boats. We went to the Calanque de Sormiou, one of few that are accessible by car, though it is restricted to those who have reservations at the handful of cafes and restaurants by the beach.
Upon entering the long windy stretch of road leading down to the beach, we gasped in awe at the majestic view spread out in front and below us. The sea was an endless stretch of blue, framed by the white rocky cliffs. Several yachts and boats were bobbing close to the shore.
Picture-perfect view from our restaurant. Lovers whispering in the corner table, the ubiquitous Panama hat at every table on man or woman alike, classy ladies in their summer frocks and over-sized sunglasses. Yup, it was as stereotyped as it can get, but oh how beautiful anyways.
That's what I had for lunch. It was good, not fantastic, but then it's all about the view here. They told us that they can't serve us tap water (carafe d'eau) because they don't have water pipes coming all the way from Marseilles. Something like that. We weren't really listening.
The beach
The kids' first beach experience.
A typical afternoon at the Cannes beach.
To beat the crowds and heat, we headed to the beach at 10am on a gray morning. This strip of the beach is the same one as above. See the difference?
We noticed that French women have no qualms at all about showing off their fat, wrinkles and sagging skin to the world. It was a bikini or nothing here. And we DID see several "nothing", usually grannies or aunties who seem to be saying to the world, I've done everything and I've seen everything, so what else is there to hide? In my fully-covered one-piece suit, I look like I was on my way to do my groceries but accidentally ended up on a beach instead.
You can make out some of the bikini aunties in the background.
Speaking of beaches, we managed to get a reservation at one of the beachfront restaurants in Cannes on one of the nights of the annual international fireworks competition. Coincidentally, it was the French's turn on that night. While it was a great experience dining on the sand, on a table lit by soft candles, facing the dark open seas and skies, and surrounded by the beautiful Belle Epoque buildings behind us, in hindsight, it would have been better (and cheaper) to have brought our own picnic and have it one of the public areas of the beach, as many did.
Lawn chairs set out for guests of the hotel that own this strip of the beach
The dining tables were set just behind the lawn chairs. Behind us, you can see people gathered along the road to watch the competition.
I thought it was rather good; in fact the best fireworks display I've seen. Of course it was also the first time I actually had front-row seats and watched an entire fireworks presentation with music choreography and a theme. This one was something to do with the natural elements (fire, snow, water, etc) and changing seasons. No idea who won, though. Must check that out.
Ju was clinging onto YL the entire 30 minutes.
We asked him afterwards if he liked the fireworks, and after thinking for a while, he replied, "I don't like the fire. I liked the works, though"
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