Antibes, France - Bastille Day

Antibes, France

Today is again hot and humid so the beach definitely was calling. We went down to find the swell at the beach to be quite fierce. Christian got in no worries as did the other boys but I knew I would be sucked in and never able to get out of the pebbley beach so I opted for the beach shower instead. As today is Bastille day, a public holiday in France, we plan to join in the festivities this evening. We found out that there will be street parties and fire works so we are going to get ready and head into Antibes old town.

Monte Carlo

We decided that today we would head into Monte Carlo to check out the Marina and casino. It was 30*C and the boys were in shirts, jeans and enclosed shoes! Boy am I glad that dress codes for girls don’t really apply! So after waiting in the sweltering heat for a train getting into an air conditioned carriage was bliss! When we got there we headed straight for the casino for more air conditioning! The boys checked out the cars in the main round about while Amy and I were more interested in checking out the Gucci and Cartier stores. We head into the casino but no one really has much luck so we decide to cut our losses and head down to the Marina for a drink. We find a cool bar called Monaco Brasserie and the boys stop off to get cigars. After spending €30 on a round of drinks we again call it quits and head home for a bbq dinner of hamburgers! On the way home we had to buy some bread rolls and the boys find 1 litre beer cans of 10% alcohol. We get home and have dinner and then the boys pull out their armor in order to be able to drink their beers (yes I also think that this makes total sense... Not) and smoke cigars. After a long night of drinking Chris and Amy out stayed everyone by getting to bed just in time for the sun to rise!

Antibes, France

Today Ads, Chris and I went to the beach where Christian came to the conclusion that French woman are hotter than Spanish woman. In the evening after a session of rock throwing the 3 of us headed to the campsite bar for some bucking entertainment. Tonight they had hired a bucking bull for entertainment. After checking that out for a while we headed across the road to Antibes Land. It is a fun park similar to Luna Park. Chris and Ads found a stall that you could win BB guns so they were determined to win one but instead came out with a karma sutra fluffy dice... Good try boys! After walking around for a while we eventually headed back home around 12.30am.

Antibes, France

After another 4 hour drive we arrived in Antibes on the French Riviera! We had a failed attempt of visiting the town Arles where Van Gough was born and did a lot of his work. We drove in and it was packed. There was street markets on and the road was hardly big enough to fit Sarsha! We tried to find a park but gave up after a short while and decided to cut our losses and get to Antibes.
We had 2 campsites in mind but the first one that we went to told us straight up that they were full. It got us a little worried as the campsites don’t take reservations for campervans. But we found the other campsite Camping Pylone and they took us in so that we could get settled for 10 days of not having to move! How nice!
So the boys set up whilst Amy, Chris and I went to do some shopping and then we got dinner organised and had a quiet night.


KEBAB CHIPS!!!!

THE EPIC BATTLE!

Carcassonne, France

Today we are back on the road so that we could start heading to the Cote De Azur (French Riviera) so we say goodbye to the Di Francesco family and stop off at the world heritage site of the old city in Carcassone. It is really something out of a fairy tale! So we stayed for a few hours and checked it out and the boys wanted to get involved with the whole theme of knights and princesses so for about 45 min Amy and I were sitting outside shops waiting for the boys to pick out their knight outfits designed for 3 year olds! When they eventually all got outfits they all wanted to go one step further and have a battle at the entrance of the gates! This was highly entertaining for Amy and I and also the other 30 or so tourists that happened to be walking by! By the times the boys had had their fun we were back on the road to Castries to find a campsite. After numerous attempts we finally found it and camped for the night.

David and Amanda's Place

Road Trip Day 31 - David and Amanda's Place - Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France

After a nice sleep in and not being woken up by sweltering heat everyone didn’t stir until late, late morning. We played with the kids all day and we definitely tired them out. The boys were in their element as they got to watch the Ashes. Ads thought it was so great in fact that he fell asleep on the couch while watching it. By late afternoon we were all by the pool and the boys jumped in and were throwing the footy around. The girls thought it was too cold. Everyone except Bella. She was right in there with the boys. The kids have been learning to swim so they were showing us their skills until they got too cold and jumped out. Dan was so cold in fact that he came to dry off but then wanted to ride on his bike so he put on his sandals and helmet and took off his swimmers so that he wasn’t cold anymore and was riding around with a bare bum! After us all be highly entertained by the kids Dave took us for a walk around to show is the sunflower fields and the amazing sunset. We again had a fantastic dinner with great company and lovely food and wine. Ohh and a great sleep!

We asked David and Amanda if they minded us staying one more night and in turn we would look after the kids so that they could go out for dinner alone. They jumped at the chance! So Dave drove Chris, Ads and I around the main town of Beaumont de Lomgne to show us around and they for a quick stop at their favourite cafe for a French version of the macchiato. We then went to the local bakery and supermarket to get supplies for lunch and dinner. They boys went back to watching the Ashes and playing with Bella and Dan. Amanda got the kids ready for dinner and they went out so we just has to bath the kids and put then to bed which wasn’t too hard of a task. We all crashed much earlier that night. I think the kids tired us out!

Road Trip Day 30 - David and Amanda's Place - Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France

Today we had a big drive of about 300km. We had to get to David and Amanda’s holiday house which is just outside of Toulouse, France. So we had to farewell the much loved sangria and paella for baguettes and wine (life can be tough at times). So we said our final farewell to Spain and drove into France with no issues again and got to David and Amanda’s place in the country side around 5pm. Their place is situated in the middle of the country side in France. It is just spectacular! From their place all you see is fields as far as the eye can see. There are sun flower farms and crops of wheat, corn and even geese breeders. It was so nice to not hear cars or have smog around. It was also lovely to see them. Dan and Bella (aged 4) were so happy that they had visitors to play with for a few days. We had a lovely bbq dinner that Dave cooked and during dinner we exchanged travel stories. By 12am we were exhausted and had the best sleep ever seeings that we were all lucky enough to sleep in a proper bed! It was total bliss!

Night Out in Barcelona ( Jo Blogging)

Once back in Barcelona we headed down “Las Ramblas” to meet Jake and Amy for dinner. We were heading to a restaurant that Lucas has raved about for the past 12 months since he was last in Barcelona. The restaurant was called “Les quinzenits”. Lucas said we had to get the patas bravas (fried potatoes). The food was fantastic! Amy and I once again enjoyed our paella while Ads has lamb and Chris had the breaded John Dory. Jake loved the taste of his meatballs in squid ink but only problem was there was only 4 meatballs in the dish! So after dinner we had planned with Megan (whose is currently on Contiki) to bring Hayley along so that I could surprise her. Didn’t exactly work out that way as their bus didn’t come into Barcelona until really late and then Hayley couldn’t be bothered going out so Megan and Courtney had to tell Hayley that they were coming to meet us. So by about 11pm we find them and head to the local Irish pub that Christian became well acquainted with whilst staying at a hostel in Barcelona. So we had great company for a few hours and I got to catch up with Hayles which was great. By 3am we got kicked out of the pub and had to say our goodbyes. We then went on a trek to find where to catch our bus from to get back to the campsite. I think we eventually got home and all passed out around 4am.

Day 29 - Santa Maria de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain

Our last full day in Barcelona and Ads wanted to go and check out Santa Maria de Montserrat. A Basilica that is 1385m above the road and high up in the mountains. So we waited until the afternoon as we were going into Barcelona for dinner. So Ads, Chris and I headed in as Jake and Amy wanted to have a lazy day after all their sight seeing. Little did we realise that this place was an hour outside Barcelona and the trains only came every hour! So by the time we got to there and got on the cable car that took us up the mountain we only had a really short time to look around before having to come back down and meet Amy and Jake in Barcelona for dinner. The Basilica was so impressive. Perched up on the top of the mountain it was definitely something of beauty! Some of the artwork reminded me of a Greek Orthodox church really bright with gold halos and made up of mosaic tiles. When we got there it seemed as though they were saying the rosary in Latin. In a passage at the front of the church was the sacred “Image of the Virgin” statue. Im not exactly sure of the significance but again it is something we need to google some day. So after a quick hour of sight seeing we jumped back on the cable car to get the train back to Barcelona.