Monthly Archives: June 2013

Day 5 French Riviera: Winery Tours in Provence

We are in France and the one thing that we want to do is drink as much wine as we can stomach, not to excess but you know what I mean, because in Thailand wine is taxed at a very high rate. With that being said for a $6 USD bottle in the States you can pay $20 USD or more for the same bottle in Bangkok and to be honest I can’t bring myself to pay that much for crappy wine (although I had a friend tell me about a wine delivery service in Bangkok with great prices so maybe I will give that a try). Our trip to France didn’t really include “wine country” but so it turns out all of France is wine country! I did some research and I found stellar reviews on Azur Wine Tours.

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Day 4 French Riviera: Road Trip to Monaco & Monte Carlo

On our last day of the rental car (thank the Lord because my heart couldn’t take much more driving in France) we headed the opposite direction of Antibes and drove to Monaco along the coast road. Again it was beautiful and the little towns along the coast are so charming but sometimes traffic on the little coast road can be a bear. We get stuck in some standstill traffic for about 30 minutes and start to get a little nervous because we are sort of on a schedule. Our main purpose in going to Monaco is to go to Monte Carlo and see the beautiful casino, the one in the James Bond movies, and they are only open to tours in the morning and then open up for gambling starting at 2pm.

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Day 3 French Riviera: Road Trip to Antibes

Our third day in the French Riviera didn’t go as well as all of our other days traveling. Killian is currently cutting his four K9 teeth and good gravy is he in a bad mood. He won’t sleep because he hurts and I am sure he is sick of the pack and play and just wants to me home. We didn’t sleep the night before and we thought for Killian’s sake we would take it easy and just hangout during the morning around Nice and the beach and we were hoping he would take a nice long afternoon nap but that didn’t happen. During our walk along the beach in Nice we stumbled into old Nice where there is an amazing outdoor market with everything you can think of fish, fruit, meats, olives, spices, paintings, breads, flowers and cheese. Chris enjoyed himself and brought home a few tasty items. Killian passed out in the stroller so we thought we would take him home to nap but that didn’t last long. Ok so let’s go to the gardens at the Masse Museum, which is located right next to our apartment, to try and make my boy happy.

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Where’s your American? By: Chris

To my surprise, this happened twice in Paris. Someone came up to us, then in full speed French, asked me for directions. So this brings me to my point. When we travel, we are always so afraid to look like tourists. As if they don’t belong or like everyone is not a tourist at some point. So what made me so camouflaged? I’d like to thank my tailor, for shirts that actually fit. Unlike in America, people in other parts of the world like to wear garments which aren’t part tent. Thank you Louis for the jacket, which seems to be the common style in Paris or really thanks to whoever left it at your house. Finally, thank you Marie Therese, because of you I knew they were asking for directions and can somewhat navigate France with confidence. In truth, I’m most commonly taken for an Australian, both in Thailand and again this morning in Nice, France. We just tell them we are southern, so that’s why we are nice. Btw: it’s always the Aussies who help us carry the stroller up the stairs in Bangkok.

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Day 2 French Riviera: Road Trip

Nothing amazing happened on day 1 of our French Riviera tour. We arrived via train with our many bags and hauled them up and downs many stairs, waited a good while for a taxi and paid him 20 euros to go a couple of blocks (highway robbery!!!) and finally arrived at our apartment that we have rented for the week. We found chicken, green beans and potatoes and Chris couldn’t resist that southern looking dinner. After dinner we walked a block to the beach, it’s covered in pebbles and stones that are as smooth as a babies bottom and the water in the Med is freezing but so clear you can see everything around you.

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Vacation vs Expedition

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“Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.”
― Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth

I have decided that I will never again refer to this or any other trip we take as a vacation.

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Paris Day 6: Chocolate Museum and Montmartre

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During the evening of day 5 in Paris, we met up with some dear friends of ours from Greenville, who happened to be in Paris for business. We took them to a cafe by our apartment and the food was amazing, so good in fact we didn’t stop to take a picture to show you instead we just shoveled it down! We had talked about our trips thus far and what each of us had already visited and they mentioned the chocolate museum! What?! Have I died and gone to heaven? It makes sense that there would be one in such a place as Paris but at the same time Chris and I have been saying to each other that all we want to do is find the chocolatier and have an awesome handcrafted piece of chocolate.

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Paris Day 4: Jardin des Plantes, Seine River Cruise and Mass

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This morning we wanted to give Killian some much needed freedom from the stroller and after getting our morning bread and pastries we headed to Jardin des Plantes. We unleashed our wild toddler and he had a ball running up and down the hill, watching all of the runners do their laps around us and playing in the dirt. After about 30 minutes we were able to get him to follow us and we walked into the park a little ways and we were pleased to finally see a playground. We have been spoiled with Bangkok because there are parks and kid stuff to do everywhere! Paris probably has those things too but none that we have come across yet. As we were playing on the playground I look across the way and see a kangaroo. I blink a couple of times and make sure my eyes aren’t just blurry (I figure it must be a dog) and look again and sure enough there was a group of about 10 kangaroos just hanging out and enjoying the morning sun. We are a little confused as to why they are in the park but then we see a sign for a menagerie and it starts to make a little more sense.

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