Two days before Easter vacation started, my city had a holiday to celebrate when their citizens kicked out Napoleon's French army (Dia de la Reconquista)...of course, my friend Teresa and I were forced to go to the beach and enjoy a gorgeous, warm day...capping it with delicious seafood and cold beer at a beachside cafe: small fried sardinelike fish, mussels and croquetas of ham and Bechamel...we were so outstanding (ahem) that the waiter brought us each a free "digestive drink", aka aguardiente with herbs and aguardiente with coffee as the flavor! As near as I can understand, aguardiente is either pure grain alcohol or very unrefined brandy? Either way, it's delicious and you should only drink a little of it!
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| Day at Patos Beach on 3/28 |
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| Los aguardientes! |
That was March 28th and on March 31st, I went to the Vigo airport to fly to Madrid and then connect to Nice...many delays later, I arrived in Nice at midnight instead of 6 PM...but sweet Andreas was waiting to drive me the one hour+ to their home on the Cote D' Azur in Grimaud, across the bay from St. Tropez. I spent a marvelous week with this kind and generous family: Andreas is the Dad, an attorney with a private firm; Chiara is the Mom, an attorney with the European Community; Giulia is 19 and a student at Cambridge; Elena is 17 and will graduate this year from an IB program at a boarding school in England; Lorenzo is 14 and will finish 10th grade and Angela is 10 and will finish 5th grade. The 88 and 80 year old parents of Chiara, Humberto and Luisa, were also visiting there. Last but not least, their young nanny, another Giulia, was there also. As you can see, it was a full house and a privilege for me to be part of it and to enjoy such a wonderful family!
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| Chiara and her parents |
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| Many good times at this dining table! |
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| Elena, Giulia and Lorenzo |
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I had been to this area, in fact, the very house, in 1999, when they had first rented it...they just bought it one year ago and have already left their stamps of good taste upon it. It sits upon a small hill with a 180 degree view of the Mediterranean, specifically the Bay of St. Tropez. The house has 3 levels, a pool, 8 bedrooms and an equal number of bathrooms so we all had plenty of space. There's something about flinging open your shutters in the morning to see the Sea shining under the sun. The terrace is the center of activity across the back of the house...comfortable couches and a table for 14 made for lots of sitting in the sun and chatting or reading.
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| Elena, Angela and view from terrace of Mediterranean |
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| Front of home with another cottage over and behind garage |
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| View of back w/pool and terrace above |
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Speaking of chatting, you have a choice of several languages. Everyone except me spoke Italian...the 6 in the family speak fluent German (They live in Frankfurt!) and all except Angela speak very fluent English, ie the 3 older kids and their parents are truly trilingual and they all speak very good French as well! I felt so pathetic as a linguist!
After not attending church in Vigo, it was a special treat for me to go to Palm Sunday and Easter services with their family...even if they were all in French! The small medieval church and the old estate chapel where they were held were very inspiring. I even got to watch the kids hunt for Easter eggs on Easter morning before Andreas returned me to Nice to fly home to Vigo.
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| Going in to Easter Sunday chapel |
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| Giulia, Lorenzo, Angela and Elena after egg hunt and on terrace | |
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Each day, after Andreas and Chiara talked to whichever French workmen had shown up that day in the morning, we sat down for a delicious Italian lunch about 2 PM. Then, a nap, followed by a small excursion to a nearby town or a walk on a beach. On the one rainy day, Chiara, Andreas and I went to an IKEA about an hour away where they purchased more things for their home and I purchased smoked salmon for our stomachs!! Great fun on a bad weather day! A couple of mornings we even managed to get up "early" (8AM!) and proceed to the St Tropez market - a melange of food, clothes, junk and people! I was so relaxed upon my return that I was in a fog my first day at work!
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| St Tropez market |
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| French workmen know how to enjoy lunch while looking at the Sea! |
At last, it was time to fly back to Vigo with a l-o-n-g layover in Madrid but my great friends Cris and Nando even picked me up at the Vigo airport at 11 PM Sunday night because they knew there were no more buses and taxis are expensive and they're very nice!! Thank goodness there was no school Easter Monday so I could somewhat recover from vacation, ie adjust to being alone again in a house and mourn the end of a fantastic time.
