Cap Esterel, Côte d’Azur, France

An Adventure on the French Riviera

The last few days have been very busy. We cleaned our house in Marminiac, France, from top to bottom, the showers, the fireplaces, defrosted the freezer, cleaned out the oven (JB did that – what a guy!). We packed up everything – a few boxes were taken over to Jordy to live under the house until we return in the Fall. And we took one last picture of the view before we left.

From the title of this blog entry, you may think we are going to Cannes (which we are) or St. Tropez (which we are not), and also that we are going to the beach (which we are) and also that we will wear skanty beach wear (which we did not).  Actually, the French Riviera refers to a very large area in the south of France along the coast that includes basic vacation areas and also the exotic beaches.

So if you try to stop by “The French Riviera”, make sure you know where you are going, because it is not Cap Esterel.  But if you have kids and want a nice time-share type place to visit where the kids can have fun and you can pack a lot of people in a unit, Pierre-Vacances Cap Esterel is the place.  In any case, that is where we are headed.  We picked it fromt the Interval International website.

Yesterday morning, we got on the road. We had planned to leave by 9am, but eventually drove out at 10:45. Note to self:  Where did ALL this stuff come from? We drove from Marminiac all the way to Cap Esterel, about 400 miles (as they say, 650 km). We will be staying in a 1-bedroom timeshare for 3 days before continuing to Italy.

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When we do these long trips to new places, it is always fun to see the highway signs the first time for your destination. In this case, we got this shot of the sign saying Cannes and St. Tropez.  Louie and Rose already have their skimpy swimming suits on.

 

For cruising the highways, the dogs have their own spots in the backseat.  We got a fantastic “hammock” that covers the back seats hangs from the front seats, forming a protected area.  We have purchased new collapsible dogs crates that are folded up and stuffed underneath, along with various other bedding, and 2 of our suitcases are in the footwells.  This puts them about 6 inches higher, and they have quite the view as we drive along. When they are awake, that is.

It rained constantly for the first part of the trip, which is such fun when you’re trying to pack everything you own into a small car.  And in addition, the dogs get very nervous whenever we pull out the suitcases.  “Are you leaving us behind or do we get to come too?” 

Finally, when we got down to the very southeast of France, the sunshine and blue skies broke through. Yippee!

There are lots of windmills along the side of the highway (autoroute) in the south of France, rows of vineyards and from time to time a stone building of unknown use.  The cliffs here and there are like Arizona.

And now it is Wednesday morning. We have a ‘garden view’ – which means you can’t see the ocean from the room. But that doesn’t matter, because the weather is beautiful and we’re having fun.

We have this lower unit – the front door is through the arch on the right and that’s our little patio on the left, where I’m sitting as I type this right now.

We walked over to the little shopping area (like most timeshares, this place is self-contained) this morning and had coffee and pastries outside. Yum! Lots of lawns to walk on for the pups. And great views.

This is our room. Here is the sitting room – has a kitchenette, with TV and a pull out sofa, plus another pull out bed.

It seemed very cramped last night when we arrived, but it is ok now. There is also a patio.

This is the view from our patio. Looking out toward the ocean – this was tough because I was trying to shoot into the sun. Later today, we may walk down to the beach. Or we may take a nap.

Love to all. Stay tuned for more coming soon.

Carol and JB, Louie and Rosie

Louie and Rosie had heard all about the beaches of the French Riviera and they couldn’t wait to hit the sand! There is a walkway down from our place and even though we are up on a cliff, it’s a pretty short walk – depending on how long your legs are, of course. This is a SMALL beach, not the great expanses you see in the travel pictures. But we were excited nonetheless.

 

This was the most interest our dogs have EVER shown in any body of salt water – perhaps because there were no loud, scary waves like there are in California and it was so calm. We plan to go back tomorrow with a tennis ball and explore further. Some of us were not nearly so interested in walking back UP the cliff as we had been earlier when we had been walking DOWNHILL. Some of us walked REALLY SLOWLY going home.

 

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The cliffs around here are very pretty and are largely covered with houses.

 

 

 

 

 

You can see how this place is a typical ‘beach resort’ and will be really hopping in the summer season. Right now, it is still very quiet. It has a similar feel to Laguna Beach or Newport Beach or La Jolla.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are flowers planted everywhere now. These were in beds in front of the post office here in Agay. And here are a couple other shots of the rugged coastline. It’s not all beaches.

 

Love to all, Carol and JB – and the woofers

 

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Post date October 26, 2013 By JB Leep (Google Profile)

Cap Esterel, France, Côte d’Azur, French Riviera, France, JB Leep and Carol Martin, Original April 10, 2013,