Bev and Lester's 2015 European Adventure: South of France

View from our bedroom at John and Dee's house in Theoule

Most people go to the South of France for the sun. We enjoyed the sun but even more so, the fact that it was cooler and less humid than all the places we had been in the preceding 2 months.

The plan for our arrival was to get a train from Arezzo to Milan, have lunch in Milan then train on to Cannes where our friends John and Dee (son in law Steve's Auntie and Uncle from London) would pick us up to then travel to their holiday house in Theoule sur Mer, across the bay from Cannes.

Napoule - we stayed on hill up behind

I'd had trouble getting there last year as the train from Cannes to Theoule had stopped running due to a rock fall, so it was with some disbelief that we got to Ventimiglia (in Italy, just before the border into France) and heard that the train would not be proceeding onto Nice and Cannes. It was a curious situation - no direct information from train personel but lots of police.....and more than a hundred African men just hanging around the station. It would seem that it was another illegal immigrant problem location and the train was stopped to prevent them getting further into Western Europe.
Poor John and Dee had never been to Italy but had to come and collect us, so it was pretty stressful on them. A bottle of bubbly was needed when we got to Theoule.

Coastline between Theoule and St Tropez

The four days spent with them were delightful and relaxing. Late breakfast, lots of superb eating and drinking in wonderful locations, a regular afternoon G&T, a Crib tournament (Saegenschnitters 5, Lorbergs 1), Scrabble (Lester 2, the rest of us 0), plenty of laughing, chatting, reading, some sight-seeing (beautiful coast line around to Port Grimaud near St Tropez and local areas), sunbathing by the pool and just admiring the stupendous view from their house. Aaah! Oh, and all the clothes are washed and ironed for the last 16 days.