So today began with all us ladies sleeping in (well, until we had to check out at 10, that is) since last night poor Amanda (Tibby's older sis) didn't come in until around midnight. Then of course we all stayed up for a bit, chatting about her traveling adventures thus far and what we would all be doing for the next few days! Also, the 3 boys rooming with us still hadn't arrived from their night out, so we felt no guilt gabbing and laughing loudly! But eventually we grew tired and each fell into bed, exhausted but encouraged by the presence of a new, excited traveler!
As I said before, we all got to sleep in for a bit and when we finally did tumble out the door - the boys were still half-unconscious from the night before - we stored our luggage and headed out to explore a bit more of Nice before we had to pick up our rental car!
For breakfast, we stopped at a cafe literally right next door to the hotel where we ordered some delicious pastries and coffee/hot chocolates with OJ and just sat catching up for around an hour or so. Amanda already had impressed us with her effortless French - she is fluent and teaches it to highschoolers for a living! - and continued to do so throughout the day as we wandered along the streets of Nice. We walked by this cool Anglican church, some other very French cafes, some gorgeous apartments with wrought-iron balconies, and of course the beautiful beach! Although we didn't go in for a swim (Tibby and I were still aching from and avoiding the sun), the three of us dipped our toes in the cool water and tried unsuccessfully to skip some stones in the little wave-pools we created. Once our feet had dried off, we put our shoes back on and hiked over to grab some lunch before we had to pick up our car. We ate at another little cafe and ordered some salads - which actually also came with chunks of fresh bread, cups of water, and little bottles of oil/balsamic vinegar! It was perfect :)
Kyla on the left, Amanda in the middle, Tibby on the right.
When we finally got our car (which was quite a process...) we were very surprised to find how nice it was!! It felt as though it was super-new with great steering, included GPS system and warning signals for when the car gets too close to objects, push-button engine start, and even the trunk opens by pushing the '0' in the silver numbers on the back bumper!!! It's so techie and awesome!
But, it is a bit bigger than we had expected, for sure, and so it was definitely an adventure trying to navigate the narrow Nice streets (90% of which were all one-way!!!) in order to get our bags and get out of the city!!
After a few choice words and some flustered tempers, we finally made it and rejoiced in the fact that we were on our way to Provence!
And boy was the countryside beautiful. Green, lush hills enveloped the highways and in their nooks and crannies sat little French houses and tumbling vineyards that made the drive so peaceful and gorgeous.
Amanda driving!
Kyla and Tibby trying to figure out where we were on the map!
beautiful scenery!
It was pretty darn hilarious too...
When we weren't jamming out to the French rap or silly love songs being played on the radio, Tibby was waving at male strangers in vans who got it into their heads that we were interested in getting their number....so they gave it to us. Not even kidding.
Amanda said it gave a whole new meaning to 'speed dating'!!!
Hilarious!!
Anyways, once we did finally make it into the Provence area, we began to become just a bit more concerned about how to find our hotel. In our eagerness to get out of Nice and still being blown away by how awesome the car was, we forgot to actually figure out how to use the GPS correctly and were up to this point kind of flying by the seats of our pants. Needless to say, we had quite the time trying to wend and weave our way through the never-ending roundabouts and back roads in an attempt to find our frustratingly illusive hotel!! But find it we did....eventually...and we all immediately rejoiced in the comfort of a large, comfy room by crashing for about 2 hours.
When we all decided we were hungry, Amanda found a pretty nice restaurant in Aix-en-Provence that she wrote directions down for in case the GPS fooled us again.
Well, it did. We spent at least half an hour trying to get the darn thing to work and even Amanda's language skills couldn't overcome the confusing input systems. So again we decided to wing it and see where we ended up. After a few close calls, we finally came to the center of the town (thank heavens!) and as soon as Amanda found a parking spot, we pulled in, hopped out, and headed off to find sustenance!
Where we finally ended up eating was a really chill restaurant right next to this lovely lit-up fountain where we enjoyed three-course meals, a few glasses of wine (for them), and the vibrant atmosphere of Provence at night! We even had some tan-skinned, very fit dancer/acrobats come through who did some gymnastic tricks to music for our entertainment!
Good conversation was also involved and though we all were still really tired from the day, we loved just getting to sit with each other and soak in the fact that we were in France!
After dinner, we again made our blind way back to our hotel - literally by the skin of our teeth and mostly thanks to Tibby's great eye! - and we now are all preparing for some much-needed sleep in order to be ready for our adventures in the lavender fields tomorrow!
...hopefully we can just master that GPS...we've named her Francesca, so hopefully a good relationship will soon follow... ;D
We shall see!
So until tomorrow, a goodnight kiss from all us ladies!
No comments:
Post a Comment