Flore & Christian visiting

Flore and Christian (as well as their little boy, Lilian) have been kind enough to organise more than one skiing trip to Megeve, in the Alps, over the years – so we were very happy to be able to return the favour and welcome them in our home, for a change. They have relocated from Paris to the Alps recently – a change they both appreciate a great deal I think (especially Christian, who’s a born and bred Savoyard and true ski fanatic). It was great to see little Lilian as well, who was a lot more energetic and talkative than the last time we saw him (seems to have inherited his dad’s musical talent – a born drummer, he is).

After a rather busy Saturday morning of shopping and tidying up, we were ready to receive our guests by the time they arrived just after midday. We started off with a nice kitsch for lunch – along with some Rose wine, of course. After our relaxed lunch, we decided to head down to the beach for a swim and to catch a few rays. Much to my shame, I have to admit it was my first swim in the Med at Cagnes-sur-Mer – and we’ve lived here for over a year now! That’s what having a swimming pool does to you – it makes you lazy! It was great, actually, a swimming pool just isn’t quite the same as the sea… After the mandatory post-beach ice cream, we headed to a Belgian shop Mathilde had advised me about, which specialises in all great things Belgian – beer, chocolate and comics. One rather large beer bottle richer and ten euros poorer, we headed back home.

In the evening we headed off to explore Haut-de-Cagnes, parking Christian’s car in the ultra-modern car park just beneath the old town. Having wandered around for a bit, we got down to the serious business of finding a place to eat. Haut-de-Cagnes is certainly not short on good options – but we wanted to try a place we hadn’t gone to before. We ended up at a place on the main square – which is quite handy when kids are involved (lots of space to run around…). I decided on the exotic option and went for some Vietnamese noodles with king prawns – not bad at all. For the desert I went all classic and picked the strawberry Melba ice cream - a safe and tasty choice. After a tisane back home we all felt ready for bed.






Having weighed various options for what to do on Sunday, we decided upon going to San Remo. Flore and Christian were driving back via Italy, so it was kind of on the way home for them – and I never say no to an opportunity to make a fool of myself with my dodgy Italian. After showing the main sights of San Remo (the faded glory day mansions of the seaside, the casino, the ruggedly attractive old town), it was time for – yes you guessed it – lunch. We found a nice enough place wiith friendly waiters (Lilian seemed to get along with them very well), and ate well as well. I had hoped for a proper Italian Sunday lunch (with Antipasti, followed by Primo Piatto, Secondo Piatto and a desert of course), but alas I had to be content with a pasta followed by a main course, and a doppio espresso to finish off the meal. Still, can’t complain ;-).

After the lunch we headed down to the beach, but unfortunately it started raining the moment we arrived. By the time we had left the beach and gotten the umbrellas out, the rain had stopped of course ;-). Instead of going back to the beach, we decided to go straight for the post-beach ice cream (a bit of a disappointment actually, considering we were in Italy).

And then it was time to call it a day – Flore and Christian had a long way to go back home – so we said our goodbyes and headed back for France…

More photos here.