A week with Alix

We didn’t get much of a breather after our trip to Finland, since Mathilde’s niece Alix was coming to stay with us for a week, the day after our return. So, after a night of well deserved sleep, and a hasty morning of preparations, it was time to pick up Alix at the airport.

We awaited other visitors as well, since Delphine and Christophe (as well as the younger members of their family) were planning to stop over and stay the night, on their way to Corsica. Thankfully, we had time to enjoy the swimming pool a bit before welcoming our guests.

Since our flat isn’t really big enough to accommodate that many people, we decided to go for the easy option dinner-wise; pizza on the beach. So, the rest of the day was a rather lazy/pleasant one, with some more quality time spent by the swimming pool, followed by a rather pleasant picnic on the beach, with rose wine (only for the adults, naturally!) and pizza. And ice cream for desert. We really should dine like that more often ;-).


The rest of the week followed a rather pleasant routine. I would go to work early in the morning (well that bit isn’t maybe that pleasant), get back to the flat around noon for lunch with Alix and Mathilde, and then spend an hour or so by the swimming pool after work. It once again made me think about how lucky we are, living in this part of the world…

I was rather impressed with Alix, that girl really is growing up fast! She’s even taken up chess – not bad for a 9-year old. Thankfully I was still able to beat her, let’s see for how long… ;-). Apart from amusing ourselves playing various games in the evenings, we also watched the Fantastic Mr. Fox (Alix twice, I believe), a typically off-beat effort from the rather uniquely talented Wes Anderson.

I decided to take Wednesday off, to be able to spend some quality time with the two lovely ladies. After a visit to Sophia-Antipolis, where Mathilde works, we headed down to Antibes for the afternoon. After a pleasant walk in the beautiful old town (where we naturally had an ice cream – no choice in that heat, really…). We finished our Antibes visit with a couple of hours at the sand beach near the old port, a really nice spot (a tad busy though, damn tourists…!).

On Friday it was time for my two ladies to desert me (Mathilde was going to Angers for a week to visit her dad). Their voyage was not without trouble, as their flight was delayed by six (!) hours (way to go, EasyJet)! All in all, it was a very nice week for all three of us, I think. At least it was for me!