To set the scene: I wake up and head outo nto the cobblestone roads ready for a new day. I sing to my self "little town, little quiet village. Every day like the one before. Little town, little peaceful village. Where everyone will say..." Then out of the old fashioned shutters that line the Smartcar-wide street, I hear " bon jour...bon jour...bon jour, bon jour, bon jour!"
Well maybe that didn,t exactly happen. And, yes, maybe that is the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast. But that is still pretty much how it is here in Antibes.
In my opinion, Antibes is the perfect little french town. It's sandwiched between Nice and Cannes (about half hours drive from either) but a fair amount smaller than either. The Old Town is straight out of a Disney Movie and the beaches are small but nice (though I hear they can be really crowded in the Summer).
Antibes' main claim to fame is it's port, which is home to pretty much every yacht that sails the Riviera. And therefore, the quaint French village is filled with Aussies, Kiwis and the English. It's funny (especially after spending the past year in Sydney) to see how the cultures interact, or rather avoid each other.
But anyway, enough about Antibes and back to me. I will try and fit it all in without dragging it out toooo much. I'm here visiting my friend Sarah, we lived together for a bit in Sydney, and our other roomate Gareth came for the weekend from Dublin. It has been truly one of the best vacations I've had. We've been hanging out on the boat Sarah works on, enjoying the amazing weather, took a day trip to Monaco ( cool to say I was there but highly overrated), went to see Mika in concert in Nice, crossed over to Italy to Ventimiglia, and today we are off to Cannes ( after we watch Zoolander, of course). It is crazy that a year ago, we were all living in a sharehouse cramped with ten other backpackers, and now we are all here in the Cote D'Azur and it feels as though we never left eachother. That is what I love about travelling you meet so many great people from all over the world, and then you get the chance to see them in their home, experience their culture, and get a chance to understand them a bit better. The fact that my friends happen to live in places like the French Riviera is purely coincidental...no seriously;
If you know, me, you know my opinion of the French has not always been great. But in truth, last night I went over to one of Sarah's friends house who had a casual dinner party for about eight of us ( me the only foreiger). I didn't really understand all of what was said, but with the help of sarah and the french i had picked up in the past week, i was able to laugh along with the jokes and enjoy a night of good food, good wine, bad TV (Popstars finale) and my favorite, CRANIUM (which my team won despite the fact the questions had to be translated and i didn't know most of the references to stars, songs, and shows).
So my vacation is still at the vacation part, but I head off to Thailand Monday for the ADVENTURE. Nonetheess the past month has been great. I realize how lucky I am to have my friends, old and new. I've also realized that that besides my lovely mother and sister, I have people families all over to support me: the Kimbros, Katy and Kathy Heaney, of course the Peschieras, and my new family the lovely Padleys of Antibes. So thanks everyone, and I PROMISE the blogs will be more interesting and more frequent as the vacation ends and the adventure begins!
