Day 12 July 21, 2007

Antibes, France

We ate a good breakfast on the patio outside of our hotel then loaded up the Golf once again after carrying our bags down 3 flights of stairs! We drove into Cassis to buy a dress for Emma that she had seen the night before (a bit of consolation after not getting the purse in Arles). Then we headed to Hyeres to take the ferry to Ile de Porque Rolles for a few hours. We drove and drove, following the signes to Porque Rolles and finally found the ferry and a place to park! We bought our tickets and made it onto the 12:30pm boat – a 15 minute breezy ride to the island. Once we arrived in the port (a North African-style village), we bought a beach towel, some sunscreen, and some sandwiches and headed off on foot to Plage d’Argent (Silver Beach), a 10-minute walk. We found a spot up on a hill and set up our picnic blanket and ate lunch (and cooled off in the breeze!). Then, Emma and I changed into our bathing suits and went for a short swim in the Med while Matthew took pictures from above. We saw our first topless swimmer – a mom playing volleyball with her husband and teenage son! After our swim, Emma and I dried off and got dressed, then we packed up our stuff and walked back to the port. We made a pitstop for some gelato before getting onto the 3pm ferry back to Hyeres. From there, it was a relatively short drive to Antibes to find our hotel. We drove through Cannes and Antibes and followed the signs through Juan-les-Pins to Cap d’Antibes to the Hotel Castel Garoupe – quite a challenge to find! Once again, no stairs at the hotel, so we carried everything up 3 flights of stairs – ugh! Best we can figure, the hotel was once a monastery or abbey – there are religious relics everywhere. But, the hotel was very nice and very family friendly with a pool, tennis courts, bicycle rentals, etc. Our room was big and comfortable (with AC!) with a big bathroom (containing our first and only bidet). There was even a folding screen between our bed and Emma’s – yay for some privacy! The man at the reception desk gave us a great map of the beach towns, so we set off in search of the shopping in Cannes! By the time we arrived in Cannes (around 7pm), most of the shops on the rue d’Antibes were already closed for the night. But, the high-end shops on La Croisette were still open! We walked in the Christian Lacroix boutique – unbelievably beautiful! Matthew saw a pair of exquisite dress sandals in the window and showed them to Emma – big mistake! She tried them on and fell in love! Being the fantastic dad that he is, Matthew offered to supplement Emma’s remaining shopping budget to buy them for her – she was ecstatic!!!! Not wanting me to feel left out, he also bought me a beautiful top (thankfully, on sale!) and a tie for himself. We earned a huge detaxe refund in this place! After emptying our wallets in Christian Lacroix, we walked to rue Sainte Antoine, which is the main restaurant street in Cannes. We had a 9pm dinner reservation at Gavroche, thanks to our friend, Karim Bettich. The restaurant is situated above the main street level, so we had a fantastic view of all the beautiful people walking by. Our dinner was served by the very animated owner of the restaurant and was absolutely delicious! After dinner, we walked back to our car and drove along the coast to our hotel to sleep.