Okay, we'll try this again... I lost 2 full blog posts last night while trying to publish them and got so frustrated that I decided that I was done with it, that everyone would just have to just wait until we got home to hear about the trip... but I didn't want to disappoint everyone so I'll give it another shot...
We are just finishing our 2nd full day at Club Med Opio In Provence. Our drive here was amazing. Again, Bryan wanted to take the mountain passes so that we could spend as much time in the mountains as possible. They were endless. It has amazed us that Eastern France is nothing but mountains... all the way down to the sea. So far, all of our driving has been easy. We've gotten turned around a few times, mainly in small towns, but it has never taken us long to find our way back in the right direction. The most difficult task has been dodging the astounding number of bicyclists and keeping up our speed along narrow, winding roads. Oh, and the passing! The drivers pass you all the time, always barely avoiding a head on collision with an oncoming car. We've even done it a couple of times. And of course motorcycles weave around you all the time. Bryan is a very skilled driver, and good with directions. If you come to Europe and are planning to rent a car (which you should) you should definitely hire Bryan as your driver. Or just take the train and spend more money. I had budgeted into our expenses about $400 for gas. So far, we've driven from Geneva to Opio and done a little excursion to 3 towns today and have used not even 1 tank of gas. Extraordinary, especially considering all the inclines. When we fill up again on Tuesday before heading on our longest drive to Club Med Vittel in the Northeast, we'll do the math for the gas mileage. I bet it's 50mpg. Why can't America do that?? Also, why don't we have roundabouts instead of stoplights?? It keeps the traffic moving so much better. It's like we just decided to do things differently because of pride, or a grudge or something, same thing as the metric system... don't get me started.
So yesterday, we spent day 1 here hanging around the club, getting familiar with it, lounging by the pool and relaxing. Club Med maintains one of the largest olive groves in the region, with 647 trees, some are 400 years old, and the grove produces 2000 liters of oil per season.
We've got a lot of pics up on fb, not nearly as many as we've taken, but certainly enough to make you sick of mountains and winding roads... but get ready... today we visited the towns of Gourdon, Tourettes-Sur-Loup and St. Paul De Vence. (Janis, dad and Pam - they all looked silmilar to Eze, which is why I chose them :)) I would like to say that I have had my fill of crumbly, stone, medieval villages, but I HAVE NOT! We shared a pan bagnat (don't even know how to spell that out phonetically) which is like a salad nicoise in a little round sandwich. For dessert, we got violet ice cream cones. Violet may be my new favorite ice cream flavor... think they have THAT in Phoenix?? It also pleases me that in Tourettes, Bryan found a great new wallet that he seems to love as much as my purse that I bought in Rome 8 years ago and haven't stopped talking about yet... glad someone finally understands me firsthand. He also got a cool self-watering planter for his patio. So he won the retail therapy badge for the day.
It's a shame that we only have one more full day here in Provence. I may cry.Tomorrow, we're going to hit the coast. Bryan wants to swim in the Mediterranean. And so he shall. Maybe Nice or Antibes, who knows...
The food in Opio is amazing, very fancy and impressive. Bryan's favorite so far was salmon with a butter sauce made with white wine and shallots. Is that beurre blanc?? I guess the food here is better than Valmorel and apparently much better than what we'll get in Vittel, according to one of the G.O.s (employees) here.
Too bad I've been sick for the last few days and haven't eaten much of anything. I finally got a little lasagna and dessert down me tonight. It happened our last night in Valmorel. It may have been exhaustion from a killer hike that day, or altitude sickness, but I'm certainly glad it seems to be letting up...
Oh, something funny that Bryan overheard at happy hour tonight (cinq a sept (pronounced sank ah set)) was a mom and her son, about 4 years old with a deep British accent. Mom: "Oh, this tastes like pâté. That's lovely. Should I put some on a plate?" Little boy: "Oh yes, mummy, that's quite nice." What manners. Cracks me up.
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