We had the most wonderful adventure this past weekend!
Warning…this post is very photo heavy, so if that isn’t your thing or if that annoys you, don’t say you weren’t warned. 🙂
We had a four day weekend (due to Veteran’s Day) and took a trip to the French Riviera.
I (again) used Airbnb to find a house for rent and we were stunned when we discovered how beautiful this property really was.
We stayed in Anthéor . Anthéor is right by the town of Agay on the French Riviera (Cote d’Azur) and right down the road from Saint-Raphaël.
We drove through Cannes and Nice to get there.
Our house was right on the Mediterranean Sea. I have never seen anything so beautiful.
We booked our trip to the French Riviera in the off season. It’s not the time that most people want to go…but we avoided the crazy crowds of tourists and the inflated prices.
The red rocks (Cap Roux) were absolutely STUNNING.
Here are a few photos of the house and the view.
Panoramic view from the parking spot (above the house…that’s the attic roof).
Our “back yard” for the weekend. Jimmy and the big girls had a BLAST exploring:
The gate to the house:
The views from the house were the absolute best part. The girls had a sweet little room with two bunk beds (they LOVED it) and we had a bedroom with a view like this:
Out of this window, every morning, I got to see this:
There was a terrace upstairs (which Cate and Lucy immediately took to):
After the chickadees went to bed each night, Jimmy and I would stay up talking,drinking wine, listening to the waves crash, and enjoying this view:
Our time in France was super laid-back. Exploring, eating, and drinking. And that’s about it.
One of my favorite “explorations”? A French supermarket. We came home with eclairs, baguettes, cheese, rotisserie chicken, macarons, and of course wine.
On the way home from France, we decided to drive through Monaco and explore a bit. I mean…it’s Monaco. We had to.
I have always loved Grace Kelly so it gave me the chance to pretend I was Princess Grace for a moment.
Can we please discuss the amount of money in Monaco? I couldn’t even handle it. It was a last minute decision to drive through…and let’s just say my yoga pants and sweater were NOT cutting it.
HA!
We drove by the casino in Monte Carlo. If I was pretending to be Princess Grace, Jimmy was pretending to be James Bond. I’m sure of it.
And all the while, cars like this were passing us left and right:
Yep. We felt pretty awesome in our swagger wagon/Howell family minivan. That’s how we roll in Monaco.
After Monaco I thought we were heading home and I was loving the view (you won’t believe how many times we pull over to take photos!).
This one was taken as soon as we crossed over the border back into Italia:
But it turns out we weren’t heading home. J surprised me with another detour.
At this point I was clapping and bouncing up and down in my seat. I mean…what a great day.
My enthusiasm quickly turned to white knuckles and a few muttered curse words when we started to make the trip down the mountains to the town of Monterosso.
The roads were super narrow and winding. All of the curves were blind (we had to honk to warn people on the other side) and some of the road was even falling off of the mountain. Harrowing to say the least.
What’s that you say? Minivans aren’t meant for the Cinque Terre? Yeah, that’d be correct.
Jesus take the wheel.
Once we made it down the mountain we explored the town of Monterosso al Mare. And fell in love.
The waves were spectacularly violent.
We just stood and watched them for quite some time.
These little Italian boys were running around with sticks and my girlie girls were TERRIFIED they were going to fall into the scary waves.
Harper said “Mommy, that’s not very responsible!” HA! And I told her they have probably lived there their entire lives and they were just fine.
And I loved watching this group of men talk and tell stories:
You know the Italy that you read about and imagine? Yeah, that’s Monterosso.
We need WAY more time to explore and I can’t wait to go back.
So there you have it…our weekend adventures. Sorry this post was so long, but at least I warned you! 🙂
Ciao Bella-
xo
S
