Europe 2015!

No more boulangerie breakfasts: quiche, pain au chocolate, croissants. On to Dublin!

Beauvais, France Like most people, we're staying in Beauvais's city center because we're flying out on Ryanair in the morning. That being said, this is a cute town (in the center at least) and a good place to spend a Saturday afternoon. There's lots of shopping and cafes, and even entertainment (note the guy dressed as a superhero running around the fountain with a flower in one hand).

Montpellier to Dijon, France:Travel Day! Today was a long drive, broken up by our Avignon stop. We drove by lavender fields, a lot of farms (especially wheat-again with the celiac question), a lot of vineyards and wineries, and random art (kids with mushrooms, which I didn't get pictures of because they went by too fast). Then we got to our hotel south of Dijon. It's surrounded by wheat fields, which are actually very pretty. It also had a Chinese buffet, so score!

Avignon, France We stopped in Avignon today, because we drove by and how could we not? I've been here once before, and I wanted the boys to witness history, kicking and screaming if need be. We didn't tour the Pope's Palace this time, because it was expensive and we were only there for a short stop. We had lunch, walked through town, visited the gardens (it was crazy windy!), and shopped a bit. It was a nice stop in our 4-hour drive.

La Grande Mott, France Beach day! We visited a beach about 20 km from Montpellier. We chose Montpellier because Todd wanted to visit Languedoc, and randomly learned it has gorgeous beaches. I've found my new favorite European beach destination for certain. The water was perfect, we had a big beach section to ourselves (high season starts July 1), and there were fantastic beach restaurants. And there were shells! We all got a bit sunburnt and were worn out, so we came back to the room and crashed. It was a great day!

We have named the cat Billy.

So we may have fed the cat some fish (and steak). Right up until Will took my fish away to finish it. There wasn’t much left, because yum.

Travel day! It was a pretty drive- from Italian France (Nice) to Spanish France (Languedoc). Our hotel looks like it could be in Arizona. The golf course is beautiful- Will and Casey immediately went out to play 9 holes. Todd and I are heading for s swim!

Nice, France Promenade de Angleis

Antibes, France We went to Antibes today in search of a sandy beach. We were more or less successful. There was a rocky stretch in the water and it was rocky farther out, but it wasn't too bad (the pic of Casey and the palm tree is from the beach across from the hotel for comparison). The water was a bit chilly and lightning started to appear, so we headed back to our hotel for a dip in the (much warmer) pool. Antibes was pretty, and I'd have liked to have had more time to explore the town. Next time! Right now we're getting ready to head in to Nice for dinner.

Nice, France Nice at night is nice. English is such a fun language! We took the train into old Nice last night for dinner, then took a walk down the Promenade de Angleis. It was beautiful, as it always is, and dinner was very good! Just look at that pretty lasagna!

Sunset, Saint-Laurent-Du-Var, France

This was our drive today. It took us 6 hours to drive from France to France, with Switzerland and Italy in between. Plus 100 bucks in tolls and something like 6000 feet! It was a beautiful drive, though, and we’re across the street from the (very rocky) French Riviera beach. Yay!

Evian-Les-Bains, France Enjoying the pool!

Burg Hornberg to Evian-Les-Bains Driving Day! Well, kind of. We were here at 1:00. Just thought we'd share the drive!

We also learned that no one in this town leaves home on Sunday night. Everything was shut down at 5:00, including the groceries. Luckily, we found a pizza place so we could bring take away pizzas back to our apartment (which has a pool, yay!).