Bee on a bite valve

Nice macro shot taken during our recent trip to Pinnacles

Off to France

Work-wise, Friday turned out to be especially busy. We were working from home, as was most of the office, some extending the 3-day weekend, others anticipating the commute chaos of the Bay Bridge closure, all of which made things a…

Le Marché Provençal d’Antibes

While Stephanie and her sister were treated to a spa day on Sunday (birthday present from their dad), Stephanie’s mom and I went to the Provencal Market in Antibes. We picked up olives and tapenade, Corsican salami, woodland strawberries, cannelés,…

French family reunioning

On Saturday night (just after we arrived) we had dinner with Stephanie’s mom, sister, and niece. On Sunday night Aurelie’s husband, Michel, joined us all for a barbecue. On Monday night, Stephanie’s aunt and grandmother came all the way from…

From Le Cannet to Valence

On Wednesday, we woke up in Le Cannet, had lunch in Pertuis, nougat in Montelimar, dinner in Le Teil, and went to bed in Valence. I may return from France 10 pounds heavier. Map from Le Cannet to Pertuis to…

Hiking the Château de Crussol

After a full day of traveling on Wednesday, we let ourselves sleep in Thursday. After we all finally got up, we drove across the Rhone towards Saint-Péray, to visit the ruins of the Château de Crussol. I feel like I…

Into l’Ardèche

We spent Thursday night in Valence, and then on Friday morning we packed our bags and hit the road for Sabine’s parent’s country house in Ruoms, deep in the Ardèche. The Ardèche is a department of France west of the…

Joyeux Anniversaire Aurelie

We traveled back to Le Cannet on Saturday so the whole family could be together for Aurelie’s birthday on Sunday. That afternoon Stephanie and I wrapped slices of melon with prosciutto, Aurelie and Michel prepared a proper Italian pesto pasta,…

Îles de Lérins

Just off the coast of Cannes are two rather large islands, Île Sainte-Marguerite and Île Saint-Honorat, commonly referred to as Îles de Lérins. The former has a fort that once served as the prison where the Man in the Iron…

Chris and Gunes

I’m not sure when I first stumbled upon Christopher Ames’ photoblog, this is my eye, but the fact that he takes pictures in and around Antibes and captions them in English definitely caught my eye. After visiting Le Marché Provençal…

Assiette Niçoise

On Tuesday the autumn rains arrived, which was fine by us as we had indoor lunch plans with some old friends of Stephanie’s and indoor shopping plans at CAP 3000, both in Saint-Laurent du Var. The restaurant, La Sartaïa, specialized…

Signs of Fayence

On Wednesday, we continued the tradition of making a pilgrimage to Fayence to visit Stephanie’s grandmother. Over a glass of champagne, we took photos of old photos while she told us stories about her family’s history.

Day trip to Gourdon

It’s probably hard to believe that with two weeks in France, we don’t really have much “free” time to go off on our own to explore. We’d done more of that during our previous trips, but too often it felt…

Breakfast in Heathrow

Friday it rained. We took it easy. Ran a few errands. Packed. Had one last dinner with Aurelie, Michel, and Luna. Went to bed after midnight and woke up at 5am to catch our 7:30 flight from Nice to London.…

Towards Mono Lake

After a week of waking up at 4am, 5am, and 6am and going to bed at 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm, you’d think we would have spent our first weekend back from France just chilling. Nope. After work on Friday we…