VVF Vacances Village Club La Badine Hyères

... tour for monday and spent the day seeing 5 different castles.
Our first castle was chenonceau, which remains my favorite. if i'm ever a fairy princess thats my castle. I think what made it so incredible was actually the fog. it was so ridiculously foggy you could barely see the outline of the castle which added to the surreal feel of all of it. unfortunately we made it back to the van late and our driver got all ***** and french at us. later ...

So this morning a grumpy linda rolled out of bed at 6 am ready to get on the school bus and start class. yep that's right. i've gone back in time to highschool.....

The grumpiness wore off tho as becca and i trekked down to the bus stop. i can't even describe how beautiful watching the sunrise over the gulf was. the sky had a pink color, and all the hills were a pale blue/ green in the distance the sea was periwinkle. it was definitely a far better ...

Hey team!!!!
so 2 weeks into france and i've yet to write a thing. im so bad at this game. meh.
today i went to the beach, it was wonderful!!!! becca thought it was cold, she was wrong :)

so apparently sainte maxime is infiltrated by german tourists, who knew? the only frenchies on the beach were...well enjoying themselves quite a bit..... ;-)
oh frenchies. :)

omg do ...

Just paid a fleeting visit to St Tropez on the way to Avignon (so we thought)... had to be done really.. a quick wander around and a very quick coffee. It was much smaller than I thought. Lots of nice boats but loads of tourists too.... that was about it!

... handstands and all the rest.... spend hours cleaning the sand out of our bags and clothes! The next day was a stunning 26 degree day.. so so so nice. We never thought we would be at the beach again. Were tempted to stay but found out the next 2 days were not going to be great weather. Sadly we headed off at 4pm to head to Avignon.. Saying goodbye to the med forever was very hard.. and sad....

We also took the short drive to Port Grimaud, to visit this small but new harbour town built in what was once marshland, but is now row after row of condos and homes built in a web of jetties to allow the homes to anchor their boats at their doorsteps. Of course, we would have rather spend our time on the beach, but with bad weather, Grimaud was a nice alternative.

The Yacht arrived in the Vieux Port around 8:00 AM on Tuesday. The seas were a little rough on the way in and there was a lot of wind, but overall the passage was uneventful. We spent the night in Marseille and in the morning we drove to meet the yacht in St. Tropez and arrive close to 11 AM. We just pulled up to the yacht and hardly even boarded until ...

My solo trip started with a short road trip with my family from Gerardmer to Strasbourg to catch an overnight train ride to Nice, south of France. I shared a 6-bunked cabin with other French travelers. The TGV train trekked through the French Alps and Provence, the mountainous and vineyard regions, respectively. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to witness the landscaping, as the midnight train offered a good night rest for a ...

... in the water and sunning ourselves. I never tire of the calm, clear water here and just being at this beach in general. I only wish it were a bit cooler (it's been 43 degrees celcius!) and that the bus ride home, when we are all covered in layers of salt, sand, and sweat, was air-conditioned. But alas, A/C is not available here. The first week, this was extremely bothersome since it didn't cool down at night and we laid with our windows open on top of our covers, praying for ...

... Fiona called the taxi company 3 times, but they were apparently closed. As a last resort, we began to try to hitch a ride! It was a little upsetting. We finally got a ride from a man who took us all the way to Hyeres, but dropped us in the wrong place and Marcel and I wound up walking for 45 minutes. All for one beer. Fiona and I have decided to stick to the beach and leave the partying for Dublin and Washington DC.