My Antibes List

Things I will miss about Antibes:

Friendly Waiters and Shopkeepers

From our night time walk the other day.
Creperie still at it-- look at that jar of Nutella
behind the crepe griddles!

Perhaps this is more a reflection on me, but there is not one restaurant in my hometown where the proprietor comes out to give me a kiss when I arrive. Does this happen to everyone else and I just don’t go out enough? I mentioned in an earlier post, if you show up somewhere more than once in Antibes, you are a treasured regular. I even had an owner ask me if I wanted my usual table after I’d been there only twice. I was wondering the other day— will they notice when I am gone? Then this charming Scandanavian couple came in (I could tell they were new to Antibes) and the owner was just as nice to them. I overheard them say they were in town for three weeks— so this is how it goes in Antibes.

The Ocean

OK- I love Hampton Roads because not a day goes by when I can’t see water of some kind— river, bay, ocean. Lovely. Here, I get to see the magnificent azur ocean nearly everyday. It is just as intriguing as the first day I arrived. I can understand why so many people in the world desire to be right here on this coast. Cooper is not as impressed— he keeps complaining that the beach is so dry, “everything is so dry, how can there be so much water here and it is still dry?” He’s not used to the idea of rocky coasts; he’s accustomed to wetlands and rivers and grass in the dunes. Of course the Mediterranean is rocky and dry.

The Sun

It has been sunny all but four of our 49 days here and it only rained twice. Great— I’ll take it and store it for when we are in the UK. The Cote d’Azur gets 300 sunny days a year.

Night time stroll down to the beach- just because.

The Alps

When we come down our little walled-in street and out of the archway into the promenade, I am face to face with a view of the Alps. It takes my breath away every time.I don’t know why I am still so surprised to see those big mountains— I guess I have a goldfish brain. I literally stop and stare for a minute and forget what I was doing. Maybe this is why it’s good I’m a flatlander. When I lived in Miami, I had a friend from West Virginia. When I asked her how she could live in a place where she didn’t see water everyday, she asked me how I could live in a place where I didn’t see mountains everyday. Got it.

This fountain re-used a Roman column
(dark marble portion). It's usually surrounded by cafe tables
but we had it all to ourselves at night!

Routine for my Boys

My kids are homebodies! Can’t believe it; I was so frustrated by this at times because they would choose to stay in the house instead of go out exploring. I understand now that it is more a craving for routine for them. Our outings have gone really well because I have slowed things down to meet their pace. I’ve said it before; I’ve given up a lot of what I want to do for what is right for them. We settled into a great routine here. It’s been instructive for me to see this at work in a different setting. 

Speaking French

I have to admit, I have a lot of fun speaking a different language. I don’t care if I suck at it, everyone seems to be in on the joke down here. It feeds my brain. From here on out, we’ll be tourists and no one will care if we speak French or not. I have to say though, after a long conversation, I get really tired, I can hear myself get all screwy, then I realize I am messing it all up and I pop back into it. The Anitbois must think I am schizophrenic or have a tic or something.

What I Will Not Miss:

Dog poop- come on people! But I understand it’s worse in Paris.

Loud neighbors— and I was worried about my kids. But that’s a later post.

Motos- we live in the pedestrian zone, the streets are so tiny- where are they going?

Taylor’s on the plane and we can’t wait to show him around. We’ve really gotten to know this little town and I hope we can come back someday!