Au Revoir Summer of 2013

{scuba kids}

It's chilly in the Sud today and all I have to keep me warm are memories of summer.They've been all packed up and stowed away as we go about the crazy all-over-the-place business of 'la rentrée'. P-Daddy called it the 'summer of us'. Us, because he worked from home every single day, usually sans shirt, and just about drove me crazy. (Not really. It's nice to have him here.)

We stayed nearby and had a great time on the terrace with the visiting P-Quax and then we headed to Le Lavandou courtesy of a very brave and generous Viking, Mme. Plongeur.We sat on the terrace overlooking the bay of Le Lavandou and sighed.

{Ahhhh....}

We drank the most expensive pink wine in France (well, maybe not the most expensive but it wasn't pas cher) from Château de Brégançon, a beautiful vineyard along the Mediterranean Sea just a stone's throw from the Presidential summer digs of the Fort de Brégançon. A local in Bormes-les-Mimosas told us that Holland doesn't really like the house and Sarkozy only used it a few times. Chirac was the real beach bum, regularly spending les vacances chez Fort. I can just picture him sunbathing to a savage crisp on a Tunisian throw.

P-Daddy and the big kids spent an afternoon on a diver's discovery, wetsuits, oxygen tanks and all, plunging 10 meters around the rocks between two of Le Lavandou's offshore islands, Port Cros and Porquerolles.

We watched fireworks from the comfort of the hillside terrace (twice!) and clapped and cheered along with our unseen neighbors and honking boats in the harbor.

The Littlest and I spent an afternoon watching endless games of pétanque. We ate ice cream every afternoon and surveyed the village from a Ferris wheel. 'I love this place,' he exclaimed as we spun at dizzying heights. That and 'I need a little break' as we climbed the mountain back up to said hillside beach house.
Bestie K even came for her requisite four day visit, this time taking in Helsinki airport along the way. Grass doesn't grow under her feet. And boy, do I love her for it.

{Bestie K in Bormes-les-Mimosas}

Birthdays and barbecues (sausage galore!), ice cream and gin and tonic, string bikinis and boobie gawking, snorkeling and diving; not too bad for the summer of 2013.

{going native}

I hope you have a box full of memories from yours too. Take it out when it gets chilly and dark and bask in the summer glow of its warmth.

Bisous à tous...