Sleeping among the vines

We are now based in Ramatuelle camping within a vineyard thanks again to Cyrils hospitality. He has arranged for us to stay on this farm with manager Daniel a lovely man who speaks no English; but we converse daily thanks to Davids school boy Fr and some dirt drawings. We love this place being spoiled to be the only ones there so have total ownership of the douche & toiettes. Today is the last day there, but we have had such good weather today that we may stay on before departing further into Provence to Apt.

All is well with all three. This is a hurried blog as we must depart to campsite before dark.

Moulin du Loup

We returned our hire car and trained to Nice arriving very late due to train delqys. We picked up another hire car only to be informed there wasnt an infant seat for Alexa (despite being requested and listed on our receipt). This was our problem it seemed and the woman was very reluctant to help out but was cajoled in the end. I think more smiles from Alexa helped.

We drove straight to Cyril & Helens place in Cagnes Sur Mer - a 14C renovated apartment within which there is an old olive presse. An absolutely stunning place which we wandered around getting ideas for our own home. We had originally said wed stay 2-3 nights, but ended up staying 4 due to inclement weather & Cyrils hospitality. From this base we visited Nice, Monaco & Saint Paul.

We had a wonderful evening with Fleur in Monaco. We met her just after 6 aboard a multi million dollar super yacht "MORE" moored in the harbour. Fleur had agreed to help an old flatmate and invited us to join in being part of the background to a photoshoot which required us to sup champagne cocktails. Alexa felt right at home in her PJs and made many friends including an invite to the navigation deck by the captain. What an insight into how the other half live.

We then went for dinner with Fleur & Fabian where im sure I heard David deep in conversation with Fabian on the advantages of driving on the right.

Picolo Bambina

Our holiday started in Genoa with a hiss and a roar. I hissed and David roared at RyanAirs ground staff who had bent both wheels of the mountain buggy. Luckily David was able to straighten them back without breaking the axle. Not a great start to our 6 weeks in Europe.

With a large amount of baggage we decided to hire a car - lucky for us that we did as the campsite was about 2km from both beach and train station. We were based in Deiva Marina, just north of Italys Cinque Terre.

The campsite was not the grassy green I hoped for, but dusty brown dirt. So Alexa was confined to our picnic blanket from which she could shuffle (not yet crawling) her way to the edge to play in the dust - far more interesting than her toys.

Italians loved Alexa calling her Picolo Bambina - little girl. She got lots of qttention the whole time and became well practised at smiling coyly at strangers to win them over.

We have settled into camp life easily, altho the thermarest on a hard ground isnt too comfortable. Alexa is sleeping through every night without waking - probably due to sheer exhaustion. But we did have a few early mornings when she woke the cockeral, and rest of camp.

The weather was war, qnd sunny for the whole time which was perfect conditions for lqying by the beach, meandering thru the villages, devouring gelato and the odd swim. Alexa got her first swim in the safe arms of her dad. A bit uncertain at first, she soon warmed to it and enjoyed being swooshed thru the water.