Enroute to the south of France, we stopped in the wine village of Beaune, just north of Lyon. The town is filled with wine shops, but the town has another claim to fame as well...Hotel Dieu . The medieval charity hospital is now a museum, but during the Black Death, the place with filled to the gills with sick folks.
The outside was kept plain looking to keep out looters and bandits, but the inside was done up quite nicely.
The patients were crammed in beds in large hall and once a day, they would open the patients curtains so they could hear mass.
After a respectable lunch in Beaune, we headed to the previously mentioned marriage of our friends Nadia and Nico in Provence. I have to say, a destination wedding in Provence was even better than we expected. We had the wonderful opportunity to stay with Nico's aunt and uncle and his fun-loving cousins. They welcomed us so warmly and treated us to several absolutely delicious meals at their house. We felt like family at the end of the weekend.
We stayed in a little village in the region of La Drôme. Le Marie or town hall was to small to fit the whole wedding crowd, so a lot of us watched from the window.
There were of course some other with cheap seats. Absolutely charming though.
The wedding weekend was a blast. Nico's cousins, Laura and Heliouse, showed us a great time around their village. First order of the day was a trip to the vineyard where we tasted some great Côtes de Rhone and left with a few bottles.
As we left the winegrower's house and walked towards his son's apricot barn we were amazed at the views of the beautiful Lavander fields of Provence.
We tried to wait patiently for the apricot farmer to come in from the fields, but after a few minutes, we couldn't help ourselves and just had to get a closer look at this year's crop.
After a great wedding feast and good-bye brunch the next day, Whit and I steered south to Le Cote d'Azur or as you know it: The French Riviera.
Since most of the hotels in St. Tropez are way out of our price-range, Whitney and I decided to stay in the French military's version of a BOQ, which was practically in the middle of St. Tropez and across the street from a beautiful beach. Don't let me fool you, it was far from a Hilton, but someplace to lay our heads. De toute façon, our main goal for the week was enjoying the clear blue beach of the Mediterranean and seeing some of these iconic French landmarks...
such as Pampalona Beach...
...or St. Tropez harbor, where you will find hundreds of giant yachts, with 12 man crews lighting up the pier. It reminded me of the good ole days in Gulf Shores where I was cruising around in my 12 foot jon boat. There's nothing like being on the water...with a butler!
Yep!....that's a helo on the back of that yacht.
We even got to check out a beautiful sunset together. Excuse the prom pose.....this was one of the few photos we have together, so we are posting it, cheesy or not.
I guess, the big highlight of our short week in St. Tropez was our coastal hike.
Whitney and I stumbled through rocks and trudged through some odd sand for most of the day, but the hidden treasures along the way were delightful.
Here is a nice little beach.
After some long comtemplation we found a perfect spot for our picnic lunch.
We had a great spot to jump in, swim and get revitalized in the crystal clear water.
After a swim, the warm rocks were a great place to relax and eat a simple lunch with an incredible view.
Of course, after a long day of hiking and swimming we were ready to recharge our batteries. Fortunately, we did find a gem of a place for Whitney. The place was a candy store with all types of bon-bons in different barrels.
St. Tropez and her beaches turned out to be an absolute beautiful place. I will say though, if you want to see a class of people that is totally out of touch with reality then head here. After four days we were ready to say good-bye to this land of 100 euro take-out pizza.
Upcoming: An awesome trip to the Pyrénnes.
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