Life: Idiotropic

And I totally forgot that it was a holiday. Not until I went online and saw several "Happy 4th of July" messages, did I realize that it was THE 4th of July. We were just thinking of it as a happy continuation of our "vacation" and Arianna's 8th.

So, unable to find cake yesterday, I asked the reception at our apartment where I could find a good bakery. The lady took out a map of Beziers, highlighted the two main streets, and told me of several "famous" bakeries there. She forgot to tell us about the French "siesta." Just 5 minutes from our place we arrived in the center of town near the main street lined with trees, a wide pedestrian walkway in the middle of the street with cafe tables spilling on to it so that waitresses have to dodge the teens with their boom boom music to serve their guests their espresso drinks.

We walked down one end of the street through a few blocks of antique vendors looking and curious, but not seeing anything at "give away" prices and with no space in our vehicles to haul anything mid move. Walked back to the end in the other direction looking for a patisserie, but finding none, stopped for lunch at Cafe du Theatre. I had a delicious salad with marinated chicken, pineapple and grapefruit, then tomatoes stuffed with beef and herbs. Absolutely delicious.

The entire area was empty when we arrived at 1, but by 2 was getting busy. Shops were supposed to re-open at 2:30, but apparently not the patisseries. We walked again down the other main street, found several bakeries, but they were all closed.

There is one pretty square there with a fountain, statue, and merry-go-round, a long pedestrian walk lined with trees, but that was it. I think the pedestrian area off to the left might be nice, but we didn't go there and the other main road that we were told to see was fairly dirty, full of Chinese restaurants, and certainly not nice to look at by any stretch. There is something to be said for the user friendly, overly clean German city centers that I've been accustomed to.

So we left, rested at our apartment, then went to the beach again this time I went shopping a bit while Kirk and the kids played. Vias had a nice patisserie, and being a touristy beach town, it didn't close, so I found a delicious cappuccino cake that I knew Arianna would like, bought some baguettes and small groceries for dinner, a bottle of local wine, then headed back to the beach to play leaving it all in the car.

Sat next to a nice British couple who spend 3 months driving around Europe each summer in their camper. Watched Kirk build sand castles with Elise, then bury Luci and Arianna almost completely in sand.

Home for dinner, cake, and some packing up before our last long drive to our new home.