Life: Idiotropic

Boy, our lives are rough. If the girls ever whine about moving, I'll have to remind them of days like this... lounging on the beach in the south of France with out a care in the world. Surely this balances some of the stress of a crazy move.

A slow sleepy morning. We were told that most of the beaches clear from 1-4 because it’s so hot. By 11 were were ready, but wouldn’t have enough time at the beach, so hungry with nothing to eat, we ventured out to Vias, to see the beach, walk the strip, and find a good birthday lunch for Arianna’s 8th.

The narrow two-lane strip of road into town ended at a parking lot at the beach side. Each side of the road lined with restaurants, tacky gift shops, and expansive open-front shops of ice cream and slushies. All very typical of a beach town any where in the world, other than some of the signage, it didn’t seem particularly French. Just beachy.

Reading placards on the sidewalk, we stopped at El Jardin. Arianna got the fish menu - Formule Mer avec Couteaux, St. Jacques, Brochette de gambas, rouget et capitain, taboule et salade verte. Kirk and I got the duck menu which was amazing. All stuffed and happy, but roasting in the sun, we bought groceries for later, then had quiet in the cool of the apartment until about 4:30 when the breeze had picked up enough to cool us.

The Med reminds me of the gulf in Florida - tiny barely there waves, long beaches, lengthy shallows... But shells are sparse, so the beach comber in me didn’t collect much. Long rocky bars stretched out to the edge of the shallows each 100 feet may be all the way down the beach as long as I could see. Some of those ended in Ts built up so that fishermen could reach the depths where the larger fish swam. We didn’t see any fish in the shallows - just lots of people of all ages swimming, playing games, and relaxing in the sun. Even Elise walked quite a ways out into the water comfortable in the baby waves and shallow water.

Tiara spent most of her time on towels under our huge umbrella. I helped Elise body surf in the beginning, then joined T under the umbrella to rest and gather some sun. Normally we enjoy the people watching, but I think the number of older topless ladies put that to a halt. It didn't bother me as much, but T wasn't quite comfortable with it. She'll have time to adjust in Spain.

Tired for the beach, stopped for a scoop of “birthday” ice cream before heading home. I got coffee (good) and vanilla (below average). It felt amazingly good, natural, relaxing... to walk casually down the sidewalk towards our car slowly enjoying our ice cream until it was gone. I don’t think I had relaxed at all until then, but at that moment, the car was loaded, every one was happy, and I just felt the tension fall away. We got back after 8 and snacked on the groceries we’d bought before. Divided up into the two rooms we'd booked, and crashed until morning, one more day of beach left before another long drive.

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