South of France (Part 2, French Riviera)

After our time in Provence, we headed to the French Riviera. On our way to our rental house, we decided to stop in Sur La Sorgue, because it supposably has one of the best antique markets/market. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain the entire time and was super crowded. It was a neat little town, but we overall were not that impressed with the market. After living here for almost three years, we have been to a lot of markets. The prices were a lot more expensive at this market and in my opinion, it is because they have so many tourists. After booking it through the market in the rain for an hour, we headed back to the car. When we got to our car, both mine and Kelsey's cars had been keyed!! Ugh, it makes me so incredibly mad!! Here are the only two pictures I took in this little town.





During our drive, it rained most of the time. Thankfully when we got near the coast, the weather cleared up. We decided that since we were driving by St. Tropez, we might as well stop by there. We pretty much just drove in and out of there after realizing how much we did not fit in and that we were going to have to pay way too much to park. Instead, we stopped at a random little beach/rocky area right outside of St. Tropez for the girls to play and take a break from the car ride.









We ended up renting a little house with the Petersons that was in the hills right above Nice. It ended up not being super nice, but we tried not to complain since it was way cheaper than anything else we had seen in the area. I did have to laugh because the ad said that there was a trampoline and a slide/sandbox. When we got there I was a little annoyed to find there wasn't a trampoline in the backyard and the sandbox was a tiny plastic little tykes turtle thing. When Abe was exploring down in the basement, he came back up holding the smallest little trampoline. It made us laugh... not quite what we were expecting!

Our first day we explored Nice. Nice was really charming and fun to walk around and explore.

























After seeing and exploring the cute little town of Nice, we let the kids play at the rocky beach for awhile. It was cold and of course Meika had to get too close and fall IN to the water not long after we were there!















The next day we headed over to Monaco. Monaco was super ritzy and of course we were a little out of place there! There wasn't too much to do there, but it was fun to have lunch, walk around, see all the fancy and expensive boats/yachts and walk up to the Prince's palace.

















On our way back to the rental house, we stopped in a little town called Eze, that is up on top of a hill overlooking the ocean. I had read lots of great reviews on this little village and was dying to see it! It was so cute and I am happy that we made the stop there!





Hiking up through the exotic gardens to the tip top of Eze



Views from the top of Eze







Exploring the mountain top town of Eze

















The next day was spent in Antibes. We mostly spent the day at the beach and let the kids play. They were in need of some play time after being such great sports exploring cities and villages day after day!

















Instead of driving back home the next day, Abe decided we could do a detour through Italy so I could go Pottery Shopping for some new dishes. Lots of girls do trips down there to find sets, but there are no other times that I would be able to go! A lot of the factories in Nove, Italy sell their stuff to the States whether it's Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Bloomingdales.... etc. After all the extra driving, heat and being on my feet, I had massive cankles.



It was way worth the extra night in a hotel and hours of driving. I am in love with my new dishes. These pictures don't really do them justice!





Plus, I also got some serving dishes to match!

Driving home through the Alps wasn't too bad either!