The French Riviera...or the Cote d'Azur

Hi Everyone!

Well, I'm a bit overdue on making this post - we've had a lot going on!!  

Linda and Keith, Chad's parents, arrived in London this past Sunday and we're so excited to have them here!  They've spent the past few days in Scotland and are heading back to London as I speak (or I guess as I write - I'm not talking out loud to myself)!  Anyway, we're headed for a 9 day trip with them to Paris and a few places in Italy and we just can't wait!  More on that in the next post...

So we had Ben and Lindsey visiting a few weeks ago and it was such a fun time!  They came and spent a few days in London - then we headed to France for a few days and then had a few more days in London with them before the headed back to the Nasty, I mean Cinci!

So - I won't go on and on about everything, but will share a few photos from our trip.

We stayed at an amazing hotel right on the Mediterranean, called Balli de Suffrin.  It was literally right on the water and just beautiful!  Here we are on the balcony off the lobby.

View of the pool and the beach from the balcony above.  It was so great to have a "proper" beach vacation!   The weather was great and it was so nice to relax.  And it was good for Chad and I to actually get a little tan.  We are pretty pale after the British summer!

The lovely beach!

Another view of the sea from the hotel!

We took one day trip and headed to Monaco, which was a few hours from where we were staying.  This is the famous Casino of Monte Carlo. There is a nice park leading up to it with these fountains and statues. The flags are blocking the view out front but there are bunches of flashy cars parked outside the casino. Plus, the thing to do is to drive your car around the roundabout to show it off! Due to the fact our car wasn't so flashy (a BMW hatchback - nice - not flashy enough though) we sat at the cafe on the left of the photo (see the umbrellas?) and enjoyed watching all the action. It was great!

Monaco also has really really ridiculous (Zoolander anyone?) yachts.  Here is a view of a few of the massive ones!  We did some research online of the HUGE one in the distance and apparently it's the 5th largest yacht in the world!!  So crazy!

Here's a few of the castle that overlooks Monaco.  It was pretty fancy!

This is the path heading down from the castle and you can see the sea in the distance.  I read that the principality of Monaco is no bigger than London's Hyde Park.  So it's a small place but there is a lot of money there!

Here we are at dinner our last evening of our trip. What a happy bunch!

Here we are back in London.  We went to Borough Market for lunch on Saturday and Lindsey and Ben loved it just as much as I do!  We were in line at this point waiting for chorizo sandwiches - good stuff!

Here's a group shot of dinner at the Gaucho Grill.  Like I said, it was so fun to have visitors here and we had such a great time!  Ben is always a source of entertainment and he kept us laughing for a week and a half!  Lindsey took a bunch of photos and I should try to get them up here because she got some great shots!

So that is that and we're back to France tomorrow!  Time flies I tell ya!!  We passed our 1 year in London mark last week - can you believe it?  We'll be heading back before we know it - we just have to make sure we get a few more trips in before that!

Take care and talk to you soon!! xoxox