6th - 20th August 2005 France and Cote d'AzurPosted on 2005/08/24 18:26:37 (August 2005). The full account of the two weeks holiday that I have done in Les Issambres together with a group of friends. All in all it has been a very relaxing trip, nothing special, no big surprises (apart from the prices of almost everything in Cote d'aAzur), and a lot of sea/swimming/sun which I badly needed...
Did I mention kilos of meat and liters of beer and wine?...[READ MORE]
Saturday 6th August - Arrival at Les Issambres
After quite a long trip by car we finally managed to arrive at the house. We went at our friend's house first, as we needed to see where it was. The main house is nice, with a swimming pool and several rooms, a very good villa all in all.
We then moved to our place, very nice as well, the house has two rooms plus bathroom, a shared swimming pool with another flat and a decent double bed.
We arrived quite late so we just unpacked and joined the others at the first maison, for a nice barbequed dinner.
Sunday 7th August - Fighting and Rocks
This was the first full day in Les Issambres, we met at the villa so that we could go all together to the seaside. The plan is to stay for the morning there, and then in the afternoon to stop at the villa as we have the swimming pool there. After lunch we started doing some "maths" as the idea of the holiday was to buy as much as possible in Italy to avoid expensive Cote d'Azur prices. There are four couples but three of them have kids (total of four kids). At first the division was made splitting by four, needless to say that this would have been a bit "harsh" on as me and Marta (as we are by ourself), so we had to talk a bit over this point of accounting and in the end we managed to agree to split by five, where the three couples with kids had to divide the extra share among them. All in all a good agreement, though I wish the idea came from the couples with kids and not from us.
Monday 8th August - Sand and Diving lessons
Today we decided to go to the massive sand shore, there was quite a lot of wind and there were very high waves. It was real fun to play in the sea. Afternoon featured the usual pool at the villa, this time me and Max improvised ourself diving instructors for the younger ones, I was quite impressed as two of them started from "I am scared" and are now diving head first in a good style.
Tuesday 9th August - Uneventful day
Nothing majorly interesting today, apart from the barbecued dinner and some water fighting in the afternoon. In the evening we played cards, but all in all a quiet day at the seaside.
Wednesday 10th August - Fishing
A nasty day. Weather was completely crap from the start. We then decided to go fishing with Max and Manu, but of course also the kids wanted to come. This spoiled the fishing as there was a lot of people screaming and going up and down the rocks, so it was more a sort of "fun fishing" session than a real thing. I managed to get nothing at all, which I blame mostly on the fact that I completely messed the size of the hook that I installed on the fishing rod (too big for the fish that was there). We then went back home for lunch all the adults wanted to sleep and went to their respective rooms, I was trying to get some rest on the sofa but of course the kids had to make an hideous amount of noise and woke me up several times. Apparently it was my fault because I didn't go to our house (at least this is what some of the parents told me later), getting me angrier than I was already. The evening saw us eating rather early so that we could go shopping in St.Maxime, a crowded place, retching of falseness like a two dollar note, a tourist trap ready to spring. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but I was glad to go home in the end.
Thursday 11th August - Another crap day
The weather was again cloudy and menacing rain. We decided to go to Port Grimaud, a place very similar to Venice, with lots of canals and boats. Needless to say that the prices there are hideously expensive, a simple cheese tomato pizza went for 10 Euro, a bottle of water 3,50 Euro. After a brief visit to the village, we moved outside Port Grimaud to stop at a sort of travelling restaurant, with tables set up in a sort of roller van. The cook is a nice Franco-Italian woman who made some pizza and some salads for us, at reasonable prices and decent quality.
We then set up for the seaside, as the weather greatly improved by then and the day was getting very hot, shame that the shore was too "dirty" for most of the team and we decided to go home instead. As soon as we set foot home the weather turned rotten again, so we ended up staying near the pool for the second afternoon in a row, doing nothing.
The evening featured a nice curry dinner, plus a long poolside talk with all the group. A massive thunder storm was brewing and the sky was lightened several times as if it was morning. Max also started "reading" the movements of the inflatable octopus that we have in the swimming pool, predicting good weather for the next morning.
Friday 12th August - SunshiTe !
Well, the sun was shining today but the thunderstorm of the night threw a lot of leaves and general crap into the sea, meaning that this morning the shore was far too polluted to swim. We went near the rocks as we wanted to do some scuba fishing, but the water was too dirty and even prevented us from seeing more than 2 meters!!
We then retreated to the swimming pool for a nice quiet afternoon, which was closed by an home made Nutella cake.
Saturday 13th August - Guests
Today there isn't much to report apart a pointless trip to the rock coast to see that the leaves didn't quite go away so we had to go to the normal beach where BBC and Canal Plus decided to build a massive plastic footie-tennis court for some strange tournament that is going to take place there. In the afternoon Salvi (Salvina) and Pastrana (Elvio) arrived at the house they are going to sleep in the van. They also took some food with them, most of it for the kids but there is also quite a lot of beer and meat. In the evening we had a massive fish dinner featuring roasted giant king prawns, mussels and a 4,5kg fish (similar to red snapper) all in all a great dinner.
Sunday 14th August - Birthdays and Barbecues
As Pastrana and Salvi are leaving tomorrow we decided to anticipate the party that we had scheduled for the 15th. We are going to have a massive meat grill plus rivers of wine, an entree of cocktails made by Max (he was a barman) and an homemade tiramisu'. Of curse the champagne is going to be there as Paola will have her birthday and also Giovanni had his before leaving.
The day went by rather quickly, nothing special to report apart the usual drowning of Francy and Teto in the afternoon.
Monday 15th August - Day at the house
This morning me and Marta decided to stay at the house instead of going to the seaside with the others. I have to say that it was a good chance to be in a quiet environment as all the kids were away, on the other side we have been interrupted by the swimming pool man (who had to do some maintenance) and the landlord calling to enquire about the money that is due for the 15 days rental of the house.
In the afternoon we had nothing to do but getting even more tanned. I have to register a tragic injury that I inflicted myself while trying to throw Linda into the swimming pool, basically I cut my left toe... In the evening Marta made some pizza, "Zia" (Aunt) Manu made a marvellous guacamole and the usual grill featuring chicken and sausages.
Tuesday 16th August - Dungeons and Dragons
Nothing special to report, apart my idea of teaching some rudiments of RPG to the kids. Francy and Teto are the elder and they understood the game better, Linda and Giacomo don't seem too much taken from these games, but it's understandable.
Wednesday 17th August - Checking the Food
It's almost the end of the holiday so we checked the food stock in the freezer. To our dismay we found out that we are left over with quite a lot of meat, and we run out of wine and beer. Tomorrow we'll be going out to eat, probably at Saint Raphael, so we have only two more days to eat all the meat out. In the afternoon and evening the kids begged me to play D&D again. I have no manuals and dices, so I have to make everything up, we have only two D6 and everything is done with them. The level of play is very low (not surprisingly, they have only started yesterday), but little by little they are learning. The first adventure finished tonight with their death, which was taken really well.
Thursday 18th August - St.Raphael
The weather turned rotten again today. We managed to sneak in some dives this morning but the afternoon is completely clouded. We are preparing to go to St.Raphael this evening. D&D is still on the kids'mind (especially Teto's), so we are making new characters, but today I don't feel like playing so I told them that it's better to skip the adventure to tonight or tomorrow.
Around 4ish we set off to reach St.Raphael, a little town close to Les Issambres. The place is nothing special, very new, and very touristy, beign a Florentine I can smell tourists traps from miles and this was one of them. It doesn't matter anyways, as we all knew what was lying ahead, the trip was mostly targeted to souvenirs shopping and a dinner out. In the end we had to go for pizza, which was a shame considering that it was rather nasty, but then again we were not too bothered as I think that we were all expecting something like that. Some shopping in the night and then back to the house for some late night cards match (same game as MS Hearts, called "Pippola").
Friday 19th August - Last Day
The last day went rather fast, actually all this holiday felt like flying. In the morning some beach action, to say goodbye to old man sea. In the afternoon the clouds spoiled a bit the pool session, but we didn't care and the poolside became the usual battle-scene. In the evening the last grilled meat and potatoes, plus a nice curry cooked by Giovanni.
Late night cards matches were interrupted by a terrorist attack, were basically I exploded a water bomb on the head of Bogio, effectively starting yet another battle. Midnight swim under an almost full moon closed the holiday in style.
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