Meeting Nils...

Veronica was so excited about seeing Nils again and we were thrilled to get to meet him. Of course, it was great to see Curt and Veronique as well. While I hadn’t seen them since their wedding in August 2010, Jimmy visited them in Aix on the day that they moved into their house in March 2011.

Nils is definitely one adorable kid! It was fun taking him to the park.

Veronica and Ashlynn babysat him on the second night of our stay while we had an adult night out.

Geocaching in Aix-en-Provence...

Our final destination for the day was Aix-en-Provence, where Veronica spent a week last summer. We arrived a bit early to head to Curt and Veronique’s, so we parked the car and headed out to do some geocaching. Ashlynn found this travel bug in a wall at a park.

Ashlynn also found this micro cache behind a pipe on the side of a building.

Geocaching in Cassis...

After our boat ride, we did a little bit of geocaching. We found this cache on a wall at the beach.

The Calanques of Cassis...

Cassis is renowned for its steep-walled inlets formed by limestone called calanques. The tour boats were running, but we were warned that the sea was rougher than usual (although you can see that everything was calm in the coves). We took our chances on a one-hour cruise to see this lovely coastline.

The high point for Jimmy and the girls were pretending to surf on the boat once we were back out in the choppy sea.

The Port of Cassis....

On Thursday, we set off to Aix-en-Provence to visit Curt and Veronique. On the way, we stopped at the coastal town of Cassis (the liqueur creme de cassis actually comes from Burgundy). We had a picnic lunch at the port before taking a boat ride.

Beautiful Scenery...

The girls had no problem walking up the river to meet us just below the rapids. 

Jimmy and Ashlynn then decided to climb over the rapids.

As usual, I stood on the sidelines and photographed their antics.

On the drive home, we stopped by the grocery store, where we were very impressed with the champagne cave.

An Impromptu Adventure...

On the way to search for the other geocache in Grimaud, we came upon the remnants of a 15th century bridge over the Garde River. I opted not to hike up the hill through the shrubbery in my sandals, so wasn’t there when they discovered the cache.

Afterwards, the girls couldn’t resist putting their feet in the river. 

Jimmy then suggested that they walk through the river back to the path leading up to the parking lot, while he stuck with me on the main path. As usual, the girls were happy for the adventure.

Veronica’s Model in Grimaud...

As Veronica gets more into photography, Ashlynn gets recruited more and more to be her model. There were lots of spots in Grimaud for nice photos.

Geocaching in Grimaud...

After investigating all around this 17th century wheat windmill (renovated in 1990), we expanded our search for the cache.

Jimmy finally located it on the hill below the back of the windmill after noticing this suspicious rock.

Chateau Ruins of Grimaud...

On Wednesday, we headed into the mountain town of Grimaud, named for the infamous Grimaldi family of Monaco. After lunch at the same creperie that we ate with Terri and Lauren back in 2009, we went up the hill to the ruins of the 15th century chateau (rebuilt on the site of the original 11th century chateau) which was torn down in the 17th century.

It’s great that Veronica’s into photography and Jimmy and I finally get some photos together.

Beach Fun in St. Tropez...

Ashlynn did a good deed by fetching this bag out of the Mediterranean.

Then she had fun playing fetch in the water with this funny little dog. Afterwards, we walked up to the fort on the top of the hill only to discover that it was closed for renovations. We found an Italian restaurant with a terrace for lunch, then had some gelato before heading back to the ferry.

St. Tropez...

The next day we caught a ferry over to St. Tropez. We started with a visit to their market, which was much larger and varied than the market in Port Grimaud. We were happy to find lace dresses for us girls for our 20th wedding anniversary celebration this summer.

 After shopping, we wandered by the port.

Orca Photo Ops...

Our tour ended with this special photo op. We were told to kneel and not to turn around and then this orca was commanded to go behind us. We later found out that he was an old whale with no teeth.

When the show in the afternoon was over, there was another photo op in front of the tank.

More Killer Whales...

 The baby made a real splash!

We enjoyed seeing this feeding up close and personal after the show.

The High Point of the Day...

There is no doubt that the high point for each of us was the time we spent near the killer whales. Ashlynn dreams of being an orca trainer, so watching the show from a vantage point just to the side of the main stage was truly special.

After the show, we got to spend about 20 minutes speaking to this trainer, who’s originally a dancer from Portugal. Due to several accidents at other marine parks, the trainers are no longer allowed in the water with the orcas, which he explained creates another series of risks for humans now that the animals are no longer used to that close human contact. 

Jimmy got come very cool shots from this spot. Sadly, the whales were performing for very small crowds as the threatening rain must have scared folks away.

The Shows...

Pardon me for skipping out of order... After our ;private tour was over, we grabbed some lunch and watched the seal, dolphin and killer whale shows. Marineland is relatively small and wouldn’t have taken all day if we hadn’t done the special tour, but the shows were quite good.

I especially liked this unique stunt with the dolphins.

Meeting a Seal...

The next stop on our tour was to meet a seal. While us girls had been kissed by a seal in Curacao, this was actually our first chance to pet a seal. First we each felt her flipper, then petted her soft coat.