Another Great Visit...

Besides the friendship, fun and great scenery, our week in Grimaud was full of good food. Habe was the chef most nights at home, leaving me to do what I do best in the kitchen--chop veggies and wash dishes. We also had two amazing dinners out. One was with the kids at Chris and Terri’s favorite restaurant at the beach in St. Maxime. The other was for the adults only at a very trendy hotel in St. Tropez. We started with mojitos on the roof with fantastic views, then dinner on the front patio. It looked like a place straight out of a magazine; it was very hard to refrain from being the total tourist and taking photos.

Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous...

We didn’t do much sightseeing during this visit. Veronica joined Terri, Habe and I at the market in Port Grimaud where we bought some awesome marinated garlic. Then she joined me for a half day trip to St. Tropez. We caught the ferry from Port Grimaud, which was a lovely ride. St. Tropez wasn’t nearly as fancy as I expected. It was very approachable, which was surprising considering the amazing yachts we saw in the harbor. We enjoyed walking along the coast and around the town. I offered to take Veronica out for a nice lunch, but she opted for a simple salad at a simple café. We lucked into a 75% off sale just before boarding the return ferry. Great fun having some alone time with my big girl.

Kids Just Want to Have Fun...

In addition to us, Terri was also hosting her friend Habe and her two sons at her house. The three of us ladies took the six kids to the local fun fair, Azure Park. The kids had a great time on a mix of daredevil and old-fashioned rides, such as the two shown here. I was reminded of my visits to Tijuana when I had to pay to buy toilet paper at the restrooms.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun...

When the girls weren’t playing or swimming or bugging the boys, they were working on both a play and a musical for the pool. The original play called Forget Me, Forget Me Not combined segments from 13 Going on 30 and Wild Child and was performed in Lauren’s bedroom. It was pretty funny that Terri, Chris, Habe, Max and I all squished into a corner of the room to watch, but it was worth it as the play was very cute.

On our last night, the girls performed a musical which was based on Mamma Mia and was extra magical as it was performed with the lights of the pool at night and the lights of St. Tropez in the distance.

Back to Grimaud...

Just a few days after Holly left, it was time for us girls to hop on a plane to head to the South of France. This year, we flew down alone and rented a car for the drive from Nice to Grimaud. Terri and family met us at their lovely new house. How fun it was to see how much progress was made since we saw it under construction last summer. Lauren was able to fit both Veronica and Ashlynn in her room on the 3rd floor and I had a lovely view from my guest room on the 2nd floor. We spent much of the week relaxing. While the girls played and swam, Terri and I worked on the September issue of Going Dutch. It was great fun to work together on our first issue to include 8 pages in color.

Better than Old Times...

Since Holly and I hadn’t spent much time together since high school, it was a bit of a risk that we wouldn’t have the same interests after all these years. Luckily, our week was full of constant laughs and lots of fun, and we were great travel companions. We knew we were on the same wavelength when this sign at Kensington Palace cracked us up so much we were in tears. Look forward to meeting her elsewhere in Europe in the future.

Gotta Go to Amsterdam...

No visit to Holland is complete without spending a day in Amsterdam. Our whirlwind tour included visits to the Royal Palace of Amsterdam (which had recently reopened after extensive renovations and was quite spectacular), Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House. We also went to the XtraCold Icebar, which unfortunately had lost all of its charm after adding a silly 3D movie but at least had a generous bartender.