When we were planning our cruise, we were willing to bet money on the fact that by the time we got to our last stop, the French Riviera, we'd be exhausted and a day relaxing at the beach would sound wonderful. And, we were SO right. :)
We slept in a little that morning, went and had a good breakfast and then packed up our beach gear and headed off the ship. We heard about a little beach town right by where we were docked that was about 10 minutes away by bus, so we took off in that direction with no real plan and no real plans other than laying out on the beach.
When we got there we walked around the town a little (there was not much to it!) and then decided to rent some beach chairs and umbrellas for the morning, which turned out to be one of the best 15 euros we spent all week! The weather was perfect, especially in the shade, with a little breeze. Oh, and did I mention, the scenery was beautiful--it was like Destin, Florida, set in the middle of a gorgeous green hillside. And, there was sand, not rocks!:)
We spent a beautiful 4 hours at the beach--laying out, relaxing under the umbrellas, wearing our French Riviera hats, and Landon and I bought some cheapie goggles and actually swam for a little while. The water was crystal clear, but there wasn't too much to see in the water--which may actually be a good thing! The water was a lot colder than in Nice, but once we got in and started swimming it wasn't too bad--and, it was nothing compared to that first triathlon I did without a wetsuit, ha! After that, nothing seems cold anymore! :)
When our time with the chairs was up, Blake and Morgan decided to take the bus back to the ship for some free lunch and time to relax and Landon and I took a water ferry to Toulon in search of some good shopping, good food and a chance to see what Toulon, France was like. And, it was a cute little harbor town. Landon and I were in heaven as our boat pulled up, because we are both kinda borderline obsessed with boats, especially when there are so many of them all together; it just looks so cool. I can't even tell you why, but we love it.
We were a little rushed because we had to be back on the boat early that day since it was our last port of call and we were heading home that night (so sad!), but we enjoyed strolling through the streets. We bought some delicious pastries instead of eating lunch, since a lot of the restaurants were closed for the afternoon, as seems to be the trend in Europe. And, we found a fun wine shop and some nice souvenir type shops that sold really cute clothes and pottery and all sorts of things and had fun doing a little shopping.
And then, right before we jumped back on our water ferry to get back to our cruise ship, we made a little detour into a crepes restaurant we'd seen as we pulled into Toulon. Now, Blake had been talking about trying a crepe the whole time we had been on the trip, since we arrived in Paris, but never did have one. Well now, that was just unacceptable in our book, so we ordered four different types of crepes, from an authentic french crepes restaurant (meaning, they spoke NO english and we spoke no french, so ordering was interesting!). Then, we managed to smuggle them, and a couple of bottles of wine, onto the boat. Either they really weren't paying attention to the scanner, or just didn't care because it was the last day of the cruise!
When we got back to our rooms we woke Blake and Morgan up and had a crepes party in our room; it was a good time. And, the crepes were all really good--we got sugar, butter, chocolate and strawberry. And now, Blake could say he had a crepe while he was in France!
That evening before dinner we headed up to the top deck to lay out one last time and then, sadly, we had to face reality. We began packing up our room so that we could hang out one last time before dinner, since Landon and I had to be up and ready to get off the ship at 6am to make our flight out of Barcelona.
That night at dinner was kinda bittersweet; I was surprised that I was actually a little sad to be leaving. I was going to have to go back to cooking every night and cleaning our house myself and doing real life stuff, ha! And, it meant the trip we'd been planning for over a year was over. But, it was a fun night. Food was delicious, as usual, and we had a good time talking with Clare and Aiden--and we're even Facebook friends with them now, which is fun. And then, as we were eating dessert, all the waiters got together on the stairs and sang a farewell song.
After we said out good byes to everyone in the dining hall we headed back to our room to quickly pack up the last few thing. Then, to bring our cruise to an official end, since we wouldn't see each other in the morning, we grabbed a bottle of wine that Landon and I had bought in Toulon, borrowed some glasses from the cruise ship and headed up to one of the decks to hang out. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a few last conversation and laughs and then set up the camera and took a few group shots. It was pretty much a perfect way to end a trip of a lifetime. It truly was everything we had hoped for and more--and enough wonderful memories to last a lifetime!
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