FRANCE: Day 1

After a short morning of saying goodbyes—too few kisses and not enough hugs, papa and I walk to the Kangoo and DM drives us to the bus station in Bratislava for our one hour trip (15€ for two one-way tickets) to the Flughafen (airport) in Vienna. We get café lattes while we wait for the 8:30am departure. Checking our bags still costs 1€ each.

It’s a foggy, rainy morning as we enjoy our silent ride along the Danube and into Austria. RvH asked me yesterday what the terrain is between the twin cities of Bratislava and Vienna, and I answered that it’s the Danube River valley, so it’s flat. But, today I notice that there are definitely some hills during the first part of our ride.

http://www.airport-data.com/airport/photo/014621.html.html

Everything goes smoothly in all our transportation today. We have plenty of time in Vienna, the flight is on-time, and we arrive in Nice as expected. It's always a spectacular landing in Nice. The views are unparalleled and it feels like you're about to make a water landing...

We collect our bags, and walk about 5 minutes to the Europcar rental location near Terminal 2. We are expecting a VW Polo, but end up with a Opel Corsi—an equivalent car. With tight parking spaces throughout Europe, we’re always glad for a small car.

CA drives and I navigate, and in 15 – 20 minutes we’re in Mougins, entering the Carrefour market for groceries. We can’t resist two baguettes, and four kinds of cheese:
St. Nectaire Laitier RDF
Fromage Port Salut
Tomme de Mantagne
Chaumes le Cremier

And, one would not be wrong to consider the French butter—in this case Reflets de France, Beurre de Baratte—to be another cheese selection. Divine.

In addition, we choose some bananas, limes, and Clementines. Our meal is trumped with a freshly rotisseried chicken—the 9.90€ variety—that is seasoned with Herbes de Provence, and about the best tasting and moistest chicken I’ve ever experienced. For two years we’ve exclaimed over the 10€ chicken we purchased with SN+SN during our first visit to Mougins. Today, while there’s a cheaper variety available inside we again buy the version from the purveyor in the booth outside the front door of Carrefour. Yum!

Tomorrow is a market day in Antibes, and we’ll wander a bit in the foothills of the Maritime Alps of Provence—just getting our bearings and letting the beauty of Provence seep into our souls.

As we lug our suitcases and groceries up and down and up the terraced staircases to Villa 815, we meet a couple from Canada, who said they’d just met a couple from Colorado. Maybe we will socialize this week?