And Then There Were Eight

Seven of us arrived in Nice around ten o'clock and we picked up two rental cars before settling in to wait for our eighth classmate, John, to arrive from Florida via Atlanta and Paris.

Six hours later he arrived at the villa by taxi (you didn't think we were going to kill a day in Nice sitting in an airport, did you?  Please.  He's a big boy!). He had horror stories about Air France that topped our U.S. Airways tales.  Must the French try to outdo us in everything?  Isn't it enough that the women can eat foie gras and drink wine and still lose weight?  And is scarf-tying taught during toilette training?  I digress...

We spent the weekend swimming in the pool, lounging on the terrasse(s) and trying not to lose anyone in the 426 rooms.   Seriously, this is a beautiful villa perched on the hillside below the medieval town of St. Jeannette, just a ten minute walk up the hill. Well, that's what the books say. If you're 60 years old it takes twenty minutes and a Peaugot.  But it's worth the jog, especially after two Mohitos and a midnight trek down the dark streets to get home.

The vistas are incredible, the pizza is lousy and the weather is perfect.  In other words, we don't want to leave. Please send money.

Our Villa at St. Jeannett, France

View from our Villa

View from our villa

One of many incredible flowers growing on our "home"

entryway

Mary and John chillin' by the pool

Janice and Diane

Living room of the villa

One of the terraces in the villa

Thanks, California. We owe you.

Big hug to all of you who sent encouraging emails and FB messages.   That felt good!

Lots of questions about just what it is we’re doing, so I’ll tip my hand early and set this up.

Last year five of us “Jersey Girls” jumped from weekends in New York or Maryland to a ten-day trip up the California coast.  We rented a car in Los Angeles and slowly moved our way up to Napa.  Along the way we visited friends and classmates who now live in that beautiful state, as well as Venice Beach, Hearst Castle, Monterey Aquarium, Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco and Napa wineries.  To say we had a blast would be an understatement.  The most amazing part?  Five women in one hotel room each night and not one incident of bathroom rage.   Believe it.

Of course, the next logical step was to take this show global.  So over the Christmas holiday a few of us decided that France—with a toe touch into Italy—would be a good start.  I mean, a country that has been bouncing back from invasions since 1792 can certainly handle our little group, non?

By mid-January eight of us were on board and deposits had been put down on an apartment in Venice and a villa in St. Jeannet on the Riviera.  We added a hotel in Paris for a few days, ordered two cars for the Riviera portion, bought plane tickets and started squealing things like, “really? Are we really doing this?”  Which is pretty much what we’ve been repeating for the past five months.

Let me interject something important (to me) here:  This kind of trip is extremely doable on most budgets.  Splitting costs eight ways brings things like a villa on the Cote Azure within reality.  This is my first tip for your future travels.  Thank me later.

So there you have it.  Venice Beach to Venice, Italy.  Makes sense to us.  I’ll provide the names of the players soon (after I get permission) and one week from today (July 4^th) our adventure begins.

On second thought, let’s make that “our adventure continues.”