We had a fairly uneventful morning packing up our stuff and checking out of our apartment.  Once again thank goodness for carry-on suitcases because our car was jammed full!  The kids actually had things packed between them in the back seat because we took a bunch of stuff with us that we had purchased in the last week.  (Paper towels, chips, bottles of water, a box of wine…)  Essentials.

The drive from Beaucaire to Saint Raphaël was supposed to take about 2 hours and 15 minutes, but as it’s a Saturday in August most of France was also on the road.  We got stuck for almost half an hour going about 2 km/hr waiting to pay a toll-road fee… this is the unglamourous side of travel and reminds us why we love trains so much.  The cars are so much smaller here, and it was funny to see how jammed full many vehicles were.  One lady had her entire car packed right up to the windows (including her passenger side seat) and gravity defying things stacked on her roof.  I wish I got my camera out in time to take a side view of her, but Chloë managed to sneak this picture from the back window.  People watching on the highway – who knew!

Thankfully we have GPS in this car which makes my job as navigator very easy.  You could say redundant, but that seems a bit cruel.  ;)  We found our apartment fairly easily, and after only some slight confusion (and a phone call to the lady in charge), we came up to the 15^th floor of the building and were more than pleasantly surprised.  Honestly, you never know if what you think you paid for is what you’re going to get, but this one definitely delivered.  Apparently the family before us broke a bunch of glasses and pushed too many buttons on the air conditioning control, and so the lady in charge was a little bit frazzled with fixing their messes.  (In fact, we met her out on the street with a bag full of new wine glasses!)  Her half English and our half French got us through all the necessary information and here we are!

We went down to the beach for an hour or so to get our bearings and check out the scene.  It’s really gorgeous here, and we are so happy to have a week to soak it all up.  Dinner was at a really busy restaurant with a view of the harbour and the kids loved the violet flavoured ice cream we got on the way home.  Now it’s time to settle in and relax – a true holiday.  :)