Welcome to Paris, France

Yesterday morning we said our goodbyes to Jaime. He had just come for a quick weekend visit and needed to get going fairly early to catch his flight back to England. Then we moved to a permanent spot in the marina. We were absolutely delighted to find it was a floating finger dock, although it is a shared berth. It’s funny how our perspective of what is exciting has changed so much. Finger docks make tying up so darn easy. As they seem to always do in the Med, they had us back in.

We were dismayed to find that the shore power wasn’t working. Eric messed with it for a while, but he couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Darn, no power means that our time away from Kosmos was going to be limited to three or four days, max. We signed up for wifi internet and found ourselves glued to the internet all day. We haven’t had internet since Rome, and so much has been happening in the world that we had a lot to catch up on.

We didn’t actually venture out until dinner time, where we settled on a pizza place along the waterfront. We’d seen a lot of people in there the night before, so we figured it was probably good. We got a phenomenally good salad served with warm marinated duck, foie gras, hard boiled eggs, lettuce and tomatoes. The duck was melt in your mouth tender. For those that don’t know, foie gras is goose liver, usually served cold. The texture is creamy, more like a cheese spread than a meat. It has a light flavor, and doesn’t even remotely taste like any other types of livers we have tried in our lives. It is also very good.

This morning we packed up and walked over to the bus station. The skies were gray and it was cool out. Gray skies means the solar panels won’t be making much electricity, but cool out means fridge/freezer won’t suck as much juice, so that probably evens out power consumption. We made a wrong turn somewhere along the way and took the long, scenic route to the bus stop. The town is nice. The old part looks a lot like St. Tropez, with narrow cobblestone lanes and quaint, traditional old buildings painted cheerful colors. The old town is small, much smaller than St. Tropez. The rest of town that we walked through is more modern, with many of the buildings looking very 60’s era. We saw a lot of apartment buildings and a few houses. It looks to be a mostly residential area with not a lot of commercial activity. The houses vary widely in architectural style, adding to the character. There is a lot of greenery around, with many flowering plants in bloom. It is pretty.

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When we did finally make it to the bus stop, we had missed the bus by Continue reading

Welcome to Isle de Porquerrolles, Cote d’Azur, France

Yesterday, Eric went to check in as soon as the marina opened. The lady asked us if we intended to leave Le Lavandou at all. Yes, we told her, we wanted to go to Paris for a few days, possibly as long as a week. She told us we would have to go to the marina on the other side of town. Apparently, the waves can be violent and crash over the sea walls and cause damage to the boats near the wall. She had no “safe” parking spot for us, so we either had to stay with the boat in case we needed to move her or we needed to move marinas.

We had noticed yesterday that Continue reading

Welcome to Le Lavandou, Cote d’Azur, France

This morning we woke to winds screaming at 22 26 knots an hour. The marina was lumpy. The ocean was full of whitecaps. We attached a second mooring line to the bow, even though it didn’t really fit right, figuring something holding us to a second concrete block under the water was better than nothing. We guess we aren’t moving Kosmos today, after all.

We decided to go for the four hour hike along the coast that was supposed to be absolutely beautiful. But after Continue reading

Exploring St. Tropez

This morning we slept late and got off to a slow start. Eric went to the marina to check in and almost fell over when they told him it was $87.00 USD per night for a slip. Ouch. We certainly weren’t prepared for that. Isn’t this the off season where slips are supposed to be cheaper? We know St. Tropez is the stomping ground of the famous, but we figured that it would be less expensive than Monaco, the stomping ground of the rich. We suppose that famous must trump rich. Since we came from Monaco, there were no check in formalities.

The marina does have Continue reading

History of the Republic of France

Skeletons of Neanderthals and the caves they have inhabited have been found in France that date back to 90,000 40,000 BC. Many caves inhabited by Cro-Magnon man that date back 35,000 years have been found, as well as the skeletons of the people themselves. France also has many remains from the Neolithic period, 4000 7,500 years ago. The Neolithic era ushered in major development in human advancement. People went from being hunter-gatherer nomads living in caves to settling in villages, growing crops and raising livestock. Tools were advanced and woven fabrics were developed.

The Celtic Gauls moved into Continue reading