I'd Like to be Under the Sea

Sadly, I was only in the sea and over the sea and not diving into an octopus' garden on this occasion. Poor old moi. Don't bother shedding any tears. Having left my house in Cambridge at 9.45 am on Saturday, I met meeting my parents at Avis in Nice Airport at 2.30 pm local time. The landing into Nice is always quite exciting as the runway is right on the edge of the sea so you're never quite certain whether those "emergency landing on water" safety demos are going to be of use. Actually, Hong Kong is more exciting; you come right by the skyscrapers and again the landing strip is on reclaimed land so it's a case of "will we make it?"

We headed to Palm Beach with full kit (my dad has a reputation for being over-kitted at times but if it means extra-comfortable beach mats and executive parasols, I'm not complaining too much). It was the weekend before la rentrée in Cannes and the beach was packed. French children are almost all angelic (relatively) but the two most badly behaved enfants in France appeared to have camped next to us. Ne'er mind. We played some frisbee without maiming too many kiddies and then Dad fetched us some G and Ts. Ah...

We had dinner at a trendy restaurant called Maëma, located right on the beach at one end of the Croisette (the opposite end to our aparto). It was turquoise-themed, which suited me fine, and our table was next to the beach. The beach itself was home to an awesome bar, where the seats consisted of massive hammocks and what can only be described as large, wooden beds.

The following day, it was time for a sailing trip, which was good fun. There was almost no wind so for a lot of the time we were using the engine rather than the sails but there was plenty of time for swimming, snorkelling (no diving, sadly) and sunbathing. The sea was a gorgeously clear turquoise and other than the odd jellyfish alert (méduse!), it was blissful. I'm not sure I learned much about sailing (the captain would ask me to do something, in French, I wouldn't understand so he would translate into equally cryptic English; when he told me he was going to "do the jib myself" I decided to stay well clear!) but it was a fun day.

Today consisted mostly of shopping (remarkably little for me) and sunbathing, although I also went parasailing, which was fun, as always, and a very Cannes thing to do. After a little sunbathing session next to a terribly posh pair of blonde English families with their young enfants, fathers and sons attired in Vilebrequin (which even I will admit is very cute), mummies very yummy.

Back to the aparto for mojitos, dinner and being attacked my a sharp ice cube, the cupboard and several particularly vicious mosquitos.

All in all, it has been a pretty awesome mini-break.