Beach in the South of France

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Well, we drove to the south of France today, right near Montpellier to a beach called Point Zero Beach in a town called Grande-Motte. Absolutely perfect. It was perfect beach weather: hot and a little breezy. But maybe it is always like that in the south of France? We got there just before lunch and had our pick of spots on the beach. We settled in for a picnic lunch and then spent the afternoon swimming, relaxing, playing in the sand and looking for crabs. Things about the beach: people are very tanned here (now Nigel and Russell glowed like light bulbs - no that photo is not overexposed, they really ARE that pale, and Rachel and I aren't exactly tanned...), lots of banana hammocks, budgie smugglers and sacs des jewels (I made that one up), some topless but not too many at this beach. Some women were topless too.

The beach started to get a lot more crowded after 2pm. By the time we left at close to 5pm, it was packed! The drive home was good. The drive included sightings of lots of hilltop castles, sunflower fields, olive fields, another aqueduct, sighting of Mont Ventoux from afar, and some old villages. The driving here is very scenic and has become part of the adventure for us (at least Nigel and I, the kids don't really get too excited by the scenery).

We liked the Mediterranean so much we plan to try to squeeze in a return trip next week if possible.

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Photos

Point Zero beach
A raisin ( a very very very tanned old lady, likely 23-24 years old) took this photo for us.

Sand play
Next they fought over who got to stuff whose head in the hole. Ahhhh...it's blissful when the kids entertain themselves.

Latrine
By doing this, we saved countless minutes walking to "les toilettes." Just kidding. But one thing that actually happened was a 10 year old girl who walked past us on the beach, stopped, peed on the spot standing up, and carried on walking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Comments

[Elke]

Beautiful Beach
Looks like a perfect beach day at lovely beach. We were looking forward to the 2 of you going local......speedo for Nigel and topless for Lori - maybe when you go back next week - I mean after all you are in the south of France! BTW, it's 37 degrees here today with the humidity it feels like 48 (we're breaking all sorts of records)- great time not to be here!

[Gramps Coleman]

Travel Updates
Hi Sweet People......................we are thoroughly enjoying your daily blogs with all the humourous comments and enclosed pics..................you certainly are selecting some very interesting destinations each day.................not sure though that I'd try feedin' on a cow's lips or a bull's hoof....................I'll let Nigel do all the sampling of stuff like that !....................Wee Amy is with us at present and she is reading and enjoying your daily blogs.....................record high temps have been set throughout Ontario today......................up here in the Near North it was a balmy 35*C............................give some hugs and kisses to our sweet Nutella Girl and Rusty...................Dad C

[Brendan Robertson]

Hi from Vernon
Sounds like you guys are having a great time. I am very jealous. I will need to talk to you guys about going to France like this too. I hope l'alpe d'huez was fun. My email is still the same so I don't know why you can't email me. Nigel, send me more pics. You look like you have really lost lots of weight. How's it going?