Valbonne - day one

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Today was a very relaxed day for us here in France. Our hotel does a very good basic breakfast by the pool....coffee and croissants etc. We enjoyed that and then, armed with a few local property magazines and my sunglasses, I took my place by the pool as the kids went swimming. A half hour later I was totally ready to make offers on several of the massive villas by the Med but then decided that a dip in the pool might be a better idea.

A couple of hours around the pool was followed by a light lunch and then we piled into the rental car to look for a beach. Most of the coast around here is rocky but the hotel manager pointed us towards an area around Theoule-sur-Mer where there are a few beaches of sand/pebbles. We ended up at a beach that was more pebbles than sand but it didn't matter a bit. The stones were smooth and warm, while the sea was cool and calm. And better yet the kids found some rocks where they could jump into the sea. See photos of Ben in action. Something for everyone, and we stayed at the beach for a few hours until clouds rolled across the sun.

After that we headed back to the hotel for a shower and a swift half before going to nearby Valbonne for supper. It's a beautiful, if a little touristy, village in the foothills with a really nice area of small shops/restaurants around a market square. My dad would have really enjoyed the bottle of Crozes-Hermitage that helped supper go down!

So, a tough day of relaxation but this is just what we wanted on this leg of the trip. The weather forecast is questionable tomorrow, so we are taking a wait-and-see approach.

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