Sainte Maxime, France

Hello Everyone,

It is now Tuesday evening and my head is swimming from all I’ve seen, heard and experienced and of course eaten. I feel a bit like a stuffed goose at the moment and look forward to being on my own on Friday so that I can eat lightly. They all want to impress us and go out of their way to have feasts and it just becomes too much.

But at this moment, I’m sitting up in my bed, looking out on the Mediterranean, through the trees. A sailboat glides by and a kite dives and swirls along the shore. It is lovely. Even worth feeling like a stuffed goose.

Yesterday, we went to Chateau de Berne, again out in the country, down the road from Terre Blanche. It is a chateau with buildings dating from 1750 and so full of charm. It was like staying in a country home, all the rooms are upstairs and you just go down for dinner and breakfast. They have over 1600 acres of grapevines, olive trees and gardens. I loved it. I could have moved in for sure. This morning, we toured the winery. Last night at dinner, we drank their wines.

This is such a lovely region of France, called ‘Le Var’ and a bit less known that the coastal towns. After Chateau de Berne, we headed down the hill to the coast again and had lunch at a very posh hotel in St. Tropez and then wandered around the little village. The Yachts are huge and dominate the port, but the village itself is quite charming.

Jet lag has been a challenge. I got up again this am to swim in the lovely pool at Chateau de Berne, to help with all that I’m eating and also to help with the jet lag. It was still dark when I went outside to go swimming and my mind did not at all like the idea of getting into the pool. It was perfectly quiet except for a lone rooster crowing.

I was looking for the Jacuzzi so that I could promise my self to get into it after the swim but couldn’t find it. I heard my mind say ‘where is the Jacuzzi, pronounced the French way as in JAcuzzi, where as in English, we say jaCUzzi. I had to laugh at how my poor mind, with jet lag and speaking French, would be talking inside my own head saying the word in the French way.

But no Jacuzzi, whatever the pronounciation, but the pool was great and the sun came up pink again while I swam. A woman from the Tourist Board joined me and we chatted and swam. She invited me to come back anytime and stay in all the great places and more that we couldn’t see. I think I just might do that.

I was thinking about jet lag and how it is like childbirth–you forget that it is bad till you’re in it again and then it’s like–oh yeah, I remember this now…But like childbirth, you forget because what comes after is so great. And it should get better soon. It is also because we’re on such a busy schedule and having to be ‘on’ all the time.

So now we’re at the Hotel Beauvallon, a beautiful ‘Belle Epoque’ hotel right on the sea and I look forward to checking out their pool and JAcuzzi. If I can just get the internet to work, we’ll be good.

I’ve lost both my watch and my clock, so the only way I know what time it is is from the computer and it tells me the time in California, which doesn’t help with my jet lag, to be reminded that it is 9:15 am there and 6:15 pm here.
But all in all, this is a great adventure and I’m loving it.

Will send photos soon.

Hugs from across the pond,

Diane