Yesterday, we (like thousands in France) departed for our Christmas holidays. Schools in France closed Friday afternoon for two weeks, so a lot of families with kids get a jump start on vacation. You probably heard by now of the 3 or 4 train-loads of people who got trapped in the Eurostar tunnel, some for up to 16 hours, because of some as-yet-unknown malfunction that may have been related to the recent cold and snow across most of France. When we left yesterday, our train ended up being delayed a grand total of 90 minutes; we arrived in Saint Raphael at midnight, with a sleeping 8-year old and around eight pieces of baggage. Thank God for taxi service, that's all I can say.
Today, we did the food shopping and had a nice lunch and vegged out for a while, then ventured out all together for a walk around town to see what was going on. There's an ice rink in the large square, some small Christmas markets scattered around, and lots of lights that are going to look beautiful just about now, when it's dark. We got churros and cotton candy and checked a few of the local shops which were actually open on Sunday (something that never happens at other times of the year).
Then, it was down to the beach. Our beach. MELON BEACH.
Don't let all that sunshine fool you, though. It was 0 degrees Celsius. Warmer today, but raining like hell.
Still... I'm at the BEACH. In FRANCE. For CHRISTMAS. This is a first for me.
