Antibes In July

To celebrate Hans' 75 birthday, Hans and Nicky took all of us to Antibes for a week. And it was wonderful. We stayed in a block of units just a few minutes from the beach and spent most of the week shuttling between the beach and the pool. After quite a few disastrous holidays with kids, it turns out that this is what does work. A warm pool, a calm beach, an apartment with sweeping views of the horizon from a breezy balcony for parents to gaze at while little ones nap. 

There's a lot to explore around Antibes, but with the high daytime temps we kept it pretty low key, and I made mental notes of everything to explore in later years. We did take the kids to the Picasso museum and they, of course, promptly ruined it haha. No reading of descriptions or quiet appreciation of abstract lines for you Mum.

Cal, who loves a swimming pool more than anything in the world spent hours practising his dives with the coaching of Nicky et al. What really helped was when he started diving through his blow-up donut. That gave his the height and arc he needed. And "ballerina toes" got his knees together. His dives are now gorgeous; long, swift and elegant. What a wonderful thing to watch evolve over the course of a week.

And we finally christened Stella Bella. Her first contact with The Sea. Toes dipped into the Med as it lapped gently on the shore. She screamed and nestled into my chest, the sound of (small) waves crashing onto the sand a bit scary. But as days passed, she found her way in the water. She enjoyed being cuddled in the big pool, loved splashing in the ridiculously sun-warm baby pool, and made friends with the sea, dabbling her toes on the sand as she watched Cal dolphin around in the shallows.

We had such a great week. David and I even got to sneak away for a "stupid date" as Cal called it. We had lunch at a restaurant on the old fort walls with white clothed tables and views of the super yachts moored off the coast.

Thank you Hans and Nicky for such a special week xx