A few months ago, I suggested that we go explore a new area without having to take vacation time. Let’s go to Southern France for 2 weeks, take our computers, work during the day, let the kids have beach and pool time, and wander around little beach towns at night. Jay was on board with the idea so I began a hunt for the perfect place.

I found Maison de la Plage 83 – located about an hour north of St Tropez and an hour south of Cannes, on the Mediterranean Sea. The area has many names – Cote D’Azur, French Riviera, Southern France – call it what you want, but it was a little slice of paradise.
Because we wanted to bring Kaycee with us, someone had to drive ~11 hours. The car was packed with luggage, monitors, etc, so Lily volunteered to road trip with dad.
Ty and I took a direct flight to Nice.
That looks a little different than Germany…
Nice is nice. It did rain on us a bit, so it could have been nicer, but we were just happy to see the sea.
We arrived in the morning and could not check in until after 3:00, so we wandered the streets of old Nice. Why didn’t someone think to carve pants onto that statue?
When we got checked in, Ty laid claim to his bedroom. Apparently waking up at 5:00 is not a teenage boy’s favorite thing to do.
Jay and Lily arrived and she immediately jumped in the pool. She was pretty much in the pool for 2 weeks straight.
French bread, French butter, French jam, and coffee. Ooh la la.
One of my favorite things to do was eat on the beach. This post is full of selfies at a table next to the water. I didn’t keep a log of the restaurants- all were great. Food tastes better seaside.
On Sunday we drove down to St Tropez. Holy boats Batman. The place oozes wealth.
I warned you
Most beaches in France are not dog friendly. This little section was OK for dogs. Kaycee loved the sand! He had the zoomies for 5 minutes. :). As a side note, Germany is a much more dog friendly country than France.
This was my office view for 2 weeks. It is now my Teams background.

One afternoon Jay and Ty went to Freund while I wrapped up some meetings. Lily and I took an Uber to meet them for dinner. We wandered through a market on our way back to where Jay and Ty parked. As we were nearing the parking spot, Jay started to get nervous. The market was huge. And it was on the street where he had parked.

In a prior post I talked about the importance of taking the time to translate signs. This one would have been a good one to read closely.
Well shoot. We arrived at the parking spot to find no car parked there. Thankfully the police were nice and helped us find out where our car was towed to.
Waiting impatiently for the lady who didn’t speak English to fill out tons of paper work (on paper, not a computer) so we could get our ride back. 2 hours and 100 EUR later, we will be more careful about where we park in the future.
Ty and Lily took a bus to Cannes one day. They got along well (shocking), made us dinner reservations, and relaxed on the beach until Jay and I finished working.
The best restaurant of the whole trip. Carlton Cannes Beach Club – part of the Carlton Hotel (looked amazing, BTW). Lily is holding the dog menu….Kaycee was served grilled chicken and rice for dinner. The service, food, drinks, and atmosphere were all 5 stars.
and they even let Kaycee watch the sunset on the beach…
From the best meal to the worst. I’m pretty sure I got good poisoning at this restaurant. I’m not going to share the name because I’m not 100% sure that is what happened, but….
Chillin with my villains
Yeah, I didn’t make dinner the next night. Jay and the kids had a delicious dinner without me while my stomach recovered.

Monaco. A little sovereign city-state that is bordered by France on 3 sides and the Mediterranean Sea on the 4th. Luxury. Excess. Filthy rich. The best people watching was outside the Monte Carlo Casino, where the rich and famous go to park their super cars.

and you must be the monopoly guy
The valet parker has a very stressful job.
I had Ty with me so I couldn’t go inside the casino, but there she is. The Monte Carlo.

Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur is a little town in the Hautes-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was about 3 hours from our holiday home, so we drove there on Sunday to check out the town where my great grandmother, Rose Faure, lived in as a little girl before immigrating to Wyoming.

Amazing area
This is the only clue I had to find Nana Rose’s house. About 13 years ago my aunts visited the town and took this picture. Where’s Waldo? Even though it was Sunday and most shops were closed, the Visitor Center was open and the lady spoke English. She did not know exactly where the house was, but had an idea on which area of town it might be in. So off we went.
The main street was super cute. Check out the laundry shop.
Saint Jean
Maybe the house is down this little alley?
I found it!!!!! It looks a little different, they added a window in the front, vines have grown, but that’s definitely it. My mom really wanted me to knock on the door but I couldn’t do it. Didn’t want to be a creeper.
We found some cemeteries that have a lot of Faure and Pelligrin graves, which are possibly some of my ancestors. This was one of many pictures I took (didn’t want to creep you out with heaps of grave pictures). The cemeteries are different. There is a family plot with one big headstone, then little headstones for each family member.
The view from the 3 Crosses was incredible.
St Bonnet is just to the right of Ty.
Chapel of the Pétètses. Speaking of creepy, have I mentioned how much I don’t like dolls?
This wasn’t open, but we had to follow the signs to The Pelligrin Family Farm. Long lost family??
I didn’t buy much on this trip, but I did pick up this turquoise turtle shell ring.
And I would have bought this – if I cooked – because how often have I ever seen Jeanne on anything?!?!?

I did sneak in one half day of actual vacation. Jay had some important meetings so I took the kids to the beach in the afternoon. We reserved some lounge chairs with umbrellas, floated in the water, snorkeled, got massages on the beach, and ate a yummy lunch.

One last dinner on the beach to wrap up an amazing work-ation.

This might have been one of my most genius ideas. The change of scenery was exactly what I needed. I was incredibly productive with work, super relaxed in the evenings. I loved walking to the beach snack shack to grab lunch, watching the boats float by while I was thinking, letting the kids sleep guilt-free until noon, and spending quality time with them after work. I predict more of this in our future. Au revoir France! Until next time!