I put on fuzzy socks to write this post. Yep, it is August 6…some would even say summertime….but apparently summer skipped Paris this year.  In fact, it is raining yet again outside…I hear the light drops of the rain on my bedroom window…maddening.

Paris has this crazy August tradition called “Paris-Plages“…where a beach, complete with sand and umbrellas, is created on the left and right banks of the Seine for all the Parisians stuck in a hot, humid, sticky city while their fellow city-dwellers are sun-bathing topless and happy seaside.  Well, this year it has been an absolute bust…I think the city has started handed out scarves and mittens and had the sand hauled away….ah, my Dad told me a million times not to exaggerate.

BUT I was able to escape all these sad clouds, if only for 7 days, and had one of the best European beach holidays I could ever imagine. My Italian family has a beach home in Finale Ligure, Liguria, Italy and graciously invited me to join them this year…an offer that I could absolutely not refuse!

My first stop in route to Italian Riviera was the French Riviera…Nice! along the perfect Cote d’Azur.  The last time I was here, was on my honeymoon….so my time there was awash in a sea of memories.  So much can happen in 7 years….and has.

This is a view of all of Nice from the Parc Castel des deux Rois.

I took the petit train touristique up here…which have come a long way since my last tour through Cote d’Azur.  The train was complete with an audio guide in 10 languages.

A few scenes from Nice’s flower market…oh, how I wanted to buy a bouquet!

They actually were reasonable priced here (3Euro50 versus 25Euro in Paris!…the price you pay for sleeping with the Eiffel Tower…well, that is what they keep telling me).

Candied, dried fruit.

Fresh veggies!

…each morning in Nice I would enjoy a cappuccino at one of the outside cafes and then head to the market for a basket of fresh strawberries.  I would eat the strawberries as I walked the market, smelled all the lavender soaps, admired the baked goods and sampled jams.

During my one full day in Nice, I decided to head up to a magical, medieval village that I fell in love with 7 years before, Èze.  The bus up there was only 1 Euro…but whatever I saved on transportation costs, I quickly made-up for after my 4 course lunch at a one Michelin star restaurant with panoramic views of the Baie des Anges.

These are all the civilized patrons that I lunched with at the Château Eza on a near perfect Thursday afternoon.

My amuse bouche paired with the most lovely Chablis I have ever had.

This was my first duck in France!

I had been holding out for a place that I knew could make a statement with their canard…the flavors of fig, balsamic and gorgonzola with the duck were parfait.

I even ate that pretty little flower.

Absolutely content…

The wait staff could barely remove me from that balcony….I was completely and unmovably in love with the view and the little town.

A nice English man took this photo…he was at the table next to me with his French lover. 🙂

We all got on quite well.

An unobstructed shot of the majestic view….

The little winding pathways of the old village were beautifully and gracefully painted with bougainvillieas and other lush flowers and trees.

Pathway in Èze 

Decorative detail in the walls.

This is how Eze looks from a distance…I hope it doesn’t take me another 7 years to get back.

Oh BTW, I waited for my 1 Euro bus ride back to Nice for over an hour….apparently schedules don’t mean much on the ole French Riviera.

Nice in the evening!

This evening I took one last stroll along the Promenade des Anglais before heading back to my 16 chambres boutique hotel where my room had a shower…but no toilette :).  Don’t worry, the community bathroom was quite clean and behind a pretty stained glass door. Ah, the life of a girl on a fixed income :)…

Next stop Italy to spend some quality beach time with my Italian cousins!  I took 2 short train rides from Nice to Finale Ligure.  My first transfer was in Ventimiglia, Italy…oh, how big my smile was when I walked off the train to nothing but the melodic hums of the Italian language.  I was feeling so much joy to be there that I decided to grab a quick gelato at a little stand near the station.  At the counter I asked for a “coppa (Italian) avec (French) chocolate (Spanish)”…uh oh…the perils of learning multiple languages.

When I got off the train in Finale, I was greeted by the big smile of my 18 year old cousin, Susanna! She looked entirely beach-ready in her little pink, strapless terry-cloth dress over her swimsuit and perfect golden tan.  With luggage in tow, we walked the lungomare along the beach front to their 2 bedroom, 3rd floor (4th floor to me!) beach getaway.  At the apartment I was greeted by my other cousin, Cristina, who had just arrived from Torino to start her 4 week holiday!  Girls’ week at the beach had began!

So although I can’t keep my languages straight like a good European, I did learn within the 5 days with my cousins how to holiday like a good European.  We, Americans, have much to learn from this important tradition of rest and relaxation.

This was my view from our rented umbrella at the “Palm Beach” beach in Finale.

My family rents this spot all summer…and every morning and afternoon they are out either sunbathing, Med- bathing or talking with friends under different umbrellas.

Umbrellas and tanned bodies as far as the eye could see!

I loved our beach routine every day….

It went a bit like this:

 9am-ish – wake up then have coffee and biscuits.  Put on swimsuit, grab sunscreen, a book and keys to unlock the bike.

10am-ish – hop on bikes, stop at the bakery where Cristina would put in the order for bread, stop at the news stand where Cristina would pick up the news paper, maneuver through the pedestrian walks and streets to get to the beach.

10:30-ish to 12:45-ish – Sunbathe, read and cool off in the sea when you got too hot!

1:00pm-ish – hop back on bikes to head home for lunch (as a note, the entire beach did this…as we walked out all were saying “ciao” and “bon appetito”)

1:30 – 3:30pm – lunch was usually cured meats with fresh bread, fruit and salad…one day Susanna even made hot dogs!!  🙂 She was a bit nervous to make them for her American cousin (being the connoisseur I am!), but they turned out perfect.   Lunch followed by rest time at the apartment (well, for the two older women :)….Susanna would usually go meet friends right after lunch).  I would shower and Cristina would watch her favorite Italian soap.

3:30pm – 6:30pm – Back to the beach for Cristina to meet friends for coffee and general gossiping (the most important sport in Finale during the summer months!) and I would head to explore the town, beaches and shops…always returning to the umbrella around 6:30pm with some new treasure I had found.

Susanna putting her culinary skills to work!

The first 3 nights we did dinner in….this was a delicious meal of cheese and prociutto tortolini with homemade tomato sauce.  Italian food is so simple, but so delicious.

The last 2 nights we did meals out in the little villages in the hills around Finale (the perks of having the Fiat 500).

This evening Cristina, Susanna and I went to a little trattoria known for regional cuisine. I had pesto and pasta, Cristina had raviolis in butter and sage sauce and Susanna had a beautiful meat dish with about 5 different meats and sausages.

Allasio by Night

After dinner Cristina would usually take me to explore some of the Riviera towns by night. This one is Allasio.  We walked its popular bordella, drooled over shop windows (usually shoes) and enjoyed the parade of absolutely gorgeous people.

Yes, the women in Paris are très chic and lovely, but frankly I haven’t seen any as beautiful or as stylish as the majority of women I saw in Italy.  I am so happy to have some of the blood in me….even if it is a few generations back!

Me on one of my walks in Finale…I probably had to put down a shopping bag to take this shot.

Ahead is a little wine bar owned by a couple who moved permanently from Milan to Finale to pursue their passion of wine and seafood.  The serve Prosecco on tap and the proprieter offered me to try an “unforgettable” glass of one of the local wines, Vermentino….unforgettable, indeed.

The unbrellas everywhere were right out of a turn of the century travel poster.

This is one of about 5 churches I saw in Liguria…it is in Finale.

On this trip I decided definitively that Italy has the most beautiful church interiors…even in the little towns my jaw would drop walking into the chiesa

Yikes!  I woke up one morning to this huge moth STUCK to my swimsuit …it took Cristina much probing with a 6 foot broom to wedge that thing loose. Thankfully Susanna was not awake for the excitement….she has a fear of birds, and since this thing was a size of a sparrow we counted our blessing that she was still sleeping.

(CRISTINA – you may want to warn Susanna to skip this picture!!)

DOTTOR FISH!

This was incredible!  At our beach were 4 aquariums below benches with little special freshwater fish called Garra Rufa. Their gift is that attach themselves to your immersed feet and legs and gentley massage your legs while basically eating away at the dead skin making everything a bit softer and smoother.  It is a pedicure by fish!

Here is the link so you can read all about it…in Italian: www.dottorfish.com

Oh, how it tickled…these little guys took their jobs very seriously and would even get between my toes.

I asked the “Dottor Fish” guy why, if the fish ate all day the tasty dead skin cells of people’s feet, they weren’t more fat :)…. it was definitely one of those lost in translation moments.

Sometimes they would focus more on one foot more than another…looks like they are preferring my left foot in this picture.  The guys near the surface would be so engrossed with their job that they would even at times have their heads outside as they worked their way up my leg.

The union contract the fish signed only allows them to work for 15 minutes before needing a break…

When it was time to withdraw my feet from the tank, I had to slowly pull out one foot and then another otherwise there still may have been G.R.s (Garra Rufas) stuck to me.  Susanna did a spot check after I had my feet out.  None, Phew!

I think my feet were a bit softer…nice work guys!

Ah, my beautiful cousins!

Thanks for the perfect week!

Wish I was with you right now enjoying more beach time!

Viva Bene, Spesso L’Amore, Di Risata Molto! (live well, love much, laugh often)