Saturday, January 03, 2004
Since this was to be Allie's last full day in France, the ladies all decided to go on a shopping excursion in San Tropez. My job was to entertain and look after the kids while the ladies went shopping, and then meet back at Le Café. Erika woke in the morning with a mild cough, and we figured that she had probably come down with whatever bug had affected Vanessa on her trip over. She figured this would be her last chance to do some serious shopping in San Tropez though, so there was no stopping her.
Today also happened to be market day, and the last time we were at Le Café I noticed a merry-go-round close by, and the kids were all excited about going on it. Between these two things I figured it would be an easy thing to entertain the kids until lunchtime, when everyone was due to meet up. The kids took plenty of rides on the merry-go-round, riding cars decorated with Asterix-like characters, helicopters adorned with air-brushed paintings of the French Air force, and a flying Mickey Mouse/Mighty Mouse combo that was one of Annie's favourites. It was here that I learned that the best pictures of children on merry-go-rounds are to be taken before they start going round and round. ;-)
After about a half-dozen rides each it got close to the time we were supposed to meet, so I took the girls through the market area. At a local candy stand festooned with all sorts of bright local confections, they both choose more familiar gummy snakes instead. The various stalls sold everything from farm produce to touristy t-shirts to plastic toys, women's underwear, antique prints, lavishly illustrated-and-bound 19th century French books and more. I didn't have a lot of time so we made our way more or less directly to Le Café.
And there we waited for Erika. And waited. And waited some more. We left in a separate car from the rest, and Erika had never caught up to her sister or Allie as they went shopping. And the lunch was not to be a Le Café, but at another beach-side restaurant just up the coast from San Tropez. So off went most of the group, leaving me with the kids outside of Le Café with Ariane. I kept the kids busy by trying to keep an eye out for their errant mother, and after an hour I was beginning to wonder if she had gotten herself seriously lost. With Ariane holding down the fort I took the kids out for another spin on the merry-go-round to alleviate their boredom, but found that it was closed for lunchtime. Before the rest of the market closed down completely I found a farmer who was selling the one and only thing I was determined to buy while in France: honey made from lavender pollen. Yum! There was a large jar of it but I opted for getting two smaller, but much sturdier-looking jars instead as I doubted the big jar would survive intact through a transatlantic flight. Price: 14 Euros. This ended up being my single (and almost only) major purchase in France.
We made our way back to Le Café and there was Erika! Turns out that she was not lost at all, but had spent the past hour shopping at the one store she really wanted to shop at. I was furious, and she knew it. She knew she was in the doghouse over this one, but we talked about it later, and left it at that. Turns out she thought we were all going to meet at Le Café, and since lunches are lengthy, she thought she had the time.
Along with Ariane we headed over to another beach-side café where Joseph had made reservations. The surf was much rougher here, and further along the beach were some surfers testing out the junior-sized curls. While the intent of being at a San Tropez beachside restaurant is to see and be seen, the kids didn't just want to sit around and instead they wanted to go out and play in the surf. I accompanied Vanessa, who ended up making mad dashes to and away from the surf, and making pictures in the sand with a big stick she found. I kept a close eye on her since I could tell that there was a riptide here. In this fashion we meandered up the beach. A hundred feet behind us Erika accompanied a similarly excited Annie down to the Beach. I was watching Vanessa and wasn't witness to what happened next: Erika left Annie for a moment in order to take some clothes and shoes back to the restaurant area, and Annie got caught in the surf when her back was turned. Annie tried to stand, tumbled over backwards and was in imminent danger of being swept away when Erika turned around, saw what was happening and rescued Annie before she got into even deeper surf. Both were soaked to the skin, and Joseph ferried both ladies back in his car to the Chateau. I found out about all this afterwards when I returned with Vanessa to get our lunch. Erika returned solo three-quarters of an hour later with her father, Annie having gone down for a nap, and babysat by the same Nanny looking after Cassandra.
After lunch we shifted tables over to the west side patio, where the late afternoon sun warmed everyone a few extra degrees – it wasn't what you'd call warm, but it helped. We got a better view of the surfers practicing on the breakers, and a tourist helicopter buzzed low a couple of times. We sat and had coffee/tea/hot chocolate, and Vanessa happily dived into an ice cream.
That was pretty much our day. We headed back to the chateau shortly afterwards, greeted cheerfully by Annie, whom I gave an extra hug to. I took a few more pictures of the grounds, and once again cursed myself for not bringing along a simple star chart as I took some photos of the moon, and later enjoyed the vivid night sky from our bedroom balcony.
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