Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Another gorgeous day. When I wake up Erika is already on her trip to the sea and back, and I decide to take another set of panoramic pictures, since the light is better than what was available the day before. Below is the result.
Mediterranean Panoramic Picture, Ramatuelle, #2
I also try the camera's built-in panoramic mode for the first time, and discover it wanting. It only does two pictures at a time in portrait mode, and it doesn’t do any intelligent stitching together of the images or correction for different exposures. Oh well, there's always PhotoShop.
After getting the girls some breakfast, Erika returns and we get ready for a trip into town. Josef then asked me for help with his computer system, and I spent about an hour diagnosing a few problems on his system, which could only be remedied by me sending him some software when we get back home.
We then headed off into the town of St. Tropez. I stayed with the girls while Erika did some scouting around and did some shopping. St. Tropez this time of year is a tourist mecca, and the narrow streets are filled with people. I had hoped to get them on the little merry-go-round in the park that they enjoyed so much on previous trip here in the winter, but it wasn't open in the late morning, and so the girls happily started to climb some of the old, hollowed-out tress, the iron bars holding them together making for good ladders to scale them with.
We then set off down a street, looking for kid-friendly shops. After gawking for a few minutes at a shop window filled with touristy gewgaws, we found a scent and herb shop that went down well with the kids. I bought some body lotion that I knew Erika likes, and the kids determined on some sweet-smelling soaps that they wanted to give to their mommy. They spent a good amount of time smelling the various soaps, herbs and lotions available in the shop. Most of the stores on the street we went down were clothing shops, sprinkled with a few high-end watch/jewelry shops, along with some patisseries and fine food stores. I found a small gelato stand set in the cranny between two larger storefronts. "Mango Tango, Mango Tango!"” Annie asked for excitedly, the name of her favourite flavoured ice cream at the Lick’s in The Beaches. Nor surprisingly, the lady serving the cones had no idea what Annie was asking for, but I managed to get them both a cone of a mango ice cream apiece. We then headed to the pier where both of them happily munched away on their treats dockside, where people came to gawk at the mutli-million dollar yachts anchored there. After the girls finished their ice cream, we made our way back to the pre-arranged meeting spot.
For much of this time Annie had been trying her best to wriggle out of holding hands with me as we walked through the narrow streets. It was pedestrian traffic-only much the time, but I didn't want to lose her amidst all of the people on the street. So while we were waiting for Erika, the kids got increasingly hot and thirsty under the mid-day sun, so I got them a flavoured slushy drink each at a stand by the park. Annie wriggled her hand out of mine and went to look at some of the other colourful flavour options on another side of the stand, and just then a small moped puttered along the sidewalk where Annie had just gone. She was never in any danger, but Annie was thoroughly spooked, and came running back to me. Having her hold onto my hand was never a problem from that point forward. ;-)
Shortly after Erika returned, it was "siesta"-time, so we headed back to the chateau for lunch.
And what a lunch! We had an exquisite salmon quiche, made by the cook who comes in everyday to prepare the afternoon and evening meals. We had it with some wine from the chateau -- the "Cuvee Kassandra", derived from the first grape pressing, named after Josef's youngest daughter. Spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool, with the aim of tiring out the kids as much as possible so that they could have a lengthy nap.
 Erika Swimming in the Pool |
It ended up being an excellent night out -- a cool breeze had finally settled in, and a magnificent near-full moon hovered over the park like some over-sized carny light. We picked up a pass for both girls, a bargain at about 10 euros apiece. This let them have a turn on each of the kiddy rides. There was a merry-go-round, bumper cars, mock antique cars on tracks that the girls could pretend to steer, giant trampolines to bounce on, and a few rides that were just too weird to be easily describable.
I was amused at how some of the rides manage to skirt Disney and other copyright holders by having Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, Pocahontas or other such characters painted in day-glo colours or sprouting non-orthodox gear -- like glasses, or wings -- or were too blobby and ill-formed to be taken seriously as infringing on anything. Add to that slightly-deformed but still recognizable French cartoon characters, such as those from Asterix and Tin Tin. None of this mattered to the kids of course, who had a blast riding on top of or in all of these creatures, whatever they may be.
As parents, we were pleased by the length of the rides, which were much longer than what we would have expected. At one point we got some candy floss for each of the girls -- the "regular" sized cone was almost the size of Annie. Nevertheless, it was handily and happily devoured in no time. Some of the carny people were very personable, and Erika was encouraged to help one of them to get the kids stirred up in a scaled-down swinging boat ride, getting them to yell "Faster! Faster!" -- even if English wasn't their first language.
By around 10pm the kids had finished just about all of the rides on the pass, and we took everybody home on a moonlit twisty drive through the Provance countryside.
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