Family Christmas

Bonne année à tous! I have been back from my family vacation to the French Riviera for a few weeks now and I'm settling back into a routine in Montpellier. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest during our stay in Nice--I think we may have been there for the only two weeks it rained all year.  Anyway, we still got a few gorgeous sunny days and made the best of all the rest :) 

Aside from visiting every nook and cranny of Nice (where we rented an apartment for about two weeks), we took several day trips to nearby towns.  Among our field trips were Antibes, Grasse, Cannes, Monaco, and St. Paul de Vence, in that order.  The first full day we were all together (aka when my parents and sister finally escaped the Amsterdam airport catastrophe of 2010) was sunny and gorgeous, so we enjoyed a day of walking around the Monday antique market (the famous Cours Saleya flower market all the other days of the week) and exploring the Old Town.  From this point on, we were in for a solid week of rain, so we hit the museums hard in the beginning-Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, etc. 

One of the most impressive towns we visited was Monaco-I definitely wasn't prepared for the massive, three-story yachts (swimming pool included), swanky hotels and luxury cars that dominate the city.  As we walked past all the big designer stores, feeling somewhat underdressed, I decided to go into Chanel and inquire about the price of their smallest bag.  I obviously knew it would be way out of my price range, but a part of me still hoped maybe it wouldn't be as bad as I thought.  I walked through the doors past the armed security guards, one of the few that actually dared to enter, and casually asked the woman working there how much for their smallest quilted bag.  At 1400 euro, the Chanel bag might be on my wish list for a while...

Over the two week span of time we spent together, we seldom dined out for dinner.  Grocery shopping, cooking our meals, and sitting down at the table to eat them as a family almost made me feel like I was back home again--almost.  We didn't skimp on the dessert either-I don't even want to know how many cartons of vanilla ice cream or Crunch bars we went through...

Seeing my family over the holidays was the perfect Christmas present and a great transition from one semester to the next.  When it came time to say goodbye, a part of me was sad realizing it would be another five months before I would see my family again but the other part of me was looking forward to getting back "home" to Montpellier. 

Self-timer shot of the whole gang