Côte d'Azur: The French Riviera

The things that I have enjoyed most in France are the outdoor cafes, boulangeries and the tiny streets in the old parts of town.  My least favorite thing is the smoke.  The outdoor cafes are so cute and have such a great atmosphere, but the big puff of smoke that hits you in the face as you chew your food is not cool.

We arrived in Toulon on a Sunday evening.  When we left Lyon we drove south following the Rhone river for quite a while.

Rhone river on our drive south.

Fields of sunflowers along the road.

Toulon is on the southern coast of France just south and east of Marseille.  Our apartment was very nice and fairly close to the beach.

There was a festival going on the night we arrived.

We were there for 4 days and planned to veg on the beach for all of those days.......that's pretty much what we did.  We tried out a beach close to our place the first day out.  We realized within a few minutes that yes, we were in France.  Tops optional :)  It was a little bit of shocker at first, but then there was something interesting that I noticed.  It wasn't just young girls having a knockers contest.  No big deal, no one cares (except maybe the occasional foreigner).  It was every age (they lady next to us must have been in her late 70's) and natural.  No silicone standups that were past their standup time if you know what I mean.  All sizes, but majority leaning towards the smaller side.  All this boob action got me thinking, maybe France is the place for us less endowed girls to find bras.  Jackpot!!  My French souvenir.

The water was very pretty.  Like a really good day on the Gulf Coast.  Blue and crystal clear.  The sun was pretty intense, which was good because the water was still a bit cold for my taste.  We swam and chilled.

Diego taking care of his farmer tan.

A beach break to check out the local market.

When we left Toulon we had a long drive to a region of France called Perigord/Dordogne Region.  So we split our drive in half and stayed the night in a town called Rodez.  Not sure what our increase in elevation was but the temp dropped quite a bit.  Cute town and great airbnb.  We were right in the center of town so we enjoyed a concert and a pizza our one night there.

Concert in Rodez.

Notre Dame of Rodez

Off to see some castles.