Posts Tagged ‘day trip train ride’

30th December
2011
written by katherine

Upon waking and diaper change, Miss G informed Daddy boldly that today she would like to go “train”….

Guilliana really likes riding trains…which is wonderful since we live 3 blocks from a large train station and there are many wonderful towns and cities (and yes even countries) within an hour or so train ride. The fearless and always adventurous Miss G also gets horribly, viciously car sick (just like her mommy), so if it weren’t for our easy access to rail transport we probably wouldn’t be getting out too much while here!

So there we were with an eager little traveler and no idea where we might go. Bob had done a bit of reading about St. Raphael and its suburb Frejus in the Var region earlier in the week when we were looking for things to do during this week off together. So we headed to the train station and got our tickets to Frejus!

Click for slideshow

Wow, what a fantastic and incredibly scenic ride! I honestly had no idea that there were red rocks similar to those in Sedona Arizona. The homes, ports and beaches along the way were gorgeous and actually a bit different from the areas west of here where we have visited previously.

Upon arriving in Frejus we took a short walk and didn’t see very much. We decided to head back to the train platform to see when the next train would come by to take us the 5 minutes up the road back to St. Rapheal. We discovered that we would have to wait another 3 hours…well, let’s make the best of it! So we followed the signs to the center of town to look for a restaurant to have some lunch and generally check out the little town.

The town generally struck me as more “working class” and definitely medieval, although it didn’t have the same 13th century feel that the incredibly picturesque town of Valbonne does. After strolling down a few streets we discovered the town center all decked out for the holiday season, complete with carousel and food booths. As we didn’t want G to get all worked up before we had a chance to eat, we made a quick detour around the festivities.

We went down another few streets and found what looked like a lovely little place with a decent-looking menu and decided to go in. Well the food at Le P’Tit Encas was really very good, and very reasonably priced! The service was lovely and the entire experience was quite enjoyable.

After we finished our nice, long lunch we headed back into the town center to see what we could find for G to see and do before the next train arrived. Once we got in we saw the cutest thing…PONIES!! There were 4 of the cutest little Shetland ponies giving rides to the little ones. So I quickly got in line and had Bob take G around to the various displays and whatnot while I waited for her turn. Guilliana was quite amped up at this point due to her chocolate Sunday and half of my raspberry & pistachio ice cream with raspberry coulis. SUGAR HIGH!

Train ride sunset on the Mediterranean Sea.


Once it was her turn, Miss G got on that little guy and grabbed the reins like a pro, completely ready to start her ride. To be fair, Guilliana has a rocking horse in her room nearly as big as the Shetland…so this wasn’t exactly her first rodeo, so to speak! Although the ride wasn’t very long, and G didn’t really want to get off, we had to only a short time to make our train for the trip back home. With the 15 minutes we had left, we took a quick tour of the Medieval church in the town center, amazing! We also sampled our first vin chaud (hot wine…we enjoy this in the States as well, it’s usually called mulled wine), not too bad.

We headed to the train platform and boarded within a few minutes, found some excellent seats and settled in. The bright and sunny day quickly faded to a gorgeous sunset over the Mediterranean and then slipped into inky night as we arrived in Antibes. Our little ball of energy was nearly zapped out at this point and ready for dinner and an early bed time.
We live in an amazing place, in an incredibly beautiful part of the world. We are blessed to be able to experience all of this together as a family. Although our road has been anything but easy since arriving here, the struggles make us stronger and reinforce to me that there is nothing I can’t handle while my amazing husband and beautiful little girl are by my side.

Here is the day in pictures…


Slideshow – Miss G takes Frejus!



Au revoir, mes amis!