Posts Tagged ‘French Riviera’

1st July
2012
written by bob

Wow…what an incredible day! No cars, no clouds, hot and sunny, and a beach on an island. Does it get any better?

Yesterday we decided to make a new play date with one of Miss G’s classmates, Bia. They are like two peas in a pod and are so cute together! We, along with Bia’s parents, Carlos and Rita, planned a play date on the beaches at Ile Sainte-Marguerite; famous for where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned and where the Hollywood movie was partially filmed.

According to Wikipedia

“The Île Sainte-Marguerite is the largest of the Lérins Islands, about half a mile off shore from the French Riviera town of Cannes. The island is approximately 3 km in length (East to West) and 900m across.

The island is most famous for its fortress prison (the Fort Royal), in which the so-called Man in the Iron Mask was held in the 17th century.”

G & Bia holding hands and waiting for the ferry to Ile Sainte-Marguerite.

While this trip wasn’t about touring Fort Royal (for another day), it was about languishing in the sun, enjoying a bottle or two of rosé wine, and great conversation with Carlos & Rita, who recently relocated to the Cote d’Azur from Portugal. Like us, they are enjoying the area and weather in the French Riviera and we all have so many things in common. It’s so great to meet new friends that are in the same place as ourselves; new parents, new country to live, etc. We have met so many fabulous people in the past year from all over the world. We are so blessed!

The Cote d’Azur is an amazing place to live and such a great opportunity for the kids! We are glad that Miss G has become great friends with Bia and now has yet another close friend to enjoy planned outings with. G and Bia walked hand-in-hand pretty much the entire way from the ferry to the beach! They get along so well and it’s so cute to see them having a conversation amongst themselves playing in the sand and floating with their water-wings in the water. Now, I think we just have to get all our other “France” friends together and have a “grande” time on the beach one day this summer! Hmmm, maybe a beach picnic is in store soon.

Here are some pics from our day on Ile Sainte-Marguerite! As always, click the pic below to enjoy the slideshow!

Fort Royal on Ile Sainte-Marguerite.

Au revoir, mes amis!

30th May
2012
written by bob

Have you heard…bobandkatherine.com is now available in your native language!

Parlez-vous francais? Oui!

Si parla italiano? Sì.

Habla usted español? Sí.

あなたは日本語を話せますか?はい。

With english being our first language with french as a distant second, we obviously compose all our blogs in english. HOWEVER now, you can have our blog translated to your language of choice. Pretty sweet, EH? HAHA! Yes, that’s my Canadian in me coming out. HEY, wait a second…I didn’t see “Canadian” in this language lists?!? WHAT THE…?

Translate our site to your language of choice.

Also, don’t forget you can subscribe to our RSS Feed. That way all new posts will be delivered automatically to your inbox or favourite RSS reader. What’s that? You need the steps to subscribe. Glad you asked. You will find them here from a -> past post.

Au revoir, mes amis!

26th May
2012
written by bob

Well…it was supposed to rain this afternoon in the Cote d’Azur despite it being a beautiful morning, luckily the rain held off all day. No rain was perfect for us, since we decided to take a trip down to Cannes to see what was happening at this year’s Film Festival. Miss G wanted to see and hang at the beach today and the weather cooperated by giving us perfection!

Katherine made an awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs with red peppers, garlic, red onions, spinach, and ham. Miss G finished an entire “pain au chocolat” all herself, we got ready and headed for “la gare” enroute to Cannes.

Miss G soaking up the sun at the Film Festival!

After wandering around on “La Croisette” and checking out all the promotional billboards, beach restaurants, and people, we decided it was time for late afternoon lunch on the beach. There is nothing like an amazing afternoon of hot, sunny weather and having lunch on the beach! A bottle of Rose and two refreshing salads for us and “steak hache avec frites” for Miss G – a perfect day in Cannes I would say, yes?!?

Following lunch, we were off to find the carousel. Miss G LOVES the carousel. It’s a double-decker carousel in Cannes! We rode the Ferrari and spun around in the Tea Cup. As it was getting late in the day, the people attending the premieres were starting to come out. With barricades up, black cars, police, people in tuxedoes and sleek dresses were everywhere around us. We weren’t completely sure but we think we caught a glimpse of Matthew McConaughey. Also scheduled to attend today was Reese Witherspoon and Elijah Wood. There were probably quite a few “French” celebs; however, they are all “foreign” to us! :)

Click here for the slideshow to see our day in pictures!

2012 Cannes Film Festival

Au revoir, mes amis!

18th March
2012
written by katherine

Food, food, food…and living in the Cote d’Azur…
Today I am thankful for living in a place where I can walk with my wonderful husband and amazing little girl to the Marche Provencal (provencial market or open air farmer’s market) to get basil-marinated sun-dried tomatoes from a local artisan.
Food here in the South of France…
My little girl has never eaten a chicken nugget (of any kind), macaroni and cheese or a Happy Meal…she’s never eaten from a commercial fast food establishment. She ate her first hamburger patty 2 weeks ago and I didn’t think 3 times about her getting E-Coli from it…probably because it was from a “real” restaurant & not a fast food joint, but mostly because we weren’t in the States.
In France I don’t worry about water flouridation, GMO crops and E-Coli-ridden meats…but G still eats 90% organic food. After all I’ve learned in the last 2 years about our food, its sources and the potential hazzards associated with them, I’m glad that I can worry just a little less about my fledgling being poisoned by the very things that are supposed to nourish her.
I must admit that I was mostly blind to all of this until about 18 months ago, about the time that G was starting solid foods. Since then I have tried to really educate myself on what goes in and on our bodies, especially hers. In doing so I have been truly shocked and appalled at the US Food System…in fact the world’s food system.

Growing up…I never ate this shit…NEVER, NEVER, NEVER…but then, that was 20-30 years ago, before Monsanto and all of the pharma-farming started ruling the food supply. I know now that most people didn’t have that option 30 years ago and even fewer have that option today.
I grew up on a small farm in Minnesota, 20 acres of 5 acre parcels; three 5 acre fields and one 5 acre section that contained the buildings including our house, garages, etc. At the peak of our farming we had 60 head of beef cattle, 100 chickens and a 1 acre garden consisting of everything from corn to watermelon. We rotated our fields between grazing and alfalfa that we baled for hay. We grew or raised everything we ate except for the dairy products including milk, cheese, yogurt and cottage cheese. Those dairy products all came from local family farms from people we knew…because back then it was cheaper to keep it local.

As big of a pain in the ass this place has been to get accustomed to, after one year it really feels like “home” and there are so many things I would miss about it. We live in a beautful, amazing part of the world and are truly blessed to be able to take advantage of so much that this place has to offer…including food that seems a little safer and healthier than it would be if we lived in North America.

Think about what you eat, what goes in and on your body…THINK…THINK CRITICALLY especially about what goes in your kids’ bodies. EDUCATE yourself and don’t fall prey to the voices of the media that are bought and paid for. You live in a country that is free…take advantage of this and don’t just accept what you are fed.

4th February
2011
written by katherine

Well, there have been a LOT of hiccups along the way (and more seem to come up daily) but it looks like we are finally pulling the trigger on a major life change: we are relocating to the French Riviera the first week of March 2011! We have secured a place to live as well as a nanny for Guilliana and are incredibly excited to start this 2-year journey of living and working abroad.

From and To


The main software development department for Amadeus, the company I have been working with for the past 19 months, is located between Nice and Cannes in the South of France. I will be taking a newly created and very unique position as the liaison between the divisions in Nice and the division in Tucson.

The “apartment” we are renting was built in the early 1900’s and is a converted mansion in the center of Antibes, within a few blocks of the ocean. We have the entire 1st floor (in Europe the floors start at 0…so most of us would consider this the 2nd floor) and it is simply amazing! It is 155m2 which roughly translates to 1480sqft…simply MASSIVE for Europe, especially for the price!

How is this for location?

It is simply beautiful and historic, with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms along with a giant formal living room and dining room. One of the best things is that it is a single floor, so no stairs inside for our new little walker to get in trouble with! I have quite a few pictures that we’re including here.

There is so much to say and to tell everyone and quite honestly I can’t remember more than half of it because we have been “living” with this for quite a while now and haven’t been able to share it with everyone!

Bob will be working for Amadeus as well, most likely as a contractor…unfortunately we couldn’t get them to just double my salary so that he could enjoy being a stay at home dad.

Our new Apartment

This is an amazing and exciting new chapter in our lives. I am so thankful for my amazing husband who is effectively uprooting his whole life to move to a place that he has never even visited where they speak a language he’s not exactly fluent in to live in a home he has never seen and taking a job he knows very little about!

Other than all that, this should be a cinch…right?

Here are some more pics of our new home…