Liam’s Auntie Sarah, Uncle Ross and cousin Meg arrived on the first Saturday of Liam’s 2 weeks school holiday, on the second leg of their ’round the world’ trip. Timing couldn’t have been better — and mum and dad managed to try to take some time off work so we could spend some real quality time with them, and show them around our corner of paradise.
We all hopped a train into Ventimiglia Italy (the first border town once you get out of France)… it was a sleepy and shut day as Sunday’s usually are in small-town Italy… but it was still pretty great to be able to say “We went to Italy for lunch”. And to make it a bit more special, we went to the same place we went with Uncle Dan, Auntie Elaine, Scarlett and Isobel when Liam was just a baby.
On the Monday we went into Monaco to show them how ‘the other half lives’… supercars, superyachts, and over-the-top displays of wealth wherever you turn. The high point for Sarah and Ross was probably Casino square… but the kids really enjoyed the beach, and despite being fully clothed, they were soon near-naked and wet and not at all mindful of the slight chill in the air. A stop at the hilltop village of Eze on the way home for some astounding vistas, and the charm of a perfectly preserved medieval village.
The last 2 days of their time in Nice were a bit more low key, mostly because a bit of down time was needed… but Nice is such a lovely place to explore at a relaxed pace, and if they’d only had a couple of more days there would have been so much more we would have wanted to show them.
They left early on the Thursday morning, allowing us 2 days to work like mad, mad, mad before we all met up again at the Chalet in the mountains.
