The Forty-Seven Day Journey

Yesterday, after a 47 day voyage that included:  four flights, three different rental cars with which we covered approximately 4500 km of road distance, 2 train voyages, and overnight stopovers in 22 different cities spread over 5 Canadian provinces and 5 countries, we finally arrived at our rental apartment in the city of Antibes, on the Côte d'Azur.

 

Lily thought it was a very good sign that there was an owl at the bottom of our building's stairwell.

We were all so ready to unpack our bags and set up a base, but Lily beat us all to the punch as she had her bed set up within minutes!

Our apartment building is located in what is called "le vieil Antibes", or the old town of Antibes, on a street for pedestrians only.   We were very excited to check out our new neighbourhood and headed out soon after Lily had her stuffies all in a row.  The first exciting discovery was a dance studio on our quiet street, a mere "70 Grace steps" away (yes, she counted).  The girls will be trying out their first classes there this afternoon! 

The view down our little road with the dance studio just past the open door on the right.

The second discovery was just around the corner:  a chocolate/pastry/macaroon shop!  Anyone who knows Lily won't be surprised to learn that our walking tour came to it's abrupt end here.  We celebrated our Antibes arrival with a chocolate mousse for Lily, 2 vanilla macaroons for Grace, and coffees for Barry and me, which we enjoyed in the shop's "la grotte en chocolat".  It sure smelt like chocolate as we entered the small brown alcove, but couldn't quite trust what we were smelling until we saw the sign asking patrons not to taste the walls!  Later, I read that Jean Luc Pelé was inspired by the world of Tim Burton films to do something unique with the little corridor that was part of the new shop location in Antibes and so he decided to create a space for customers with an "edible tapestry". Of course, the room must be kept at a precise temperature and humidity so that the walls don't melt.

Notice how the passerby on the right can barely steal his eyes away from the display window.

Welcome to the Chocolate Cave.

After dinner we walked down to the Mediterranean.  While the girls are now too old for the carousels they used to love that are found in many main squares here in France, there were no arguments about them ending their day on a ferris wheel set up beside Port Vauban, the yacht marina here in Antibes.

So, all in all very positive first impressions and bags are, for the moment, unpacked.