was nowhere to be seen this morning. Not long after we left on the last leg of our journey south to Nice, the rain set in. It was a six hour (plus) drive and the bad weather lasted for quite a bit of it. But we still saw some lovely sights all the same.

I had really hoped to visit La Pitchoune, in the provençal village of Plascassier today. La Pitchoune was a holiday house built in the early 1960s by Julia Child (the American cook who fell in love with French food and mastered the art of cooking it) and her husband Paul. I’ve been a bit of a fan since childhood.

My very brave husband managed to navigate the unnervingly narrow streets in order to find Julia’s cottage for me. It is now a cooking school and not actually open to the public. However, I quietly walked up the driveway and took a few photos of the outside. I would have loved to go in and see her wall with the pans and utensils all hung up so magestically – but alas, I could hear American voices inside discussing cooking and movie-making and I couldn’t find the courage to interrupt. It was enough to stand there and look, knowing that Julia had been here.

The weather had thankfully cleared up in time for our visit to La Pitchoune, and Keith, Margaret, Mike and Durelle were already at our accommodation in Nice and sending us photos of beautiful weather down there too. So with much hope we continued on, again along the scenic route – not the most direct but certainly worth it in our opinion. Seeing the Mediterranean Sea for the first time was quite a buzz for us both!

We then drove up the beautiful winding streets to our accommodation, to find Mike on the doorstep looking out for us and the others not far behind. It was such a lovely welcome and just so great to see our friends again. We have been talking about this trip together for so long, it seems surreal that we are actually all here together in this most fabulous place. We are extremely grateful for them and for all of this.

This is the view from our accommodation. I keep wanting to poke my finger into the air over the balcony to make sure it’s real and not just a picture!

Bonne nuit from Nice, where the weather really is very, very nice.