We took two “excursions” once we arrived in Sainte Maxime. We went to St. Tropez twice and then we went to Monaco after we dropped J off at the airport.
I figured I would cover those both together since they were mini-trips… sort of!
We arrived to Sainte Maxime on a Sunday. Monday I didn’t want to do ANYTHING – or go anywhere – so Tuesday was the day we took the ferry over to St. Tropez!
We first went to go visit J and bring him food. We played a card game out in the courtyard and then headed back home. I parked the car down by the marina and then we hopped on the ferry!
It was a gorgeous day. Sam and I sat inside but I walked out on the bow to take a video. G went to the back and was in the sun.
It was late when we got there – after 2pm. Which means all the restaurants are essentially closed! We walked up to 3 of them that were not seating customers anymore but then we found this restaurant.
It had the best burgers! G agreed, he said his was amazing. What I remember most about it was the tomatoes. They were huge slices and so fresh. I think I also had a glass of champagne. I was tired/exhausted/needed the chill feeling happening.
It was a lovely lunch with my kiddos though and then we walked around and shopped. When I say “shopped” the kids basically trailed me around and stood politely by the door as I browsed so that wasn’t much fun. But they did it politely and nicely but I still felt pressured, ha ha.
My goal was to find jewelry shops so I could find MY RING that I had been hunting for all week. I looked up all the jewelry stores on the map and did a quick walk-through but I didn’t find anything that I liked more than what I saw at Sainte Maxime.
We were also trailing my mom and hunted her down. After getting gelato of course! But we walked along the marina and admired all the HUGE yachts and statues like this one.
After that, we took the ferry home. It was HOT!
I’ll go into more of the restaurants we did back at Sainte Maxime in another post but the next day was our day to go to Monaco!
J had moved up his flight to go home early, so we picked him up from his hotel, and got on the road. The tollroads were insane! We got stuck for at least 20 minutes after this one, the traffic was crazy.
I also at least TWICE got in the wrong lane for the “fast track” tollroad instead of the “pay with your phone” one. I had to back up! I don’t think it was on this day but I definitely learned my lesson!
Once we dropped J off at the airport, Monaco was about 30 more minutes away. We went through HUGE long tunnels winding the mountains and then popped into this amazing city. It was so cool!
We probably should have made a better plan on where to park but I had aimed my GPS to a parking garage and just ducked into one of the first ones I saw. Spontaneous adventures are always fun and we really enjoyed walking around but that parking garage was CRAZY! More on that later. But we found a spot, Sam and I BOTH took pictures of EVERYTHING around us – our blue dot on the map, all the signage, and how to get back in.
We were slightly paranoid. I think my cell service stopped working because we were not in France anymore. The cell service was technically fine but because I had gotten an e-sim card to try and make it work before, it was still messing with my phone.
But then we started walking! It was gorgeous!
The roads, the buildings, all the fancy cars. Ooh la la!
Sammie was very pleased at all her photo opportunities.
I was also pleased to get a picture with my kids, even if G really needed a haircut. Whenever I spotted a place that cut hair, I offered to get him an appointment, ha ha.
We ended up walking over to the main casino which was about… a 20m walk. And in front of the casino we spotted all my Morrison family! Which was so perfect!
We decided to get lunch first before thinking about going into the casino (Dad wanted to gamble) and I had a few recommendations but because my phone wasn’t working, we just wandered and this place had a Michelin star and Dad was extremely excited about it so we went for it!
It was very fancy and very good.
I got the scallops with vanilla and black truffles and didn’t even bother substituting anything since technically it was just cauliflower puree but I’m assuming they had milk in there. Anyway, I was fine after and it was SO GOOD.
The bathroom… c’est manifique! The mood lighting, the sinks, etc. It was all lovely.
Here was the main square where we randomly ran into our family, with the casino in the background. They parked all the fancy cars out in front, of course!
Scott and Ryan were on a mission to see the marina and we had already walked past it so we said we were going to go in another direction. We all parted ways and the kids and I wandered off.
We walked to the other side of the city where the Larvotto was. I’m not quite sure what I was looking for but I think this was it. We ended up staying up where we were and not walking down to the beach and taking pictures because it was starting to rain on us.
Oh, Sam also got pooped on by a bird! Poor Sam. She was horrified. I told her it was good luck? Luckily I had a mask in my purse that she used to clean up.
We did a little looking at shops as we walked our way back, again, I was hunting jewelry stores but didn’t see anything interesting. We walked back over to the main courtyard and it was much busier than it was before!
It was funny because as I think of all the walking the kids and I did, there wasn’t anything particularly amazing about it. But if I ask the kids what a favorite moment of that second week, they say visiting Monaco was so amazing. And we just had a nice time walking and wandering. It really was a cool city.
To give it context, we walked 20-30m from the parking garage to the casino. We had lunch for over an hour. We then walked over an hour around the Larvotto and then back, and then walking around shops (we did a little souvenir shopping!) back to the car. Two hours of walking, one hour of eating, and another two hours of driving!
But, the entertainment of seeing their Mom park in the SMALLEST parking spot EVAH and having to literally contort myself and climb in and out of the car was also entertaining. But I did it!
There was another not-so-flattering picture of me actually CLIMBING out but I think I’ve deleted all evidence of that one…. ha ha ha.
Another best “driving” memory was going around in two circles trying to get out of Monaco.
SORTIE! SORTIE!
Here is a very muted video where we are not talking but in the tunnels… but we did have a lot of fun driving in Monaco… HAHA
Anyway. We all enjoyed Monaco.
On Thursday evening (which was July 4th!), the Morrison’s were all getting packed up to leave super early in the morning. The Grandparents (JJ, Gregg, Sharon, and Truck) had such a nice lunch the afternoon we went to St. Tropez that they made reservations at the same place for dinner because apparently it was “A Show” at night. Yes, capital letters!
So we hopped on the ferry and made our way back.
The ferry ride was so nice! It’s lovely to just be on the water.
The place was called L’Opera St Tropez. I’m linking to it because it’s just SO DANG FANCY.
Also, it was so dang OUT THERE.
Like, hello?
Okay then! haha!
Gregg was incredibly offended by all the bad language. Which… was that language not there when they all went to lunch? Also, Gregg cusses a bit so I was confused at where the hate was coming from.
I thought it was hilarious and my kids are obviously old enough to understand language and all the choices people make with it.
We always end up choosing the early spot for dinner. So no one was there but it did fill up quite a bit later.
Gregg may have been a little upset because ZOMG the prices of things. My kids were uncomfortable with what to order. But we were on vacation and my Mom was graciously treating all of us and once you are seated, really, what can you do? There was also nothing in the form of “easy” foods for the kids to eat. And they had been eating more “grown-up” dishes the last few years and definitely on the trip but when the pasta dish is “black truffle linguine with parmesan cheese” for 72 EUR they were like… uh, is it okay if I order that?
FWIW, Sam was in love with that pasta! G and I got “la boeuf”! Filets… so good! And then we just had a lot of champagne.
I mean.. see? They were very in your face at this place.
However, what a show!
The two main singers were fantastic. Here is a compilation of some of the crazy acrobatics, insanity, and amazing singers.
I had chills on my arms during several of their songs. I thought the male lead had such a powerful voice and then the woman just killed it in another song and I couldn’t decide who I liked best!
I did have to put “Never Enough” in one video because I can listen to this over and over multiple times. I just listened to it again. BEAUTIFUL and chilling. What a great voice this guy has.
I did finally make a choice and buy my ring today, more on that in another post, but I was very admiring of it! I deliberately wore my dress to have purple in it to match!
The ending of the dinner was a little silly. We had some bad (grumpy) attitudes – namely Gregg and Sam – who just didn’t want to be there anymore. So we just said, “go ahead and leave, we will see you later!” and G felt a little pressured to go with Sam. So the three of them left to catch the ferry while we watched two more songs, got the bill, and generally felt a little bit happier without the blanket of some downer energy. (Sorry guys, if you ever read this – I love you! haha)
But once we slowly wandered over to the ferry, we saw they were all in line and boarding it right then! So they spent 30 minutes just waiting in line while we enjoyed the last two songs and slowly walked past the marina and all the nightlife and just enjoyed it. G said later, he wishes he would have stayed with us.
So that’s just my reminder to myself to continue to enjoy the moments and let everyone do what they want without worrying about it.
The ferry ride home was so amazing with all the lights on the water.
It being the 4th of July, the bridge was lit up in our flag colors! It was so awesome!
A little hard to see… But it was cool.
When we got back to Sainte Maxime, as we were walking back we had an amazing view of the fireworks show they set off! Aww, it was so cool! Listen to those birds freaking out.. ha ha
While I’m never too worried or annoyed about celebrating the “traditional” moments, it was nice to stand for five minutes and watch the end of the firework show.
And that was our lovely “trips” as we stayed in Sainte Maxime!
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