October 10

"Et voila, beaucoup babes"

The morning that greeted us in Cannes...

Let's hit the beach. That's what I had plans to do today. It was wonderfully warm outside, and I figured that I was in Cannes and the water was 18'C so it was time to go for a swim. This is what I had planned to do ever since I got to this country. I thought I was the adventurous, back-packer, but really I'm a big slob whose idea of fun is to lie on a hot beach all day. This is a revelation for me. After a breakfast of cappuccino (instant ;-), bread, croissant and cheese we got our towels, swimsuits and drove down to the promenade. It was great! Only Octavia and I went swimming 'cos Sean and Francois thought it was too cold. Wimps! It was invigorating. So there I am in the sea, swimming off of a beach in the French Riviera. Life could not have got any better. Well perhaps the water could have been a little warmer.

Here is the beach. Here I am, the first on the beach, getting my clothes off to go for a swim. In the first photograph, St. Tropez is on the other side of the small mountains you can see in the distance. The last picture is Octavia and I 'posing'. It looked a little weird already so I jazzed it up with MS PhotoDraw 1.0 (in your stores now ;-)

Sean and Francois played Frisbee. Sean is good, he can through the thing 100m. I never saw him do this on the beach, so I'll have to take his word for it. Here is Sean, Octavia and Francois acting very naturally and just chatting about how wonderful it is to be in the South of France and sit on the beach, and not worry about work, and not have to work and everything. Well not really. I didn't know what they were talking about actually, I wasn't listening. It could have been French, it could have been English. I didn't care, for I WAS ON THE BEACH AND THAT IS A GOOD THING.

Lastly here I am with the really fancy pair of binoculars that the gang back at Microsoft got me as a leaving gift. They came in really useful as it was warm enough for the odd native to come down to the beach and flaunt themselves to the Sun God.

Matthew started the day chanting, over and over, "Let's hit the beach. Eighteen degrees!" If you imagine a deranged parrot, then you can imagine the effects of "Let's hit the beach. Eighteen degrees!" "Let's hit the beach. Eighteen degrees!" "Let's hit the beach. Eighteen degrees!" over and over :-) The decision is to either kill him now, or get him to shut up. I opted for number two, since he is still the name holder on the vehicle and other important pieces of paper. Sooooo..... Off to the beach we were. It was quite warm, and a little windy, but that didn't stop Matthew and Octavia from their swim. It was great fun, and we had a cool lunch in Cannes. Cannes is pretty nifty, and I, for one, and really glad we are here in low season -- because it is still insane with tourists, even though Francois claims that it is completely empty. Of course the shopping looks great, and the boardwalk is awesome (it is where parts of "French Kiss" were filmed). Tomorrow looks to be more of the same, though Francois is referring to a possible paragliding experience if the wind falls down.

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