Holidays
Holidays
Holidays
Although I make a conscious effort not to post too much about my personal life, I thought I'd make sharing my (hopefully interesting) holiday experiences an exception.
This holiday, I was lucky enough to visit family in Europe and even meet up with my boyfriend.
First Stop: Cannes
Our first destination out of the freezing Mother City was Cannes in the South of France - I have family there and that's also where the boat on which we were going to travel along the Cote d'Azur was moored. So we spent the first couple of days with my wonderful paternal great-grandmother Paulette (otherwise known to me as Mamie) who is in her 'eighty-somethings'. We played scrabble, gorged on her family-famed delicacies like 'caviare d'aubergines' and 'beureks', and were introduced to her new real tortoise 'Mistinguette' (named after the French entertainer of the early 20th Century). I should mention that she has had a life-long obsession with tortoises which resulted in a collection of over 1000 non-real specimens displayed all over her little house. She has a charming explanation for this: as a 5-year-old girl, she liked the tortoise that slowly but surely beat the hare to the finish line in Aesop's fable; then, as a young wife and mother who was forced to emigrate from Eastern Europe to France, she says envied their ability to carry their home on their back ; ) When we were not spending time with Mamie, we explored the Croisette (ok fine, mainly the Rue d'Antibes) which is reasonably small and where everything is accessible on foot. An unexpected highlight was the Marché Forville, a huge open market which was a stone's throw from our mooring off the Croisette: the most amazing banks of fresh vegetables, fruit, cheese, flower stalls, preserves and fish that was still gasping at the gills. All in all, our few days there were well worth it and it was great to see how happy my great-granny was to have us with her after so long.
My favourite Cannes memory: Seeing my great-grandmother of almost 90 beat my so-called "pro" mother at Scrabble.
Cannes Pictures:
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| Mamie and I, reconnecting after 3 years |
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| The INCREDIBLE food market!!! |
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| The harbour |
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| The charming streets |
Second Stop: St Tropez
When I heard that St Tropez was the second port of call, it immediately conjured a specific image of the famous party destination, teeming with abnormally beautiful people fuelled by a non-stop in and outflow of Moet and money ....and... that's pretty much what it was (on the surface). We spent the first days exploring the village, shopping, eating excesses of ice-cream (Baraka's yoghurt flavour), had lunch at Club 55 and dinner at Christina's where the truffle burrata and the fried zucchini flowers were a-mazing. On the third day, we decided to discover the area around St Tropez and rented a car to visit the island of Porquerolles where you can only ride a bike, and drove up into ancient and immaculately preserved mountain villages like Gassin... away from the temptation of shops and clubs, the hilltop villages towering over the landscape and looking down on the green canopy of olive and cypress groves, with their narrow cobbled streets, villas with small inner courtyards, and villagers who were friendly but reserved...felt like silence after the storm. Then it was time for me to leave, as Paris was calling!
My favourite St Tropez memory: Drinking a campari at sunset in the company of myself while sitting on the top deck of the boat we were on
St Tropez pictures:
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| My step-sister and I |
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| A good capture during a harbour stroll |
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| The harbour |
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| A ridiculously expensive mojito at Club 55! |
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| Me at Club 55 |
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| Fireworks |
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| The beach at Club 55 |
Third Stop: Paris
I must say, the 'City Of Love' has a special place in my heart- my Dad lives there and as I only get to see him once a year, going there is always extra special. After a long TGV train ride, I arrived into the arms of my Papa, step-brother and little monkey of a 6-year-old sister. When I wasn't spending precious time with my sister, I saw my friend Morgan who was conveniently also in Frog-land at the time; we walked all over Paris, strolling in and out of beautiful boutiques with the occasional bistro break. On the 5th of July at 10:17am, after an absence of almost 20 days, my boyfriend arrived at Gard Du Nord where I waited impatiently with a body that wouldn't stop wriggling and a smile and couldn't stop being embarrassing...feeling like I had walked straight off the set of Love Actually. We were lucky enough to spend two nights at one of the most beautiful hotels called 'Villa Madame' in Saint Germain, the best part of Paris otherwise know as the 6th Arrondissement. I had set out a tight schedule for us to follow during our two days and nights there but I don't think we stuck to one thing - we played every day by ear. We visited all my personal favourites including the banks of the Seine and Pont Des Arts, risqué Pigalle by night, the Jardin Du Luxembourg at sunset, most old covered passages lined with bistros, the grand Louvre and Musee D'Orsay surroundings, the Eiffel Tower... to name a few of the city's gems. Time unfortunately yet predictably flew by far too quickly and soon we found ourselves all packed and on track to our second destination together - Zurich.
The last place we visited was Zurich, Switzerland, which is my mom's home town where she grew up and where we have our closest family friends. Unfortunately, I was unaware that our arrival would coincide with chaos... it was 'Zurifest' (the Zurich street festival that takes place every 2 years) and our hotel window was just above all the action which included a brass band. I had described Zurich as "clean", "simple", "elegant" and "calm"- but Zurifest is dirty, quite trashy not to mention loud as hell at all hours of the day. This provided such humour when we arrived as he looked at me confused and asked "Is this Zurich?"- it was more like I imagine Mexico City! Luckily it ended the day after we arrived and by day 2, Zurich was back on neutral track. We spent our time with our friends, doing all the things you would do if you lived there. It's extremely easy to get around there as the public tramway is very well organised, easy to use and the preferred mode of transport for locals. It's a small city that feels like a town, which was nice for the two of us as we were able to properly settle down and get to know the whole of Zurich; we ate at delicious restaurants, had picnics by the lake, shopped, went out at night to some local bars with friends and relaxed. We both agreed it was our favourite destination as the city's chilled atmosphere and the people we were with made for a great mix!
My favourite Zurich memory: Jumping into the Zurich lake fully clothed at 12pm with Nora and Zach
Zurich Pictures:
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| Zach and I at Sprungli |
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| The beautiful lake |
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| Nora, Lolli and I about to have a post-lunch swim in the lake |
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Midnight lake swimming with Zach
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| Walking around in town |
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| Zach and I in town |
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| Us at the Dolder Spa |
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| Zurich |
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| Me outside our hotel |
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| Zach swimming at the Dolder Spa |
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The day we took sushi, chocolate and lemonade
down to the lake and swam over lunch |
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Shopping in town with Eleonora at
a great but wallet-saddening store called
'Grieder' |
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Eleonora and Zach meeting over some
delicious cocktails in town |
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| Zach at Zurifest |
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| The beautiful view outside Zach and my hotel room |
Everyone was of course very sad that our wonderful holiday had to come to an end but coming back to Cape Town is never a disappointment.
X Zo
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