6/8/14. The post where we have a very relaxing second day of vacation.

6/8/14: I had a bit of trouble gettng to sleep last night, but still managed to get in almost eight hours.  I woke up feeling mentally refreshed, but not so great physically.  I was up at about a 7, which is pretty good considering what I had put myself through over the previous two days, but not as good as I'd hoped.  I got up and shuffled around for awhile, but my patient, long-suffering husband was still sawing logs, so I decided to lie back down for a bit...and woke up five hours later!  This time my foot was feeling much better, back down to about a 5.5.  My stomach, however, was highly offended at the fact that it hadn't been fed in about 18 hours.  "Hey! I thought we were on vacation!  Where's the grub?"  My stomach is terribly uncouth.

We got ready quickly and tried to call our local contact to explain the issue with the window, but we had to leave a message.  Pentecost means a three-day weekend in Europe, so everyone is out celebrating, especially in a beach resort town.  In case you are wondering, here is what a patio door looks like after someone walks face first into it: 

Fortunately, my patient, long-suffering husband fared a little better. He has some cuts on his nose and hand, but nothing broken and no serious bruising.  When our contact called us back later this evening, she was apologetic about not calling back sooner, explaining that she was at the beach and didn't have her cell phone.  She didn't seem too concerned about the door and said she'd have someone come out Tuesday morning after the holiday to look at it.  Whew.

We went out for a late lunch and had another spectacular meal.  Then we strolled around a small Sunday market, where we found a vendor selling vintage posters, a particular weakness of mine.  After a lot of searching, we found our trip souvenir.  A large, colorful French aperatif poster from the 1930s.  

Carrying it around for the rest of the trip will be quite a chore.  Good thing we rented a car.

We looked around a little more in the village, then found a small shop where we could buy some food and wine to have at the apartment.  Since we'd had a big, late lunch, we opted to snack in the garden for dinner.

Being late in the day on a holiday weekend, no fresh bread was available, so we opted for a package of partially pre-cooked baguettes, which we presumed were the French equivalent of Pillsbury.  Au contraire, mon frère!  After much puzzling over the translations, we followed the instructions for baking them and they were quite delicious - soft inside and perfectly crusty outside.  We should have known the French would not accept poor quality bread, even if it is pre-packaged and sold at a convenience store.  We also found a lovely provençal rosé from the same maker as one we regularly buy at home.  Our usual price? $20. The price here?  Approximately $7, after conversion.  I love buying local.

We've spent a lovely, quiet evening carefully inspecting the garden and staring out into the harbor.  In addition to a variety of beautiful flowers, we have lemons and kumquats, as well as rosemary and mint.  We're already planning ways to use all of them this week. Tomorrow we hope to get moving a little earlier so we can do more exploring.  But if we don't, that's okay, too.

I wore the world's most comfortable shoes during our adventure today, but my foot is still a little irritated.  I'm counting on another good night's sleep to set it right again.  Lots to do tomorrow.  Like stare out at the water a little more.