Backtrack to the Mediterranean

I didn’t get a chance to post anything here while we were in Sete.  So here we go.

We spent our first week in Europe ON VACATION.  My coworker and our friend, Chris, has a house in Sete, a beautiful fishing village near Montpellier in the South of France.  After twisting our arms, we agreed to bring our family of four, with 6 weeks’ worth of luggage, including our mobile office, and invade his quiet existence.  We even settled for inhabiting the entire 3 bedroom upstairs while Chris and his wife camped in the studio downstairs.  We were joined upstairs by another friend, Joelle, a retired teacher from Paris.  She was also on vacation at Chez Christophe.  I think we did well as B&B roomies, made meals together, and chatted in odd broken-Frenglish, mostly just finding different ways to convey our delight at the much needed and totally successful vacation.

I must say I’m very proud of the way the kids behaved in this very friendly but otherwise childless environment.

Seven days in Sete consisted of gradually adjusting to the 9 hour time difference, late morning coffee, early afternoon walks to the beach for ice cream and more coffee, petanque in the garden, dinner (more coffee), and a fair amount of movie and minecraft time as well.

Zumba on the beach.  Purely a spectator’s sport.

Sete is a small island connected by a couple roads to the mainland.  Chris’ house is about 1/3 of the way up the hill of the island, a nice 15 minute walk to the beach.  We enjoyed walking through the tiny sidewalkless streets to an from the beach, admiring the REAL Mediterranean architecture on the way.  Of course Brian’s favorites were a couple houses that could have been clipped from the cover of Dwell.  But hey, they’re Mediterranean now, because… they’re right here.

I loved the tiny cobblestone streets and connected facades in the main part of town.  It was there that we met some young boys who were excited to use a little English to introduce themselves and ask to be in a photo with the kids.  I think they wanted to get close to Josie, but she was having none of it.  They were asking me in French if she was my daughter, and saying she was beautiful.  They learn early, these 8 year old players.  They were happy to take this photo with Liam, after which they followed us for a couple blocks.  Josie was a bit spooked.  I told her I thought I could take ’em.

After seven relaxing days in Sete, Chris drove us back to the train station and sent us on our way to Brussels, and eventually back to work.

But here are a few more pictures of the kids hamming it up anyway….