Lake Como / Clooneyville!

My France to Italy adventure started with a little hiccup.

As I was driving east of Nice about to hit the Italy border I got a flat tire.

And of course car rental companies in Europe apparently don't provide you with a spare. So I pulled over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere feeling a little scared and stressed since I was phone-less and unable to speak French.

Luckily a little French man who was whacking weeds on the side of the highway (he's the guy behind the divider in the pic below) walked over and offered to call a tow truck for me.

Within minutes the tow truck guy loaded me on his truck and helped me call the rental company and worked out with their insurance company which garage he should take me to. We go to that garage and they said they couldn't work on the car until the next day, so the insurance company told me to ditch the car and take a 100 euro cab ride to the airport and the rental company would give me a new one.

5 hours and 500 euro later (hopefully the rental insurance policy I bought will reimburse me) and I was in a new car and ready to go.

Really thankful for the kindness of complete strangers I could barely communicate with who helped me get through this little ordeal. 

I spent the night outside Milan. And the next morning headed up to Lake Como for the day. It's only a quick 45 minute drive from there. And it is SO beautiful.

I drove through the village of Laglio, where George Clooney's house is. His property is impossible to miss. There's a monstrous gate...

With the name of the Villa, which is well-known...

And scary signs everywhere.

The Cloons did a really good job covering the house from the street side. This the best view you can get from the parking garage across the street.

From there I headed to the Villa D'Este. The most beautiful hotel on Lake Como that everyone said I HAD to stay at/eat at if I wanted to Treat Yo Self.

It did not disappoint!

Laying low in South France

In 2000, my dad was here in Antheor, in this very spot where I'm currently hiding out, visiting friends Doug and Marie who my parents had met while living in Singapore...

On the first day he arrived to their mountaintop home and fell in love with it.

On the second day he looked at the house of a friend of a friend that was about to be put on the market.

On the third day he bought it.

Talk about an impulse buy!

We sold our house in 2008 when my parents divorced, here's what it looked like on our last trip the week we moved out.

So I've been hiding out here at Doug and Marie's for the past three days catching up on some work in between my wedding weekends.

They took me out for dinner that first night.

It's the off-season so the place, Tortue Beach Club, was pretty empty. But they thought it was a cool place to check out, and you can see how during peak season this place would probably be quite a scene.

We had a lovely dinner.

LOVES this built in ladder thing off the rocks. I wanna come back here.

These mussels were TO DIE FOR.

And then I had this crab in fillo thing that was also really delicious.

Turtle Beach! Loves it!

Day 2 was spent catching up on millions of emails and stuff.

Took a break during lunch when I smelled BACON coming from the kitchen.

Marie (who is an amazing cook) was roasting some bacon and shallots and cream sauce.

For Salmon!

I'm not a huge cooked-salmon person, but this was INCREDIBLE.

Doug took me for a ride around town in his new Porsche.

It was FAST.

Mr Doug is about to go in for heart surgery so he is really YOLOing this week.

Here I was screaming a little inside, thinking "please don't have a heart attack while we're going 170 km/h!"

We stopped by the marina to do some work on his yacht...

Then arrived home to find Marie preparing dinner!

It had been a gloomy day, but the clouds cleared around sunset giving us a magnificent dinner view.

Spicy fresh tomato pasta with fresh parmesan!!!

THEN

On my last day in Antheor. We rode hybrid electric bikes up into the mountains of the Massif d'Lesterel (those mountains you see from Marie's house).

From here you can get a view of all the houses of Antheor. Including our old one!

Our house is the now-hideous red one up at the top.

Love these little bikes! Makes pedaling uphill SOY EASY.

I heart France.

I was stopping every five minutes to take pics. It was so pretty.

Got home all sweaty.

This pool? The most amazing thing EVER.

Next up: Lake Como!

Monaco, Hotel Du Cap, and other Fancy French things

On Saturday night I met up with my friend James and his husband Bjarni for drinks up in Eze, the famous mountaintop rock-city. I've been several times during the day but never at night. It was deserted which was GREAT because normally it is FULL of tourists.

I will have to bring Rusty back here next week if we have time for sunset drinks!

James is an aspiring photographer who lives in Nice who I met through a mutual friend via Facebook. LOVES social media.

We had drinks on the terrace of the Chateau de La Chevere D'Or.

During the day you can usually see the entire coastline. It's pretty epic. 

James took this pic for me outside the entrance to the hotel. I like.

It's a really cool village. You have to park outside the main city and the rest is all walking on little cobblestone paths and stuff. If you're ever in the area you HAVE to go during the day to check it out and be one of those awful tourists that everyone hates.

After drinks we drove into Monaco for dinner. Passed by the famous Casino and Paris Hotel.

And also by the new yacht club.

James had gotten us reservations at the "hottest new restaurant in Monaco" Song Qi. Chinese food. As soon as he told me it was Chinese food I was very suspicious. I have almost never had "fancy" Chinese food that was worth how overpriced it is. The best Chinese food is cheap and found in Chinatown. (Or expensive and found in fancy Hong Kong hotels.)

This place was nestled between Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and McLaren dealerships...so you just know it was going to be a racket. (Did I use the word racket correctly? It felt right.)

LOVES this metallic blue and silver Rolls-Royce convertible in blue and silver.

(If you EVER see me driving one of these please slap me.) (And then get in!)

So...dinner...

It WAS really good. But it was SO overpriced.

I hate being one of those poor people that complains about expensive things. But I hate being made foolish by paying 26 EUROS for 6 pieces of dim sum (2 har gow, 2 siu mai, 2 dumplings) that taste very similar to a $2 basket of pretty much the same thing minus a droplet or two of caviar.

Oh and a bowl of steamed "jasmine" rice was 11 EURO. They sprinkled a few green herbs on it to make it "fancy".

It WAS delicious though. Our favorite was the Kung Pao Chicken.

We actually ordered an extra plate of it for dessert.

The next day I checked out of Beaulieu and headed in the direction of StTropez where I'll be hiding out for a few days.

On the way I stopped by Hotel du Cap Eden Roc. One of the most famous hotels in the world. (It's where all the celebs stay, especially during the Cannes Films Festival.)

Lindsay and John, my bride and groom from the weekend, are kicking off their honeymoon here and stopped in to give them a sneak preview of their wedding pics.

This place is amazing. There are all these high dives and rope swings built into the rocks and you can just leap and frollick into the sea or various little grottoes. It's a playground for adults. And their spoiled brat children.

I had the 50 Euro hamburger. #helpmeimpoor

It was really great. But the bun was way big.

But honestly this one of the fanciest-feeling fancyplaces in the world. (Maybe even fancier than Sandy Lane.)

And then ("NO 'AND THEN!!!'") I drove down the coast to Antheor, where I'm crashing with my parents' good friends and former neighbors Marie and Doug for a few days.

They've given me one of their lovely guest rooms and I want to stay here FOREVER.

Literally this is the view out my window.



So thankful to know such fabulous people!

I'm going up the street to check out our hold house later. I hear it's unrecognizable. Will post pictures obviously!