We’ve just wrapped up five days in Cannes, mostly on the beach. There’s not a lot to talk about when much of the day is spent sitting on a chair on the beach. Sun, reading, cooling off in the water … that’s about it.

It’s worth noting, though, that Cannes is a strange place. It’s the only place I can think of where you honestly see Rolls Royces being driven around, along with a lot of other terribly expensive cars. Yachts, lots of yachts. You see – in fact, we sat right behind one – apparently very rich old ladies on the beach wearing much, much less than you wish they were, with their aides sitting in a chair immediately next to them. The aide’s job is to continually adjust the umbrella so that the sun is hitting just where she wants it but not in her eyes. And readjust the towel she’s lying on if it gets a little bunched up. And move the beach chair – with the old lady still lying in it – as the sun moves throughout the day. You can spend a fortune renting chairs and umbrellas on the beach and can easily spend $200 for lunch. But you can also stumble onto – as we did – small local restaurants that serve fantastic food at very reasonable prices. A strange mix of very rich and beautiful with very reasonable and normal.

There were a couple interesting side trips. Our first full day there we drove up into Mons, a tiny hilltop town in the foothills of the Alps, where my former assistant in the VAN office was playing in a pre-wedding concert. Erica is the niece of an old college friend of Mark’s (which is how we met her), who was also there along with his partner and mother. The concert was great, the town was beautiful, and it was great fun to have dinner afterwards with the whole family.

(Note: Mark & I remain traumatized by cars. We had to rent a car to get to Mons and that whole process of driving out of the city, up into the hills, back down and into the city, getting gas, returning the car … traumatic. We’ve been carless since 2008 and our freakish terror of cars is just getting worse.)

And then two days later, while Erica was at the wedding, Mark & I took a train up to Nice to have dinner with David, Mike, and Florence. Again great fun to see old friends and spend an evening in a pretty cool city.

So that’s it. Beach, sun, some old friends, and a fun concert. Now it’s off to Montpellier for two days, just to break up the trip to Barcelona where we’re going to spend a week with Mark’s brother and his family.

Two weeks in Corsica just hasn’t been enough. Beaches, boat rides, visiting with friends, interesting food, good wine … and today mountain climbing! After bidding adieu to Marc & David, Mark & I headed up and inland to Corte, a little town perched up in the hills. We had a great little hotel right on a river in the Restonic Valley, just 15 minutes by foot from town. In many ways it was my fantasy stay – rushing river, pure nature, cute little town. Everything you dream about getting away to. So on the first day we could hang out in the outdoor area of our hotel reading and listening to the roaring river and then walk into town for lunch and sightseeing.

Today, though, we did a hike. It didn’t sound like it would be much, although the woman at the hotel who told us about it made clear that it was a hike, not a walk. A little walk from the parking area at the end of the road, an hour to the first lake, 45 minutes to the second. How bad could that be?

Well. It was a serious climb, up several hundred meters on very rocky trails. Up. And up some more. And then up steeply; in some places they had installed ladders and chains to get you up. And totally worth it. The day was cool and overcast, which ain’t bad for hiking, and along the way we started to feel as though we were back in Patagonia, one of the greatest hiking areas we’ve ever seen.

So that was it. Hiking. I should add, the drive to and from the trail head was terrifying: extremely narrow, usually with no guard rail or anything. When two cars met you slowed to a crawl, and the car on the outside had pretty much no margin of error. But … we survived.

Tomorrow we have an early flight to Geneva where we’ll spend a few days visiting with our friends Chris & Joey and their two girls. After hiking in the mountains today, Switzerland will feel pretty normal!

From Ajaccio we rented a car and traveled north to meet our friends Marc and David, who’d just flown in from Toronto to start a well deserved vacation. We picked them up at the airport in Calvi and then settled in the nearby town of L’Île Rousse. Here their stress and jetlag were relieved with a virtually perfect day on the beach. It was all sunshine, fine warm sand, crystal clear water, a great lunch, and lots of catching up.

The next day we got a little more adventuresome and traveled southwest to the town of Porto and its spectacular coastal surroundings. The two-hour drive took us through the rugged mountains of Corsica and endless stomach-churning hairpin turns. After a coffee break and a lunch in lovely Porto, we spent the afternoon on a little rubber boat touring the soaring mountains and jagged cliffs of the Réserve Naturelle de Scandola to the north and the Calanques de Piana to the south.

The scenery was so spectacular that it easily justified the difficulty of the journey, but by the time we got back to L’Île Rousse we were thrilled to be out of the car, off those winding mountain roads, and ready for another car-less day at the beach just steps from our hotel.

But then Jim discovered that his kindle was missing and recalled setting it on the table at the coffee shop in Porto. Marc found the name of the coffee shop using google Street View, we called them, and yup, they have the kindle — just two hours and countless hairpin turns away. Now Jim and I cannot live without our kindles. So it’s Monday morning, and Jim got up early to get the ordeal over with. So Marc and David and I are headed to the beach, hoping Jim is back in time for lunch!