Day 26- St. Raphael

We were up bright and early, as always on excursion days. Jill and I have become experts at the train now. We know exactly how to get there, where all of the platforms are (there are only 2, but we know them!) its comforting now knowing we can get where we want to go easily. Jill and I had barely any sleep the night before because we planned our trip so late, and the only train to St. Raphael was at 6am. When you’re sick, it’s most certainly NOT recommended to cut out all sleep, but when you are about to start you last week in Europe, well sleeping is definitely less of an option. But I rallied, again, and went to St. Raphael.

St. Raphael Beach

When we arrived we went to a small coffee shop that looked out over the water to give our selves a little kick start for the day. Everything always tastes better when you are looking out over the sea, and the sunshine is beating down on you.

After a delicious, tiny, cup of espresso, we headed to the pharmacy for some medicine to help me feel better.

The pharmacies here in France, and I’m assuming all over Europe, are similar, yet obviously different from the ones in the US. There is over the counter medicine, but you have to tell the pharmacist what your symptoms are, and they give you what they think will work. So it’s not really “over the counter”. After telling her as much as I could in French, and fake coughing to demonstrate my illness, she got a box and said that it would work. So I took it. When we got out of the store I opened the box to take my first dose to find little sachets. They were pre portioned liquid packs, the box said it was supposed to taste like vanilla caramel, but it just tasted awful. Weirdest medicine I have ever taken.

Weird Medicine

We taxied to the location that we wanted to go snorkeling at, which was the main attraction that made Jill and I choose St. Raphael. When we got to the tiny beach side shack it wasn’t open. So we laid in the hot sun, and took naps on the sandy beach (that’s right I said sandy!! Woo!). About 2 hours, and a little tan later we saw people moving around in the general area of the shack. When we got closer we realized everyone seemed to know one another so we began to feel awkward, we thought we might be crashing a party. After about 5 minutes of awkwardly standing near the shack like 2 silly Americans, a man came up to us and asked if he could help us, in English. We were thrilled, yes please! We want to go snorkeling! At first he said they did not start going snorkeling until July, instantly our smiles faded. But after he double-checked, he found out that there was going to be one run today at 3 and we could go if we wanted. HECK YES!

To waste time we went to a great little restaurant that, again, looked out over the water, this one was actually on the beach. In the US this type of attraction would warrant extremely high priced food, and normally and entire resort attached to it, but not here. Every one knew to owner, he was such a character, so friendly and outgoing, he tried to hook me and Jill up with his son, asking us to write our number on the check, it was quite an interesting lunch.

Looking out on the water

We sat on the beach a bit more before our snorkeling adventure, this time we both squeezed under a teeny tiny tree trying to avoid the sun so that we wouldn’t get too dehydrated. Again, we must have looked like the ridiculous Americans, we are pretty much over that now.

When we got to the snorkeling place the lady that owned the shop handed jill and I both full body wet suits, at first we laughed thinking it was a joke, but she was serious. We were about to embark on a serious adventure.

We suited up and jumped into the cold Mediterranean. After going out about 50 meters the owners husband dashed deep under the water and grabbed an octopus with his bare hands! We wrestled with it as it inked all over the place, when it finally calmed down he let us touch it and then gently placed it back down on the sea floor. In that moment I knew this was going to be unlike any other snorkeling trip in the world. Every time he would dive down he came up with a new beautiful creature, huge neon orange starfishes, coral, sea urchins it was so amazing. We swam about a kilometer away from shore, and then back again, about an hour and a half worth of snorkeling with a private special tour guide (it only felt like 30 minutes). We got out of the water thrilled! That was well worth 30 euro!

When we got back to the shack, we asked if the woman would call our taxi for us, of course she did. When she got off the phone, she told us where to meet the taxi, and said that we didn’t have to pay. WOOHOO! FREE SNORKLEING!

Our day had turned out perfect, thank goodness we chose St. Raphael over any other place. We took a long train ride home, and played cards to help pass the time. upon our return we heard the end of the France V.S. Spain Eurocup game; it didn’t end so well for France. Then we crawled our tired little bodies into bed and passed out.

Jill and i played war on the train (i won )

Great round of Beebe Solitaire