Our Lifestyle Adventures: How to Have Your Nth Unintended Honeymoon

at the top of the hill in Mougins, France

In Italy, we were with Bill’s daughter Suzanne and her family. We were with my two granddaughters in Spain.  On our third week in Europe, we were finally by ourselves. We were in the romantic part of France and, it’s not Paris but the French Riviera! Bill and I welcomed our own getaway and were happy that our Diamond International Resorts time-share, Le Club Mougins was perfect for it.

view from our balcony

OUR APARTMENT

We got to our unit on the second floor via a winding staircase while we looked out to a hilly garden. When we opened the door, we found a complete apartment with a separate living, dining, and kitchen area on one side that looked out to the French hills and hillside villas from a balcony. The luxurious bedroom was on the other side with a King bed, a smaller balcony, and a large closet and bathroom area. It signaled a relaxing week of dining in, sleeping in and maybe just a couple of day trips.

romantic dinner at the Le Club Bistro

The Resort is equipped with a Laundromat, a fitness area, a restaurant-bistro, a pool, and a tennis court. The Office staff was always helpful, even if their English was not as fluent, and, quite frankly, I loved the never-ending supply of chocolates on the counter for us to sample. We certainly slowed down our pace, did laundry, returned to the treadmill and weights, sampled the freshly baked goodies at the nearby boulangerie, loved shopping for French goodies at the local grocery, and cooked and dined in a lot. But we also could not resist romantic dinners at the Bistro!

the breathtaking scene going up the hill

a hillside cemetery

OUR TOWN

Mougins is a nice-sized town of almost 20,000. It has been a favorite of artists. Picasso, for example, spent the last 12 years of his life and died there. One day we strolled through downtown, sampling the local produce and crafts and chanced upon the inauguration of a local boulangerie. We surveyed the eateries and discovered a backyard bistro which was willing to serve us an early lunch.

On another day, we took a walk up the hill behind the Club to the town’s pride, a romantic hilltop. Going up was relatively hard and we had to make a few breathtaking stops. I told myself to persevere because going back will definitely be easier. We took photos of lovely things we passed: the view, the flowers, and surprisingly beautiful old hillside cemetery.

a monumental open-air art exhibit on the Mougins Hill

Venus

TOP OF THE HILL

But the view of the town was most exceptional at the top of the hill which had been occupied from the pre-Roman period. Bill and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves finding many pieces of sculpture, having our pictures taken beside each work of art, and even chancing upon the mainstay attractions in the village: the little church, the Roman bath, and the pretty homes and gardens.

being naughty

We found out that the total of 25 works of art that punctuated the winding roads that wrap around the hilltop were courtesy of Musee d’Art Classique. It was an open-air art exhibit, called Monumental, from April to June 2015. I especially loved those that were yellow. The one in bright red, called “Venus,” had a view of Mougins. Several  figures suspended in the air were eye-catching. The one called “Defiance” was of somebody about to leap into the air, in defiance of the laws of gravity. Bill loved the Giant Thumb.

Defiance!

At the end of our little tour, we sat at the balcony of the pub on the highest point which had a fantastic aerial view of the town.  We had a light fare, sipped our drinks, and capped our wonderful afternoon of communing with nature, conversing with art, and even getting a dose of exercise! We still ended up doing two day-trips from Mougins, but it was considerably less than the six in Spain and six in Italy. Our seven days became another of our unintended, but still quite romantic, honeymoons!

romantic dinner at the top of the hill