Ahhhh...August in France

I would say that the vacation time in France is on the Top 10 list of things Matthew and I love about France (it quite possibly might be on our Top 3).  The last two summers, Matthew has been required to take 3 weeks off, in a row, during the summer.  This summer he took off the first 3 weeks in August- the month where all of France pretty much shuts down.  The first week was spent in Holland for Mark and Silke's wedding, then we came back to Clermont for a week.  That week was spent getting the nursery ready and rearranging furniture in the living room to accommodate our new couch. Then it was off to the beach for a week.

We spent the first 3 nights at Cap d'Agde.  Our hotel was right on the beach, and we spent three wonderful days lounging at the beach club that was attached to our hotel.  This was the same beach club we spent time at with my mom back in May.  The weather was just perfect.  It was hot, but not so hot that you had to get in the water (which was a good thing because the water was cold!).

Capao Beach Club

What the beach looked like around 10am...

 What the beach looked like around noon...

and what the beach looked like by 4pm

After Cap d'Agde, we drove about an hour east to another beach- La Grande Motte.  As much as we enjoyed our time at Cap d'Agde, we actually preferred the harbor area and restaurants in La Grande Motte.  It wasn't as crowded and was a little less touristy.

view from our balcony

 front of our hotel

Our hotel was really nice, and because I found an early-booking deal on booking.com, we had free access to the hotel's spa.  I booked this hotel before I knew I was pregnant, and was kind of bummed because I figured that I wouldn't be able to use the spa.  The first day we went to see what the spa offered, we were pleasantly surprised.  First of all, there was no one else there.  We had the whole place to ourselves (complete with different refreshing flavored waters and snacks- like mini pain au chocolates!).  The hot tub was located in a courtyard inside a little enclosed gazebo.

The hot tub was like one someone would buy for their home.  Each corner had a different kind of seat, with different jets.  One corner was even a "lounge chair" set-up. And the best part was we had complete control over all the settings, including the temperature.  We googled "safe bath temperatures for pregnant women" and were able to set the hot tub to a safe temperature for me.  The massaging jets felt wonderful on my back and legs! Matthew also took advantage of the saunas and hamman.  During the 4 days we spent at the hotel, we  only ran into one other couple in the spa.  And even then, we only had to wait about 10 minutes for them to finish in the hot tub and then they left the spa, so we had it all to ourselves again!
Our days in La Grande Motte went a little something like this:  breakfast downstairs around 9:30, out to the beach by 10:30,

a walk down the beach around 1:00 to the area with all of the restaurants for lunch, back to the beach til around 4:30, spa for about an hour, then showers and getting ready for dinner, and around 7:30- a 10 minute walk down the "boardwalk" to the harbor for dinner.

It was four days of pure bliss!

Sunset in the harbor at La Grande Motte

A

Artist on the boardwalk.

Dinner at The Yacht Club

 Matthew trying to pretend to take a picture of me, while really trying to take a picture of the huge seafood tower ordered by the table behind us.

Just a few more pictures from our trip:

This was back in Cap d'Agde.  The black sand beach, La Grande Conque, marks the southern most part of the Auvergne volcanic chain.