Italy to Tour de France

On Monday we left our apartment in Florence and drove to Nice, France. Along the way we stopped for lunch in Genoa, Italy and while we were there we went to an Aquarium. Aven liked the aquarium but Etta LOVED it. I think she would have been happy sitting in front of the shark tank for a very long time:

Etta spent a lot of time watching in awe.

A super-short video of Etta's baby-joy:

The drive to Nice was long and hot and curvy and swervy. Long story short, I can now add Italy to the list of counties I've thrown up in. Luckily it's a short list.

Getting into our Nice apartment was quite a debacle. The woman who met us didn't speak much English and didn't want to let us stay because we had 5 people instead of 4. She just kept saying "4 only, 4 only". Her son, the guy we booked the room through on Airbnb knew that we had five people and okayed the stay, so there was obviously some miscommunication there. Once Ian was able to connect to the internet he got on Google translate and was able to explain that Etta would be sleeping in a travel crib. After that she relented and let us stay. She was also very uptight about the kids touching anything in the apartment, so we were very glad when she finally left. I really love the apartment, but I have this anxiety cloud hanging over my head about that crazy lady. Emma even had a bad dream about her last night. Hopefully the rest of our week is enjoyable and I can stop worrying about getting kicked out at any moment.

Etta makes a mess at breakfast on our first morning in Nice.

And now. . . SURPRISE, it's the Tour de France!

We were just as surprised as you. Actually we may be more surprised than you if you happen to be a cycling enthusiast. Ian and I spotted a great park when we walked to the grocery store this morning and took the girls to play there after lunch. As we approached the park there was some sort of weird parade happening on the street right next to the park. There were smallish floats and decorated cars driving down the road really fast and people riding in the float/ car thingies were throwing things out at a small crowd that had gathered along the side of the street.

Some weird speed floats that are supposed to look like wheat and bread baskets.

Here is a short video so you can get an idea of what I mean when I say they were driving really fast:

Ian managed to snag a Tour de France hat for Aven from one of the speed floats:

Check it out, Uncle Brance, Aven is watching a bike race!

The pink team? I know it's probably a specific country's team, but I know next to nothing about cycling other than the scandalous stuff related to Lance Armstong.

And, just for Uncle Brance, here is a video of racers passing us: