At the Edge of the World: Sausset-les-pins

(Whoops, fell asleep mid-blog entry last night!)

It is no exaggeration to say that today was one of the most magical days of my life.  

We got up bright and early and headed over to a little seaside town called Sausset des Pins.  Edith dropped me off in the center of town and went to work, and I immediately made a beeline for the beach.  With the mountains on the horizon, partially obscured by fog, and the deep blue waters all around, it seemed as though I stood at the edge of the world.  I took off my shoes and stepped in the water, and for some reason, I felt as though I'd never really lived until that moment.

I just sat on the rocks for a few hours and stared at the water.  Instead of sand, the beaches, when you get down far enough, are made of pebbles.  I accidentally dropped my phone through the cracks between the giant boulders near the shore at some point.  It landed in water six feet down and is gone forever now (sorry, Mom).  On the plus side, I finally found a phone store today, so I am no longer technologically crippled.  However, before I gave up on retrieving the old phone and had one leg down in the rocks, trying to grab it with my toes, I made friends with this man:

Our friendship mostly involves him laughing at me.

After a solid four hours in the town, Edith got off work and we ate sandwiches with the waves licking at our feet.  There was a man near us who stripped down naked on the beach and leisurely slipped into a snorkeling suit, which put me off my applesauce.  He doesn't believe in underwear, I'm assuming.  But once we finished eating, we got in the car and left town.

Edith felt like going to Salon en Provence, so she put the top down on the convertible, we slapped on our sunglasses, and then we drove along the beach and through the mountains, and it was every bit as amazing as you would think.  Once in Salon, we wandered into a cafe for cups of tea.  There was an outdoor patio that was walled in by 20 foot stone walls, but there were still trees growing in it, like natural umbrellas.  We were joined by Edith's friend Gui, and the only part of the conversation I really understood was related to the end of the world that's coming in December.

After the tea was drunk and the conversation ran dry in Salon, we popped back in the convertible and made a quick stop at Edith's sister's house.  Mom, I figured out what you should do with the new deck:

They've coaxed this viney plant to spiral up around the poles of a lattice canopy, and once they grow to the top, they spread out and weave together, forming a rooftop of blue berries and leaves that turn red in the fall.  This is the most perfect backyard I have ever seen.

We departed her sister's house and went home, where Edith made omelettes for dinner and I made Nutella cookies to take to her parents' house tomorrow.  I also attempted to make sugar cookies, but they melted all over the pan and became a solid mass of flat, sugary crisp.  WHY?

I don't know, but there was blue wine.

Why is it blue?  I don't know that either, but it was delicious and sweet.