We didn’t sleep well as it was very hot. Mike eventually opened our bedroom door just to let the cool air in more easily. 

We had offered take Jen to Calvi airport for her flight to Istanbul via Marseille. She wanted to be there by 5.30am as that was just over 2 hours before her flight. 

As it turned out, the check-in people didn’t arrive for work until 6am, by which time we were back in bed for another couple of hours sleep. She has 10 day’s travel in Turkey with her friend Renee. 

We did a thorough clean and pack before farewelling everyone at 11 am. Such a happy time we’ve had at the wedding and honeymoon. 

Pauline came with us to Calvi for our flight to Nice and the others were all going to the pool at a hotel owned by the person that rented us the villa. The villa was apparently booked, as was the hotel as there was a big fashion show on in L’lle Rousse. At least they could chill out until their respective flights in the afternoon. Craig and JenY were heading back to Singapore via Frankfurt and the McCredies were back to London.

Calvi airport is quite new but the departure was disorganised. We waited for 3 hours in the departure lounge for our flight to Nice, which was supposed to depart at 2.15. At check in we were told it would be 2.30. It eventually departed at 4.15 and no one seemed to know when it would go or why it was late during the interim period. It only took 45 minutes and we arrived in Nice on another hot day. It may  be a theme for Calvi as apparently Sarah and Hamish had a 3 hour delay also. Not ideal with a toddler. 

We had a great taxi trip into the city (which is right next to the airport). The driver was originally from Italy and came to Nice as a young boy. He spoke a bit of English and was happy to chat away to us even though our French was pretty rough. Pauline’s is much better as she worked for a French family as an au pair one summer when she was young. 

Evidently the world triathlon and half iron man champs were supposed to be on but were canceled due to the heat. There still seemed to be loads of people running and cycling. 

We are staying in Hotel Le Saint-Paul which is an art deco styled hotel in a wonderful building that was originally built in the 1840s as a seminary to train priests. It was converted into a hotel and renovated in 2012. 

It’s a lovely building with a lift up from the car park to reception. We are in the adjoining annex building. There’s a lovely terrace restaurant and the staff kindly squeezed us in for a glass of wine and then got an additional table so we could dine also. It was fab.