Truly Amazing

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We left from Nice this morning at about 10 a.m. thinking we were giving ourselves plenty of time to get on the road and beat traffic. By our estimation, we would get to our hotel by noon for lunch. Well, there are good and bad parts to this story. The good part is that GPS in Europe alerts you to all traffic and accidents far before you get there, giving you a visual of slow traffic and traffic at a standstill with red and yellow cars, respectively. The bad part, is that out of the 275 kilometers that we had to drive, we were driving at about 10 k.m./hour for about 100 of them. We ended up getting to the hotel at 2:30 p.m.

We pulled up to the hotel and I maintained the bitchiness the traffic and gale force winds had caused over the last 4 hours of driving for about 3 seconds. I saw the view from where we were situated and the gloom immediately dissipated:
If we were interested, our concierge offered to drive us, immediately, to view the recent leg of Tour de France, the last leg before the finish in Paris and apparently the race is often won or loss on the climb up Mount Ventoux which we can see from our terrace. They had seats set up at the finish line and had spots available if we wanted them. We declined (sorry, Dad) but rather went to our room (Ryan at the entrance below) to get settled. Once inside, we saw the helicopters hovering overhead in the distance and were actually able to see Lance and the boys as they zoomed past in the distance, headed for Mount Ventoux. Kind of neat to see... especially neat that we could view it from our balcony. Southern Europe has been ravaged by fires recently and we also were able to watch as swarms of fire fighting planes put out a fire in the distance. Really fascinating to see.
We immediately dropped our bags in the room and stood there, looking around at our new home with jaws on the floor. We took a video tour for you but I'm saving that portion for the end of this post. We're situated in Provence but we're truly in the middle of nowhere (quite far from Aix) which is FABULOUS. One of the downsides is that it means our options for meals are at the hotel or at the hotel. We might have to take the car for a spin to find some cheap groceries in the next day or so but for now, we headed straight for the bistro to have lunch:
From the bistro we had a lovely view, similar to our room which showcased the pool... something we will use thanks to some cabanas that will shield our ponches.
After lunch we came back to the room and began the "we're in the middle of nowhere time to decompress and relax" process. I've read THREE BOOKS SINCE we've been here and was trying to figure out what to READ NEXT. How brilliant to have this decision as a major stress:
Now, it's needs to be said... this hotel is a MAJOR splurge. Ryan is the planner in our relationship. I detest planning and he is more than happy to oblige. This hotel was initially booked because he was planning on proposing here... with rings in champagne flutes beside the tubs (seriously... I only knew the plane was going towards France before take off... where exactly, I wasn't sure but I was happy just to leave). Ryzee jumped the gun. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining... but normally this price point would be out of range. OOOOOHHHH WELLLLLLLL... I'll put up with it.

Our hotel offers a service of providing picnic lunches, bicycles, and maps of scenic routes for lunches. What we thought it was hilarious was that the 'leisurely routes' were either 9, 26, 35, or 60 k.m. Umm.... is there a 2 or 3 k.m.? Let's be real... we're really only interested in the wine and cheese.

O.k... here it is. I almost feel guilty posting this. Truly the most amazing hotel room we have ever stayed in: