With the weekend beginning and the heavy work-load part of the trip to Cannes complete, I woke up on Friday morning so excited to check out the city and do some shopping! Since I had to fly to Beijing that Monday anyways, I elected to stay in Cannes and do some sightseeing rather than fly all the way home for a quick 2 days. I started off the weekend with a long run along the beach. I ran in the direction of Grasse, a little village famous for its perfume where I would ultimately go later that day. The beach was perfect. It was still very early, so shops were closed and the streets and the beach were empty, making for some awesome photo opps! After my run I got dressed, enjoyed my daily croissant, and went to meet Khaner and Caroline for a day of exploration in Grasse.

I will say that while I knowingly stayed over for the weekend, I was very bummed that Matt wasn’t able to join me. Thinking about spending the weekend alone in such a beautiful place was sad, I felt like I should share it with someone. I was also nervous I’d be taken, obviously, and while my Dad told me he was fully prepared to go all Liam Neeson on the French and find me, I felt like it would be better if I just wasn’t taken afterall so he wouldn’t have to go through all that trouble. Khaner and Caroline totally saved me. They allowed me to crash their Babymoon, and we ended up having a blast that weekend, exploring new places and trying great food. I was more grateful than ever that Caroline joined the trip – we had a blast shopping together and picking out adorable baby clothes for Charlotte, who is due in late August.

After a tiny bit of stress figuring out which train platform we had to be on, we hopped on a graffiti-covered train to Grasse and enjoyed a quick 20 minute ride to the tiny village. We Google-mapped our way to “centreville” which we assumed was where the perfume factory was that we were looking for. Caroline’s mom was insistent that she go and buy a bunch of French perfume at Fragonard in Grasse, and I am so glad! We got to check out the world’s oldest perfume factory, see where they make perfume, how they bottle it, and learn all about parfum v eau de toilette v all the other types of scents you can buy. Note to all you perfume fans out there… eau de parfum is MOSTLY WATER! That’s why is doesn’t smell delightful after a few hours, it just wears off. Parfum is the real deal, it’s 100% SCENT. Lol. So buy that kind! If they even make it here, maybe they don’t, I haven’t checked my American perfumes for legitimacy yet.

 

After spending several hundred euro on perfume and gifts for our moms, who will be delighted and love us even more come Mother’s Day, we explored the little town of Grasse, which is very hilly, and had some delicious French crepes for lunch. We were very close to Italy, so there is a lot of Italian influence in the food in the South of France, so I got an awesome tomato – mozzerella – basil crepe and I am getting hungry just thinking about it. It was awesome! Even though it looks not that great in this photo.

 

That afternoon we explored Cannes a bit more, shopping and walking around, and then decided the next day should be the beach day! We laid on the hotel’s private beach almost all day, ordering lunch to our chairs and getting extremely burnt! Well, I got burnt. I didn’t think it was possible in 70 degrees, but the sun was hot and my arms and legs looked like lobster legs after the day was complete. Just how I like it. Just kidding. I regretted it immensely and have been applying serious amounts of sunscreen since then- NC is hot!!! That afternoon we explored Old Town in Cannes, and walked to the very top of Old Town for some amazing photos of the whole city. We ate dinner in one of the small windy streets there, where I ordered escargot in honor of my father since it’s his favorite (French) food, but I have to be honest I did not like it. Luckily Khaner was able to benefit.

The next day we explored Monaco and the palace where Prince Ranier and Grace Kelly lived! We walked through the church where they got married, too, and saw their graves 😦 RIP. Monaco is beautiful. Very high-end, clean, new-looking, and upscale. We walked down from the palace to where the Grand Prixe finishes, and had lunch by the racetrack which was pretty cool. The Grand Prixe runs all through the city, on their regular roads, and it was cool to see them setting up for the upcoming race, which is over Memorial Day weekend. We walked into Montecarlo and saw the casino, Hotel du Paris, and all the other James Bond-y type places that you hear about. The whole city overlooks the beautiful ocean, and the yachts there were huge and unbelievable. But the cars really blew us away. We didn’t see one car that wasn’t extremely high-end. Everyone there must feel like they have to get a Lamborghini or else they can’t live in Montecarlo. Maybe the “working class” just lives in walking distance of everything they need? I don’t know.

 

I concluded the weekend with dinner on my own at a restaurant on the beach. I figured Khaner and Caroline should have one date night, right? I enjoyed some great wine, a very French-ish salad and felt extremely grateful that I had the experience that I did. Although this woman walked in with her dog, sat next to me, and let it jump up onto my lap multiple times. It also jumped onto my table while my food was there, which was nasty. That was my only real French-rude moment.

I definitely want to go back, and this time for a littttttle bit longer and without work involved so I can seriously shop and bring things back!

I arrived in Cote d’Azur on a Tuesday morning, and immediately noticed the relaxed, beachy feel and was struck by the bright, warm sunshine. Driving to our hotel along the Croissette, or the crossing, I stared (in a jet-lagged stupor) at the blue water, the huge yachts, and the pedestrians who all looked like they stepped out of a James Bond film. I stayed right in the heart of Cannes, just across the street from the beach, and my hotel, which I fondly call Hotel Croissant (for obvious reasons), had its own private section of the beach with an amazing restaurant and beach chairs you could rent. This was right across from the historic Carlton, Martinez, and Miramar hotels, which are striking, old-but-refurbished, fantastic hotels where a ton of movies have been filmed. For the record, Cannes is pronounced “Cans,” like, “Nice cans babe!” Get it? Because the beaches are nude.

After checking in and showering I went over to the Hotel Martinez, where Lenovo’s EMEA Kickoff event would be held. This is one of the annual “Kickoffs,” which Lenovo does each year in our major geos. This year we cut down to only three Kickoffs, the first in Raleigh (Americas Group), then Cannes (EMEA), and finally Beijing (China and AP). These Kickoffs are large, live-broadcasted meetings for all of Lenovo to ensure they hear from our leadership team about the state of the company and the vision for the future. I won’t bore all you readers with these details, but if you have work-related questions please ask!

After a long day, I used TripAdvisor (per my friend Alison’s suggestion) to search for a good restaurant for a team dinner. Andy, Khaner, Zac and I ended up going to a place called La Brouette, or My Grandma’s Wheelbarrel [I am making these translations up] in French. It was the best dinner I had while in France. It was prix-fixe, and we got so much amazing food that the waiter chose for us based on what we told him we liked. We also had a phenomenal bottle of red wine from a region in France called Medoc. I am writing that now just so I don’t forget.

The following morning my co-worker Khaner and I went on a great run along the beach. We saw the locations for the Cannes film fesitival, looked at the high-end shops along the water, and marveled at how beautiful everything was – we stopped for photos a good amount because everything there is photo-worthy. The rest of the day was a very busy blur, and then that night we attended the gala dinner which was held at the Palais de Festivals. It was very glam and only a 10 minute walk from our hotel, so we enjoyed walking home together, past the Ninja Warrior set that was actively filming while we were there, which was a gigantic bonus to our trip. Khaner’s wife Caroline also joined us that day, which was so wonderful for me – finally, a girlfriend! And I lucked out since Khaner and Caroline stayed the weekend and let me tag along on their Babymoon adventures in France, which I’ll get to in my next post.

Anyways, the entire reason I started writing this was to explain to you that I ate a croissant every single day, sometimes twice a day, while I was in France! It was insane how good they were. They were flakey, always warm, fresh, and delightful. Plain or chocolate, you could not go wrong. Although I only had two chocolate ones… the plain ones were just too irresistable. Every morning at breakfast I would be all French and get a croissant, water, coffee, fruit, and yogurt. My coworker Zac comments, “Can I just say that you can’t help how flakey they are?” Khaner says, “I just shred every day. Am I really going to start dissecting my diet now?”